The Significance of Preserving the Blaxploitation Soundtrack

   

For those hip hop heads out there, much of the music that we consider the classics, are rooted in the scores of blaxploitation cinema. Point blank, producers have sampled some of the most dynamic enriching funky tunes from the era establishing the fundamentals of hip hop.

The music is relevant to a period when social and political conscious was shifting in the black community. The sounds were starting to reflect the times.  Funk was making its way within the spirit of the people; particularly those who were on the bottom side of the caste system, poor black folks (also known as the blues people). With the assassinations of MLK and Malcolm X, upheaval was inevitable. Change permeated the atmosphere. A revolutionary ideology was espoused by many black youth along with Marxist intellectuals.  

Funk, which has a genealogy that consists of: blues, gospel, be-bop, rhythm&blues, rock&roll, and soul was becoming the voice of objection. It was a countercultural antithetical entity of bold polyrhythmic expression. Funk was the soundtrack of revolution. The music represented freedom from systematic oppression. Because funk was incongruous with the standards of the American way, it was the perfect genre to underscore blaxploitation films.  Blaxploitation films were intended to reflect a black power, freedom, and slough off the stereotypical tropes of the past. The often funky soundtracks of blaxploitation were the soul and musical impressions of the movies which quickly became formulaic in narrative.

Blaxploitation soundtracks were definitely appropriate for the times. They hold a valuable space in the lineage of our American musical ancestry.  In his epic book that explores all that is funk, Rickey Vincent states:

The soundtrack album ultimately served two extremely important functions: first, like the films in general, soundtrack albums gave jobs to struggling artists who may not have had the opportunity to release and distribute a record on their own.  Second, and most significant, the range of the movie soundtrack allowed the artists to explore-and reflect-the diverse moods of the film and thus the diverse moods of their people.

It is indeed necessary to preserve the cool, boundless, and funky musical narratives that are the blaxploitation soundtracks. They have offered so much to en rich our culture. They were a way to express the blackness of a people. We also must make sure that future generations understand the primary source of contemporary music and how relevant it is to way that music can be shaped in the future. As the saying goes, you have to know your past in order to be prepared for your future-there is power in that.