Bop by Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes’s essay written in 1949, “Bop” begins with a dialogue between two African American slaves during the Harlem Renaissance talking about Be-Bop music. When a character named Simple begins to sing Be-Bop music, the narrator heedlessly declares that the music sounds like scat. Shocked by the narrator’s nonsense, Simple explains the origins of Be-Bop music, which came from the sound of “police beating Negroes’ heads” (191). Simple further elaborates by adding that whites cannot imitate the music because they do not know what they are singing about. Evidently, Hughes tried to reveal the brutality and unjustifiable violence of the society towards African Americans during Harlem Renaissance. Likewise, Langston Hughes was a renown African American novelist and poet known for his works that arouse African American nationalism during a time when it was difficult to be an African American and depict unjust treatments towards them. Evidently, his intended audience for this essay is the African Americans who are like the narrator: the ones that are more apathetic about their own ethnicity. In addition, Hughes wants to reveal that a type of music people simply enjoy originated from the sufferings of his and the audiences’ ancestors. To deliver his point more easily, Hughes uses rhetorical devices such as onomatopoeia and imagery. The pleasant and enjoyable Be-Bop music suddenly transforms into horrifying sounds of beating and moaning as Simple explains using onomatopoeia as well as vivid imagery. Although done harshly, Hughes accomplished his purpose by making people feel contrite about what happened to the African Americans during the era of injustice and racism. As SImple calls the narrator “nonsense” for having no idea about the origins of Be-Bop, he denounces not only the African Americans of his time who are ignore of the sufferings that their ancestor had to encounter and the racism during the time this piece was written, but also the future generations who might take the freedom that they were given so arduously by the agony of their ancestors for granted and remind them that they should never forget the former hardships.

Bebop is a Race MusicGuthrie P. Ramsey
Bebop music is a race music, because it originated from the cruel history of discrimination of African Americans.
http://www.tower.com/race-music-black-cultures-from-bebop-hip-hop-guthrie-p-ramsey-paperback/wapi/100802358