Your Voice is My Sound: Audio Recording Technology, Identity and Re-Creating the Gullah/Geechee Diaspora

EHFA 137

This presentation explores the effects of audio recording technologies on the Gullah Geechee in relation to modernization by examining their respective applications within ethnomusicology, ethnography, and popular music. Sanchez Cruz addresses aspects of cultural representation from both the emic and etic perspectives. By analyzing selected twentieth-century field recordings by Robert Winslow Gordon, the Lomax family, Lorenzo Dow Turner, and Herbert Halpert, Sanchez Cruz demonstrates how these researchers sought to transmit and preserve Gullah Geechee oral musical traditions and narratives. This presentation focuses on select popular songs and pieces where musicians and groups, primarily those outside of the culture, appeal to Gullah Geechee music as creative and political inspiration: from the folk music revival of the 1950s and 60s, to digital sampling in the 1980s and 90s, as well as jazz and rap in the 2010s. Sanchez Cruz examines the issues associated with using historical Gullah Geechee audio recordings for archival and artistic purposes to promote authenticity and cultural visibility as well as the extant theoretical literature concerning transculturation and cultural appropriation. Comparing his research to twenty-first century trends, Cruz examines how streaming services and radio stations expand the presence of Gullah Geechee music for communities and the general public. This presentation concludes by suggesting the creation of an interactive program for sharing Gullah Geechee audio recordings with younger generations, so they may experience Gullah Geechee culture without promotion of exploitation and assimilation.