Listen #1
For my song, “At the Purchaser’s Option” by Rhiannon Giddens addresses a number of political issues that reflect on the political climate of 2017. The two major issues are women’s control of their own bodies and the dignity of women, who refuse to be controlled in spite of their circumstances. Below are two articles, the ban on abortion and the second one being about the Women’s March of 2017.
2. THE WOMEN’S MARCH: PROTEST AND RESISTANCE
The type of music Rhiannon Giddens writes and performs is in the Folk genre. Within the folk genre, Giddes incorporates gospel, blues, and jazz into her music. In the Rosenthal and Flacks reading, we are subject to matching the genre with how we listen to the song. This is especially relevant in the chapter called “The Power Genre and Musical Code”, where it states “Without conscious effort, we absorb musical conventions; those whole genres that guide our understanding of the meaning of what we’re hearing even more strongly” (Rosenthal & Flacks 52). We are able to interpret the message in a better sense when we know the context of the genre and for the case of At the Purchaser’s Option, we are able to hear a variety of instruments and background vocals in order to enhance the message.
Rhiannon Giddens is both the artist and songwriter of the song. As the songwriter, the lyrics are very much directly critiquing slavery and she is also linking this to modern-day human trafficking and forced labor.
- National Human Trafficking Hotline Cases Jump by 13% in 2017
- Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage
“At the Purchaser’s Option” may be a phrase from an era of slavery that has passed. However, the song still applies to those in slavery currently” – Rhiannon Giddens
PROTEST SONG OF THE WEEK: ‘AT THE PURCHASER’S OPTION’
“Day by Day I work the line
Every minute overtime
Fingers nimble, fingers quick
My fingers bleed to make you rich”
These lyrics are directly parallel to how people who are in menial jobs are being taken advantage of and as a result, are making other people rich in the process.
September 26, 2023 at 2:55 pm
Luke,
You have a fascinating song here because it is inspired by a 19th century slave advertisement to sell a 22 year old woman and takes the imagined and very defiant voice of the 22nd year old woman. So, the context for the song (and the genre of the song, too) is grounded in American slavery. What makes it still relevant is, as you have linked to and discussed above, the continued lack of control that women and Black and brown people have over their own bodies.
Do you see the distinction I am making? One is the social root of the dramatic monologue in the song; the other is how contemporary circumstances make that story still relevant today.
As you are discussing the song in your podcast, you will need to make a similar kind of distinction and be able to engage both the history and the contemporary events that make it still meaningful,
In future posts, please be sure to add (from the assignment) “features that are important to blogs and blog readers: headings, bold print to highlight important phrases in the discussion, images, embedded video and/or audio” and so on. You’re doing great with the links so far, though I would like you to try to make those links part of a sentence. And after you paste the text into the WordPress post field, please ensure that the layout looks nice.
Looking forward to future posts!
Bill