Connections to Music and Religion in my Culture
Welcome back, y'all! This week we're going to discuss connections between music and religion in my culture. First off, I'm going to say that I may not be the most actively involved in religion, however; I like many in the South understand that religion is pretty much permeated into our lives. Dare I say that the infusion is even more prevalent in the lives of African Americans as along with 19th and 20th century Respectability Politics, it's something that will never fail to force its way into the governance of our lives. Anyway, enough of that, this blog post is supposed to center around the link between music and religion.
I feel a bit of background information is necessary. I grew up in what I consider the typical Southern Baptist Church, my grandmother was the secretary and almost every side of my family had been attending there since they emigrated from New York to the country portions of South and North Carolina.
I couldn't find the picture from this shoot with the shoes showing, but hopefully this is enough for you guys to get the picture.
Anyway, we'd wake up early in the morning for church and spend our entire day there before going home and spending having Sunday dinner with our entire family, immediate and all. Of course, this process was repeated everyday during the Sunday, I shudder to remember when Vocational Bible School and Revival were a required thing and don't get me started about Wednesday night Bible Study. Church was the place that I learned my outdated etiquette, and toxic ideology that I'm still attempting to detangle from life, but it was the place I learned my sense of community.
Aside from the aggressive whipping of fans in the crowded building because they didn't want anyone to get too comfortable or for the A/C to overpower anyone, I remember the music. There's a certain je ne sais quoi that belongs to a church song. It doesn't have to be hymnal though I know plenty of those, it's all in the emotion and the energy. Though we were typically led by our elders, everyone knew every song and the only people who were excused from it were small children but even they were expected to learn. And it's not that we didn't have hymn books, there were plenty but nobody touched them and if you did, it was almost like an unspoken shame. The songs were a part of our culture, my mother knew them, my grandmother, great-grandmother and so on. They were a means of staying connected to our history. The songs talked about our history and our strife but still managed to be relevant to our contemporary.
Sadly, I couldn't find an actual recording of a service as it's not something that I still do and I didn't have enough time to pick up one from my great-aunt, so these YouTube clips will have to do.
Wow, we have a very similar experience growing up in a Southern Baptist Church! I remember the packed, hot Easter Sundays and people aggressively waving their fans to get air. I also remember how my mother would try to straighten my hair with the hot comb on Saturday nights and how my hair would curl up again before I got to church. Sometimes, I forget how some songs represent our struggles during history like "Down By the Riverside" and how they talk about they are going to lay down their burdens.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting read as it is much different than my experience growing up. I really loved how personalized you made your blog, and mentioned how history is a large influence on many of the churches traditions as well as the music such as "Down By The Riverside". Your experience is much different than mine simply because I did not grow up in church, so I don't have the memories of my mom forcing me into a dress and otherwise.
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