Louis Armstrong, a pioneer jazz musician whose music has been used in film.
American films have incorporated music composed by African Americans historically, incorporating genres like jazz, ragtime, and blues. With the introduction of sound film, African American music appeared in feature films, musical shorts, and early "soundies."[1] In pre-Hollywood era films, African American composers struggled to have their music included formally as part of the score, rather than diegetic background music. African American composers faced significant barriers to scoring major Hollywood films for many decades.[2] From the 1960s onwards, this began to change, with notable figures achieving success in the industry.[2] Today, African American music, including rock and rap, remains a vital part of the filmic experience, particularly through its use in modern soundtracks.[3]
The connection between African American music and film is long lasting, with actors portraying jazz or blues musicians in silent films and live jazz, ragtime, or blues improvisations accompanying silent movies in theaters.[1] Early sound film experiments in the 1920s sometimes featured jazz in shorts, such as a 1925 filming of “Sweet Georgia Brown” by the Ben Bernie Orchestra and songwriter Maceo Pinkard.[4] The first feature-length film with a soundtrack including onscreen musical performances was The Jazz Singer (1927), starring Al Jolson performing minstrel and jazz songs in blackface.[5] This film's success led to a boom in sound film technology and set a standard for jazz in films. This standard included jazz music being associated with nightlife, the perpetuation of the policing of Black-expression by white performers, and the continued infantilization of Black performers.[1]
King Vidor's Hallelujah (1929), the first Hollywood film with an all-Black cast, musically divided rural life (spirituals, folk songs) from urban life (jazz, blues). Many pre-World War II Hollywood films portrayed African Americans using stereotypes; often as gifted in music and dance but given to emotions, sexuality, and violence.[1] This association extended to using Black music in relation to white characters exhibiting questionable moral behavior.[1]
Oftentimes short films that featured all-Black casts could not be shown in theaters that objected to filmed representations of African Americans.[1] While some shorts perpetuated stereotypes, others, like Black and Tan Fantasy (1929) starring Duke Ellington, portrayed Black artists in a more sophisticated light. Coin-operated viewing machines in the early 1940s produced "soundies," three-minute filmed performances, including "race" numbers (the industry term for African American music).[1] Some important Black musicians, like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, recorded valuable performances in this format, preserving music that might otherwise have been lost. Some filmed African American performances also appeared in newsreels.[1]
During the late 1930s, representations of African Americans became less overtly racist, leading to an agreement in 1942 between Hollywood executives and the NAACP to avoid derogatory portrayals, although this policy was only partially effective.[6]
The period from World War II to 1968 saw an increasing presence of African American actors and music in film, though mainstream film maintained a strained relationship, often relegating Black actors to secondary roles. Films often featured white actors in leading roles learning from African American performers in secondary roles, sometimes referred to as "magical Negroes".[1]
From 1968 to the present, the presence of African American actors and music in film increased immensely. The use of African American music as background scores continued with composers like Quincy Jones, who scored numerous films in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including The Italian Job (1969) and $ or Dollars (1971).[7]
Spike Lee has been a prolific filmmaker incorporating African American music. His films featured soundtracks with artists like Public Enemy and scores by Bill Lee and Terence Blanchard. Blanchard composed numerous scores for Lee's films, including Jungle Fever (1991), Malcolm X (1992), and Clockers (1995), as well as films not directed by Lee.[8]Quentin Tarantino is also known for using classic African American music in his soundtracks, lending a veneer of nostalgia. His film Jackie Brown (1997) is an homage to blaxploitation, featuring Pam Grier and a soundtrack with artists like Bobby Womack and The Delfonics. [9]
The movie industry system that produced most early films was generally not welcoming to Black artists, including composers and arrangers. Despite notable advances later, mainstream film maintained a rather strained relationship with African Americans, often relegating them to secondary roles. A prevalent tendency in films of the 1940s and 1950s was to portray a tension between the desirable vitality of African American music and its presumed primitiveness. Films often featured white actors in leading roles who learned from African American performers in secondary roles, sometimes characterized as "magical Negroes" who use their insight to guide white protagonists. [11]
In the production of the musical film Stormy Weather, the orchestral composer William Grant Still was reportedly told that his arrangements were too refined to be considered authentic Black music, suggesting that for Hollywood, "Negro music" had to "be crude to be authentic".[1]
The decontextualization and cooptation of Black music by white culture industries and films is a historical practice. This practice, rooted in the white cooptation of jazz in early cinema, continues to repurpose Black lived experiences and the music produced from them to refer to white experiences. One source argues that this is not a new practice but points out continuing incongruities in soundtracking. This racial cooptation is exemplified in films where black characters are primarily performers, servants, or members of the underclass, while white popular music is treated with more sincerity in emotional scenes. The film Baby Driver is discussed as an example where black soul and funk music make up the bulk of the soundtrack but contrast with the white protagonist, suggesting that white protagonists are the appropriate custodians of Black cultural production. Another source points out that the film assumes a Black character, who is disabled or Deaf, is incapable of participating in cultural production or deep appreciation, thus normalizing the problematic notion that disability divorces one from cultural practices. It is argued that African Americans do not control their own musical art forms and are not considered authorities on their own creation. [11]
In films centered on jazz, like La La Land and Whiplash, the music is sometimes depicted as concretized in a "pure" past, disallowing Black futurity, and highlighting the suffering of white protagonists trying to master this form. These films are seen as going to lengths to include white jazz musicians as idols of "pure" jazz, as if to show that this traditionally Black genre can accommodate white stars. This is viewed as a practice of taking music created out of marginalized black identities and using it in ways that erase those identities. One perspective is that in films like La La Land, the place of the black subject in relation to jazz is always as a primordial and ancestral history, never an active participant in what modern jazz could look like. The film is seen as glossing over the reality that an artist staying true to the roots of jazz against the odds would likely be Black. These narratives are described as setting up traditional jazz forms as a platform for white suffering and excellence. [11]
Challenges
The presence, reception, and genius of Black composers and conductors in the United States have been complicated by prejudice and discrimination, and there were also barriers for women in the industry. To this day, these fields are described as overwhelmingly a male, white male preserve, where Black composers and conductors labor to have their work recognized and performed. Some sources note that the work of several Black composers disappeared for decades. Even when Black composers achieved recognition, such as William Grant Still debuting the first symphony by an African American performed by a major orchestra in 1931, or Florence Price's symphony following in 1933, their contributions have often been denied rather than celebrated in the annals of music. [12]
In the context of music education, questioning why the contributions of Black composers in classical music are not widely included is raised. Audition requirements for music schools are seen as creating a standard for repertoire by composers who are most highly revered, often serving as the literature studied by educators. Requirements like those at the Juilliard School of Music, which list specific works by primarily dead white male composers, are cited as an example of a racial barrier. It is argued that when intentional inclusion of Black voices is not made in requirements, Black contributions are not studied, creating barriers in the music educational system. The lack of intentional inclusion in pedagogy, programming, competitions, and audition requirements is seen as long overdue for addressing. [13]
Renee Baker, a composer of scores for silent films, notes that she has faced racism, discrimination, sexism, ageism, classism, and other forms of prejudice in the industry. The interview highlights the challenges faced by women and African Americans in an industry dominated by white men. Baker emphasizes the need to reframe historically sensitive films through her scores to ensure that the history is seen, avoiding stereotypical musical choices associated with oppression. [12]
Historical impact
The association of African American music with film is a long-standing one, beginning with live accompaniment to silent films and evolving through musical shorts, sound films, and incorporation into feature films. The Jazz Singer's success instigated the widespread adoption of sound film and established early, though often stereotypical, connections between jazz and film. The emergence of race films provided opportunities for Black actors and directors, though they sometimes replicated Hollywood stereotypes. Directors like Oscar Micheaux and Spencer Williams offered perspectives through the eyes of Black filmmakers. Renee Baker argues that race films like Body and Soul and The Scar of Shame rendered more complex and nuanced readings of black life than Hollywood fare and contributed to the recovery of Black history. Her work in scoring silent race films aims to make them interesting and relevant to a modern audience by activating their historical value.[12]
The introduction of African American music as background scores in the 1950s marked a significant shift from its previous primary use as diegetic music. Alex North's A Streetcar Named Desire score is noted as a pioneering use of jazz in a film score. The scores by Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Charles Mingus further solidified jazz's place in film scoring. Duke Ellington's score for Anatomy of a Murder (1959) is considered a highlight of his post-Newport era and was his first Hollywood soundtrack assignment. It is notable as the first major American film score written by a Black composer. John Lewis's score for Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) is cited as the ideal founding model for Third Stream scores, blending classical counterpoint and jazz improvisation. Along with Ellington's work on Anatomy of a Murder, Lewis's score helped open the door for Black composers in Hollywood. [2]
The rise of blaxploitation films in the 1970s had a major cultural impact, promoting soul and funk music soundtracks and influencing later artists and popular culture. [9] Filmmakers like John Singleton and Mario Van Peebles, through their films centering on gangster life with rap soundtracks, inspired a "cottage industry" and had a huge impact on hip hop culture. [1]
Biopics of African American musicians like Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, and Ray Charles introduced their lives and music to wider audiences. The increasing inclusion of rap and hip hop in mainstream film soundtracks over the past two decades reflects its growing role in the filmic experience.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Jenkins, Chadwick. "Movies." Encyclopedia of African American Music, edited by Emmett G. Price, III, vol. 2, Greenwood, 2011, pp. 639-650. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3300800200/GVRL?u=cuny_laguardia&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=966a3056. Accessed 2 June 2025.
1 2 3 Johnson, David. “Black Composers in Hollywood: Duke Ellington and John Lewis, 1959.” Night Lights Classic Jazz - Indiana Public Media, indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/black-composers-in-hollywood-duke-ellington-and-john-lewis,-1959.php. Accessed 2 June 2025.
↑ Chideya, Farai. “Terence Blanchard on Scoring Spike Lee Joints.” NPR, NPR, 15 Feb. 2008, www.npr.org/2008/02/15/19084952/terence-blanchard-on-scoring-spike-lee-joints.
1 2 Viitanen, Tatu. “ Intertextual Music In The Films Of Quentin Tarantino.” Aalto University School of Arts, Design, and Architecture , 2020, aaltodoc.aalto.fi/server/api/core/bitstreams/dabc3619-3ba8-4e00-a133-da8bdc4d7e6a/content.
↑ Reid, Mark A.. Black Lenses, Black Voices: African American Film Now, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/lagcc-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1340067
1 2 3 Dueck, Matthew. “Black Soundtracks, White Subjects: The Decontextualization of Black Music in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema.” MacOdrum Library | Carleton University, 2020, carleton.scholaris.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/838acf0a-0d44-4458-adf0-3a0244a55a39/content.
1 2 3 Martin, Michael T. "'That's the Difference, I Am Fully Engaged With Art': Renee Baker on the Practice of Scoring Silent Film and the Matter of 'Race Movies'." Black Camera, vol. 14, no. 2, spring 2023, pp. COV4+. Gale Academic OneFile, dx.doi.org/10.2979/blc.2023.a883805. Accessed 9 June 2025.
↑ CLAIBORNE, L. What Ifs: Intentional Inclusion of Music by Black Composers in Music Education: American Music Teacher, [s. l.], v. 71, n. 4, p. 20–25, 2022. Disponível em: https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=d8ade54f-ce74-3fd9-91cc-fb83f83c0ee9. Acesso em: 9 jun. 2025.
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