Mamie Smith | Music 345: Race, Identity, and Representation in American Music
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As part of the #BlackHistory365 I wanted to look back to the history of the exploration of blacks in the music industry to make money for white companies. Sure, today no one in this country doubts the fact that the #AfricanDiaspora musical tradition is the foundation of 98.99% of what is considered the sound (various genres) of music in the U. S. of A. but that wasn’t always the case. Back in the early 20th century their wasn’t a black presence in the newly developing musical recording industry.
This all changed with the commercial music success, (the black dollar at work), of the song recording of “Crazy Blues” by Mamie Smith. Although historically significant and groundbreaking, this recording was also controversial as Ms Smith wasn’t a Southern Blues Singer. But that’s all I’ll say on that other than to highlight the #NPR recording of a panel discussion talking about the song included with these articles and other recordings.
