Decolonizing the Ear
While the Renaissance developed the notion of reputation relying on ‘opinion’, the Enlightenment put the idea of ‘public opinion’ on the map. P. Scott Colbert writes that during the 18th century, this new discourse was increasingly valorized as a kind of supreme tribunal of human rationality. Coffee houses and salons had become the new gathering places, creating forums for cultural, political, and intellectual discussion. France had considered itself the unofficial capitol of the Enlightenment and while debated, French had become the lingua franca of the period. Salons were the parlor of affluent women who created a space where upper-class men would congregate, while the coffee houses permitted a much more relaxed atmosphere. Marina McLerrin notes that Beethoven spent much of his time in a coffee houses, as did plenty of other famous composers like Haydn and Mozart.
The uglier truths behind colonization became more and more apparent as ‘public opinions’ were increasingly influenced by the stories and realities of what was happening to the populaces of these areas. European colonialization covered the globe, and the nations that either resisted or avoided its reach were in the category of the inaccessible or uncooperative. They developed isolationist policies like Tibet, and Japan, or fell victim to unwanted wars and hugely disadvantageous trade agreements, like China and the opium wars (1792). As industrialization became the driving force of national growth, colonies not only became a stark reality to the necessities of momentum, but a moral imperative to justify. The term “armchair sociologist” is born from this era, and depressing justifications for the oppressive subjugation of populaces began to circulate. Ideas like ‘social Darwinism’, eugenics, and ‘scientific racism’. Thomas Jefferson is noted as one of the late thinkers of this troubling school of thought. In his “Notes on the State of Virginia”, Jefferson documents the troubling logic of aristocracy of the time, writing, “that in memory they are equal to the whites; in reason much inferior, as I think one [black] could scarcely be found capable of tracing and comprehending the investigations of Euclid; and that in imagination they are dull, tasteless, and anomalous... I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind.”
Michael Denning (Noise Uprising) postulates that one of the driving shifts in opinion and public discourse of these blatant fabrications to justify abhorrent behavior of the oppressors was the advent of recorded sound. His research into the ‘decolonization of the ear’ reflect how dramatically policy and views on colonial endeavors and the shift from colonization to national identities takes place after music is transmitted via physical object in a reproducible, transportable way. He postulates that this unexpected music revolution emerged within the culture of empire and colonialism and became the soundtrack of one of the central dramas of the twentieth century, the decolonization of the globe. It is deeply connected with the more than 100 different nation states that emerge in the generation after World War II.
One of the key ingredients to this phenomenon is the emergence of jazz. As Scott DeVeaux opens his discussion about the AFM recording ban of 1942, “The jazz tradition as we know it could not exist without recording technology. The special nuances of jazz – the details of rhythm, timbre, pitch variation, and dynamics, to say nothing of the art of improvisation – simply cannot be accurately represented with conventional notation. For better or for worse, the history of jazz is a history of recording.” This transmission of ideas through music has brought with us the ability to draw understanding and cultural empathy. Its immersive nature to our deeper senses of humanity helped break the chains of fallacy logic. The quest to prove ‘social Darwinism’ and eugenics crumpled under the dance halls of black, Latin, and folk recorded across the globe. The unifying nature of these sounds and their popularity explosion through the commodity and “social use value” established by recorded music opened the world view to an ever-evolving consciousness of unity through the transmission of harmony. It may all be accessible on a microchip in your pocket today, but let us never forget that the world of progress to equality that we fight so hard for today, is largely driven by the power of transmitting music through the magic of recorded sound.
Here is an early recording (1925) of Clarence Williams “Blue Five”, including Louis Armstrong (Crnt); Charlie Irvis (Tmbn); Buster Bailey (Sop. Sax); Don Redman (Alt. Sax); Clarence Williams (Piano); Buddy Christian (Banjo), and the great Eva Taylor (Vcls.):