The Blues and Bessie Smith Essay

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1. PERSONAL STATEMENTI am interested in the topic of Bessie Smith, her music, herself as a symbol of the Southern Rebel, and how her death was used to draw attention to the issue of segregation in the South and what the reality of the story actually was. Bessie Smith helped to advance the jazz era by singing the blues and exploring themes of black identity, gender, and sexuality through the blues genre. Her own life was an exploration of these themes as well and it is interesting to see how these themes of race, gender, and identity intersect throughout her life, career and death. This topic personally interests me because I enjoy Bessie Smith’s voice and music and I was also moved by Edward Albee’s play The Death of Bessie Smith with used the myth that Smith was denied entry into a white’s only hospital as the basis of his drama—even though it turns out Smith was never actually taken to a white’s only hospital. This topic is an important part of Southern Cultures and Music because it shows how integrated race, gender, drama, jazz, blues, and the idea of the Rebel are both in reality and in the way reality is perceived and mythologized.2. TOPIC CHOICE DISCUSSIONThe themes that stand out are gender, race, blues, spirituality, rebellion, sexuality, and myth. Bessie Smith represented so many sides of the blues and jazz era, and she was nicknamed the Empress of the Blues and even starred in W. C. Handy’s film Saint Louis Blues because of her immense popularity in the 1920s and 1930s. Handy himself was known as Father of the Blues and had recorded Muscle Shoals Blues, so their connection is relevant and helps to play up the mythological status of Bessie Smith, which in turn helped to accentuate the undertones and issues of race that were used by authors like Albee following her death to advance the discussion on race in America. Understanding the real Bessie Smith in all of this can be helpful in getting to real heart and truth of the matter.3. INDEPENDENT RESEARCH DEFENSEThis research will be important because it will help to deconstruct the era in which Bessie Smith lived and show how truth and myth often intersect in ways to advance larger social themes that are important to society at a given point in time. To what extent did Bessie Smith actually embody the idea of the Rebel or what extent was she personally motivated by the blues, by spirituals like “On Revival Day”—these are questions that can help to show how the stories of the blues and the reality of the lives of blues performers create new myths about American culture that have to be unpacked in order for true history to be properly understood.

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4. LITERATURE REVIEWIn the article by O’Connell (2013) entitled “The Color of the Blues: Considering Revisionist Blues Scholarship,” there is a focus on deconstructing the stereotypes about the blues: for example, many researchers “have challenged depictions of the blues as an…

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…story of the Empress of the Blues and either revised it into an exaggerated, larger than life narrative or faithfully rendered it for public consumption.7. WHAT DOES YOUR RESEARCH ADD TO THE BODY OF KNOWLEDGE (SEE GUIDELINES)What is special about what I will find out is that it will help to show how people experience the legacy of the blues and in particular the story of Bessie Smith. What does the Bessie Smith Cultural Center represent today and how does it connect to the ideas that were prominent at the time when Bessie Smith was recording? Others can learn from what I aim to do in that it will help them to see how narratives evolve and how ideas change in real time to reflect preoccupations and concepts that are not necessarily rooted in the reality of the first-hand experience but rather occupy a space above and beyond the here and now because of a tendency of people to associate living people with permanent or super important ideals and issues. I would like, at some point, to write a musical about Bessie Smith that represents the reality of her life, career and death without any of the romantic or mythological preconceptions that exist so that a kind of bare bones, realistic perspective of her life and the blues overall can be presented. If I collaborate with someone it will be with someone who shares my aim and viewpoint, but I do not know who that might be at this time.8. MUSIC SAMPLEBessie Smith….....

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