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