Blog Post 11

The Gullah music culture is primarily made up of drums, dancing, audience
participation, and singing. In the videos linked in the class blog there
was extremely fast paced drumming with a mix of what sounds like loud
animal noises, but are definitely human voices a very African based
polyphony. The Gullah culture is very interesting; they have their roots
in slavery and basically the long road for freedom as a people. Their land
is located in the Georgian islands and is a very nice looking place. It is
constantly under attack by the development industry, the Gullah people are
basically the only ones that own any land on the only undeveloped island.
Their strive for freedom and equality is easily seen in their character and
music. Virtually every interview done with a Gullah Island resident they
spoke of their hardships and how they wanted to be left alone to live their
own life. The Gullans also seem to be Christian and it seems to influence
part of their music culture. Their dancing in combination with music seem
to be very fast paced movements either with some kind of percussion
instrument or hands free shaking their body everywhere. The performances
they put on for the public initially had only a few dancers but it is part
of the music culture for members of the audience to join in and participate
with the fast paced dancing.