Date of Award
2016
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A. in Southern Studies
Department
Southern Studies
First Advisor
Ted Ownby
Second Advisor
Adam Gussow
Third Advisor
Kathryn McKee
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
This project examines how the bluesman, guitar, and migration have interacted with each other and brought about transformations to American popular music, based upon scholarly works, magazine articles, and the sound recordings of the prewar blues performers. In popular theory, the blues sprang out of the cotton fields and articulated the life experiences of the oppressed people in isolated areas, particularly the Jim Crow south. These are certainly truths of the blues. Also true is that the blues was a product of modernization in every way and a representation of the African American bluesman's aspiring life. The bluesman's mobile lifestyle was one way of his response to the changes of society. Chapters one and two investigate the instruments of African American people past and present and closely look at the pathway of the guitar to become a bluesman's choice of instrument. Chapter three focuses on the bluesmanship of the bluesman and meaning of the guitar for him. Chapter four discusses the bluesmen's move in contrast with comAfrican Americans’ migration.
Recommended Citation
Takada, Yaeko, "Bluesman, Guitar, And Migration" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1160.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1160