Paul Gilroy and W.E.B Du Bois on Slave songs

"Black people singing slave songs as mass entertainment set new public standards of authenticity for black cultural expression. The legitimacy of these new cultural forms was established precisely through their stance from the racial codes of minstrelsy."

"Du Bois places black music as the central sign of black cultural value, integrity, and autonomy." 

- Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (1993) 

Here, Gilroy (with reference to W.E.B Du Bois' The Souls of Black Folk) expands on a focal theme from our recent study in class. Specifically he defines the musical output of the black community in terms of its capacity to translate authentic and valuable cultural expression, validate the cultural legitimacy of this community within the very communities from which they were marginalized and to  consistently establish their autonomy as a people throughout the various stages of their tumultuous history.

While Gilroy acknowledges that such meanings originate in the slave songs, he also argues that they transcend them and as such, are now applicable to more modern black musical movements, the most notable in recent times being the hip-hop movement beginning in the 1970s. In itself, this comprises an interesting and powerful insight into the role of music for this community as we consider its potential as a political tool wherein such music applies a kind of Joseph Nye-esque 'Soft Power' on its audience, influencing them in their stance and understanding of "black cultural expression". It is also interesting to note that the persistence of black diaspora music (originating with the slave song) as a statement of autonomy is one that parallels the way in which other motifs have been implemented by this community. Consider for example, how the appropriation of Christian principles has been used effectively by such writers as Olaudah Equiano and Frederick Douglass in order to, as with the elements of music described by Gilroy, establish a kind of cultural legitimacy and act as a persuasive statement for their autonomy.

Finally, it is worth noting that Gilroy's statement that "Black people singing slave songs as mass entertainment set new public standards for black cultural expression" is predicated on the idea that, fundamentally, black diaspora culture has been consistently measured and examined in terms of its reception at the hands of the dominant white cultures within which it has traditionally been practiced. Accordingly, Gilroy forces us to reconsider the dominant historical narrative from the black perspective and to understand the specific social structure within which black music has been explored and performed, culminating in such cultural movements as the Harlem renaissance.