Critical Review #9: Hamm 1989

Charles Hamm's article is a strong critique of Paul Simon's Graceland album. Hamm first summarizes the defenses of Graceland from "Simon and his apologists" (Hamm 1), namely that Graceland brought attention to South African musicians who benefited economically from the album and the exposure, that any political commentary on the album would have put the musicians in danger back in their home, and that the mixed-racial nature of the album was in itself a commentary. Hamm attacks each of these points in turn before turning his argument against other Western artists who released similar "African-influenced" albums in the aftermath, such as Makeba, Baez, and Belafonte. He attacks their politics and motivations, eventually building up to a condemnation of the entire 1950s and 1960s American folk revival, stating that it took advantage of indigenous musics from around the world without providing any benefit or credit to the authentic practitioners of the music. He sees the new Graceland-influenced albums as a continuation of that unjust relationship.

Music is constantly changing; the nature of music is that new forms arise as different existing forms interact, mix, and influence each other. Often, popular new forms emerge due to tragic social circumstances: jazz, blues, rock, and countless other forms essentially emerged because of the musical influences from Africa that came on account of the slave trade. Where is the moral dividing line between musical interactions that arise from unfortunate circumstances but are accepted and those that are viewed as objectionable, as Hamm viewed Graceland?