Aural Elements of "Is it Because I'm Black?"

In his song "Is it Because I'm Black?", singer Syl Johnson uses musical elements to enhance its meaning. First of all, Johnson uses a simple chord progression that switches between a flat and d flat minor. The use of minor chords is often used in Western music to produce a mournful melody, which emphasize the desperateness in Johnson's words. Furthermore, the simplified chord progression allows Johnson to move freely between musical phrases without precise rhythm. Johnson makes good use of this freedom of phrase to emphasize certain words and play around with the rhythm in repeated phrases. For example, the first time he sings "Is it Because I'm Black?" he adds equal weight to all words, but in the final time he sings it (at 6:30) he speaks this time the same line while adding emphasis to the word "black". Johnson does this to specify an emotional shift in the song. In the first section, he is sad about the depressing prejudices held against him because of the color of his skin. He describes how "The dark brown shades of my skin/ Only add color to my tears". His singing in this beginning section is also less improvisational and pays closer attention to precise rhythm. This is contrasted with the end section, in which Johnson's words are delivered in an emotional mix of speaking and loose singing. Johnson is now fed up with how hard he has had to work to get past racial prejudices and expresses that in his music with some phrases repeated with increasing intensity. All in all, Syl Johnson's words are very powerful, but they are made even more so when paired with his expertise in musical style. His talent for singing straight from the soul has made this song a lasting treasure of the 1960's Civil Rights Movement.

-Daniel Saliunas

Genre of "Is it Because I'm Black?"

"Is it Because I'm Black?" is classified under the music genre funk/soul. Funk music is described as a mix of Rhythm and Blues (R&B) music with soul music. This song incorporates the electric guitar, one of the most popular instruments used in funk music, as well as the soulful singing and strong backbeat that ties it with R&B. Soul music -- unlike R&B and funk -- puts greater emphasis on the vocalist rather than the musical instruments and backbeat, like in the song "Is it Because I'm Black?". Syl Johnson's voice in "Is it Because I'm Black?" is a voice of pain and sorrow from racial discrimination, one of the very sources that soul music found its roots. The song is primarily centered around the vocals of Johnson to focus in the message he tries to portray; he basically begs to know why he is being held back from achieving his dreams by repeatedly asking the question "is it because I'm black?".

- Jessica Foster

Aural elements: "Glory"

Aural is defined as: "relating to the ear or sense of hearing" (Merriam-Webster).  Therefore, the aural elements of "Glory" will include anything that can be heard from the song.  The song itself is meant for a movie that discusses events that occurred during the Civil Rights Movement.  Therefore, it includes aural elements from both 2014, when the song was written, and from 1965, the time period the song was written for.  You can hear elements of the "soul" styled music in the backup singers who sing the word "glory" during the chorus of the song, but you can also hear elements of modern music from the "rapping" the occurs during the verses of the song.  The music is also written to a slow tempo and contains minimal musical instruments in the beginning of the song.  This simplicity alludes to the minimalist and peaceful protests that the actual Selma marchers participated in.  As the song continues, the music reaches a crescendo and no longer sounds timid, but victorious. 

-Louie

Logos for "Glory"

In the song "Glory" by John Legend and Common, Logos is not used as well as the other rhetorical devices, mainly pathos, but is still present. Towards the end of the song, Common says "Never look back, we done gone hundreds of miles". This is referring to the marches from Selma to Montgomery during the Civil Rights movement. The hundreds of miles walked could also be interpreted as how long people have been fighting for equal rights. Common and Legend are telling people to keep going, and never stop until they have glory. The logic in this is looking at how far we have came, there would be no point in looking back. Common then goes on to say "No one can win the war individually It takes the wisdom of the elders and young people's energy" This presents the most logical way to gain equal rights for all races, which is to work together, using everyone's strengths and weaknesses to form one strong entity.

-Nebeyu

Genre of "Glory"

“Glory” is a song that is classified under the hip-hop and soul genres of music. The parts of the song where John Legend sings with the chorus in the background clearly sound like soul/gospel music, but then Common comes in and his rapping creates the hip-hop aspect of the piece. This is relevant to the audience and African American culture, which incorporates both gospel and hip hop music. Hip hop and R&B music is also popular among American teenagers/young adults, so the song was created with the intent that its message would reach wide audiences. The genre choice was significant in that regard; the song had to be meaningful, catchy, and contemporary.

-Angela Jacob

Pathos of "Glory" from the movie Selma

In the song "Glory" by John Legend and Common, both artists appeal to emotion in the audience by relating cvili rights events with current events that deal with racial injustice. Common says "That's why Rosa sat on the bus" and immediately follows it up with "That's why we walked through Ferguson with our hands up." Although the movie "Glory" was featured in was about the civil rights movement, Common brings up Ferguson to show that it is all one movement and one cause. Most of the people are against racial injustice most likely had strong feelings about Ferguson, some of them probably even being in the physical protests. Throughout the song, many ambitious and hopeful statements referring to racial inequalities are made. The hook of the song goes as "...When the glory comes, we will be sure..", which gives people who are looking for social justice something to work for. The thought of being sure and confident about your role in society is one underlying motive for racial injustice movements.
-Nebeyu

Ethos of "Is it Because I'm Black?"

In order to establish ethos in his 1970 song "Is it because I'm Black", singer Syl Johnson provides details from his life in order to justify his claim that black people had to work much harder to increase their social status due to prejudices against the color of their skin. He sings "I was raised in the ghetto of the city/ Momma she works so hard to earn every penny". His prior experience lends credibility to his claim, because he actually lived through the hard experiences he writes about, and thus is more likely to have real knowledge of the prejudices against black people in America. He also uses slang and colloquial speech in order to connect with the average listener and bring out raw emotion. People who connect with the song do so because they see Syl Johnson as a reflection of the many African Americans who went through this injustice in the 60s and 70s.

-Daniel Saliunas

Pathos: "Is It Because I'm Black?"

The song "Is It Because I'm Black?" by Syl Johnson, appeals to the emotions of his audience through his earnest tone and forthright lyrics. Johnson's song was made to address racial inequality between whites and blacks, and he does so frankly by posing the question "is it because I'm black?". This question appeals to pathos by causing his audience to ponder why (even after the civil rights movement in 1970 when this song was produced) blacks were still unequal. Verses in the song such as "wondering why my dreams never came true", "I want diamond  rings and things too", and "something is holding me back" create a feeling of exclusion: that because of the color of his skin he cannot attain these things, making his audience feel like "black is a barrier". The tempo of this song is slow and when paired with the lyrics depicts an image of gradually moving forward and achieving equality and looking past the color of ones skin. At one point Johnson sings "they're holding us back, and it stairs the reason, that they're doing us like that", the "they" he refers to are whites who opposed equality. Here it's as though Johnson pulls his audience in agreement with him in blaming those who who "hold us back" because their skin is black. Toward the end of the song, Johnson encourages his fellow blacks to "keep on keeping on" leaving his audience feeling motivated to do just that.

- Jessica

Logos- "Is it because I'm black"

 Logos in "Is it because I'm black" works really well in connection with the African American audience, but takes a lot of work to instill any sort of tangible relationship with the white audience.  At the time of this song's release, social norms were still under going the slow change to what we now accept as normal, but people still had to adjust to the new laws and cultural ideas that were being introduced into American society.  The lyrics in the song present a story that most African Americans were all to familiar with at the time of the song's release.  The lines "Somebody tell me what can I do.. / Something is holding me back, is it because I'm black?" creates a bond with the African American audience because through the shared personal experience of being black, this audience struggled to find its footing in American society.  The white audience didn't ever experience anything "holding them back" because they were white.  This would imply that the appeals this song made to certain peoples' logos was lost.

-Louie

Stasis Theory- "Glory"

 After the Civil Rights movement, there was still a long way to go when it came to achieving total race equality.  There were still legal battles and social opinion is stagnant and takes a while to completely change.  I'm sure that we can all agree, however, that race relations are not as big an issue as they were 50-60 years ago.  The 2014 song "Glory," which was released in conjunction with the movie "Selma," was released at the end of a very turbulent year regarding race.  2014 saw the shooting of teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.  Ten days after that, Eric Garner was choked to death by the NYPD, who had allegedly been caught selling loose cigarettes.  Many people questioned whether a disregard for minority life was being reintroduced to the population.  We can be sure that racial tension exists even though it does not exist at a level that it once did.  These events caused many uproars among the citizens of the United States.  There were riots in the streets of Ferguson and many people called for the police to wear cameras to record what they were doing in case of any future dispute.  

-Louie

Ethos of "Glory"

The song “Glory” was written and performed by John Legend and Common. Ethos is seen both intrinsically and extrinsically in the song, and this rhetoric establishes the performers’ credibility. Intrinsically, the ethos is minimal because there is no bio or background like what frequently appears in novels; the main way credibility is presented in the lyrics is through the use of the words “us”, “we” and “ours”. By using a plural first-person pronoun, the artist who is singing aligns himself with the suffering and persecution which is described throughout the song. The lyrics reflect the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s in which African Americans fought for equality, and by saying “One day […] it will be ours”, Legend and Common establish themselves as credible by creating a sense of belonging to the group that they are singing about. Extrinsic ethos is created in a similar way because of the artists themselves. Both Legend and Common are black men who were born in the 1970’s, soon after the Civil Rights Movement. Their parents likely lived through the movement and could have been affected by the segregation that was present before. The fact that their lives crossed paths with the Civil Rights Movement in some way makes it seem like Legend and Common are credible enough to sing about an event such as the Selma marches.

-Angela Jacob

Kairos of "Is it because i'm black?"

Kairos is an important rhetorical device used in Syl Johnson's "Is it because i'm black?" This song was clearly made to address racial inequality, as the phrase "It it because i'm black?" serves as the hook of this song. This song was released in 1970, the rhetorical situation being a time of racial tenderness. The United States was still recovering from the civil rights movement at this time, and was trying to adjust to a new society that actively promoted equal rights for all regardless of race. The title of this song communicated to the public in saying that even though blacks were protected by the law, there were still many disadvantages of being a black man during this time. At the time, many of these disadvantages were not clear, making black men wonder whether or not they were, for example, denied something because they were black.
-Nebeyu

Stasis Theory of "Is it Because I'm Black?"

In order to apply stasis theory to Syl Johnson's song, it is first necessary to understand some historical context. While the early Civil Rights movement of the1960s succeeded to pass laws which guaranteed equal rights for African Americans under the law, the movement in the late 60s and early 70s moved on to raise the standard of living for the large population of the race living in poverty. Acts such as The Civil Rights Act of 1968 made it illegal to discriminate on housing based on race and court cases such as the Supreme Court case Green V. County School Board of New Kent County made desegregation of schools a priority. All were attempts by the government to improve the socio-economic status of African Americans, many of who were stuck in urban housing with poor education and little opportunity to leave.

As you can see from this graph, the unemployment rate of African Americans in the early 1970s was about twice the average unemployment rate. In his 1970 song "Is it Because I'm Black?", singer Syl Johnson links the high unemployment rate of African Americans to a prejudice held by many white Americans against people with a darker skin tone. Thus, in the context of stasis theory, Johnson would be arguing that the cause of the disparity between black and white people in America is no longer entirely blatant racism, but a subconscious aversion held by most white people to give jobs, let alone high-paying jobs, to African Americans. Johnson's emotional plea reflects his desire to radically change the low socio-economic status of African Americans in the 1970s. His words still ring true today, as there still exists a gap, if not quite as large, between the average unemployment and the unemployment of African Americans.

-Daniel Saliunas

Audience: Syl Johnson's "Is it because I'm black"

 The intended audience for this song would be anyone who had an active role in the Civil Rights movement: whether it was an opposing role or a supporting role.  Syl Johnson's "Is it because I'm black" was released in 1970, which was towards the end of the Civil Rights movement.  At this point, the movement was on its way out and had gained tremendous success.  As a song, the intent is that people will hear it, listen to it, and react to it.  As it extended its reach throughout the public, parents may have prevented their children from listening to it because these parents opposed the message that the song has and wanted to prevent their children from listening to the song, fearing that they might be influenced by Johnson's message.  The song lyrics contain many statements followed by the question that gives the song its title: "Is it because I'm black?"  These statements are reflections of what occurred leading up to, and during, the civil rights movement.  Lines like "Something is holding me back, is it because I'm black" and "Cause I wanna be somebody so bad,...But something is holding me back / Is it because I'm black?"  are direct references to the struggle that African Americans had to face during the Civil Rights movement.  These references act as pulls to the audience for the African American audience to listen to and to relate with to the message of the song.  For the white audience, these lines act to give attention to the struggles that African Americans faced before and during the civil rights movement.  While most of the prejudice that spawns from race is gone, it has not totally been eradicated just yet.  The contemporary relevance to this song is one that reminds any modern day listener to the the struggles that African Americans had to face before and during the Civil Rights movement.

-Louie

Audience: "Glory"

The song "Glory", written and performed by John Legend and Common, was composed as the theme song for the 2014 motion picture Selma, which portrays the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march. Being that "Gory" was produced for a public film the intended audience is the public: men and women age 13 and over. This song may not may intended for an audience under the age of 13 because of its content, which may be too mature for a young audience to comprehend. When dissecting the song itself - apart from it being written for film - the lyrics are directed toward African American men and women. Throughout the song, the pronouns "us, our, and we" are used several times to include the audience in the movement and history of which the song is about. Being that the recording artists of "Glory" are both African American the pronouns prove to target an audience of African American listeners and supporters of the civil rights movement today in order to unify the African American race as a whole against injustice.

- Jessica

Kairos of "Glory"

Kairos is seen as a rhetorical element in John Legend’s song “Glory”, which appeared in the recent movie Selma. The rhetorical situation in which the song was created is the 50th anniversary of the 1965 voting rights marches; the movie was made to commemorate these historic parades. Although the landmark anniversary was the clear reason for the song’s release, there are also underlying issues discussed in the lyrics which hint at a deeper root for the rhetorical situation. One of the major recent events that connects to the Civil Rights Movement is the Ferguson protests, which occurred after a white police officer shot and killed a black man. This event (and the public outrage that followed) is alluded to in the lyrics, which gives the audience the idea that the inspiration for the song came from recent occurrences that highlight stark similarities between the racial inequality of the 1960’s and that of now. Ultimately, the two main kairotic situations that this song explores is the 50th anniversary of the Selma Marches and the current Black Lives Matter campaign, which stems from conflicts over racial injustice.

-Angela Jacob