Journal of the Society for American Music · 2008 · 64 citations · 22 references
HumanitiesAfrican American StudiesMusicologyAfrican American HistoryAfrican American MusicCivil RightsBlack Music StudiesBlack NationalismBlack Power MovementCivil Rights MovementsFreedom SongsSoul MusicBlack Freedom Struggle NarrativesChicago SoulCivil Rights Movement HistoriographyFree Speech MovementFreedom MovementFreedom RhetoricLyrical VoiceMilitant Movements
Abstract This article explores the work of pianist/vocalist Nina Simone as the catalyst for a new type of freedom song in the black freedom movement during the 1960s. It examines the lyrical content and structure of Simone's music, which reflects the rhetorical and geographical shift of the transition from King's nonviolent, southern-based civil rights movement of the late 1950s to the mid-1960s to the militant black power nationalist movement of the late 1960s. Curtis Mayfield's Chicago soul style is also referenced as marking an important shift in mid-1960s R&B, which had largely avoided overt political statements.
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