Historical Context

The Civil Rights Movement, at large, was the product of the reactions to ages of racism, bigotry, and oppression. This movement sought to move forward and bring about change and equality. However, as history has shown repeatedly, social movements that seek to peacefully and thoughtfully bring about change are not always met by the same peacefulness and thoughtfulness. While the Civil Rights Movement existed before the 1950s, this era of the movement holds great power, especially in reference to my rhetorical artifact. In the late 1950s, the Civil Rights Movement saw a number of dramatic, intense, and establishing moments. Beyond landmark events such as Brown v. Board of Education, the late 1950s saw the continued disenfranchisement of people of color who had fought in World War II, the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycotts, and the rise of Martin Luther King Jr. and the sociopolitical and cultural framework that he spearheaded to further the Civil Rights Movement (Blaire & Michel, 2000). These events were paramount in pushing the boundaries of the movement, and seeking to achieve more justice in a number of ways.

            Another key component to contextualize how Kind of Blue falls in line with the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1950s is the organizational approach that the movement adopted at this time. As tensions began to rise and in some cases boil over, there was a need for a more effective organizational approach for more effective long-term results. In a series of interviews with jazz musicians who were involved in the Civil Rights Movement, Lucas Aaron Henry shows a clear connecting theme between all of their experiences: Collaboration. Collaboration became a key method for organization with the Civil Rights Movement. As with any social movement, there were a number of separate groups that identified as a part of the overall movement, but some held different ideas values than others. This could potentially lead to conflict within the movement (Aaron Henry, 2004). So, to make sure that a movement of such import did not face conflict from within itself as well as from outside itself, there was a major shift to a more collaborative style of management. Not only did this occur within the social movement, but carried through into how musicians that associated with the movement approached their work (Lagace, 2009). Miles Davis and his quintet made a conscious effort to focus on collaboration with Kind of Blue, both while recording and producing. This is apparent in interviews from musicians and producers who had worked with Davis, as well as in the structure of the songs themselves (Lagace, 2009). This heavy focus on collaboration, paired with calm and deliberate sound, lead to an album that carried an immense amount of power that sometimes flies under the radar.

            Given the sociopolitical context and occasion that this album was released in, it is also important to gauge and understand who the audience was. After its release, Kind of Blue became a commercial success, quickly becoming one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time (Niesensen, 2001). Because of its fame, the album has reached far beyond its initial audience, anyone who was able to buy or was able to listen to records in 1959. With this wide audience in mind, the potential for Kind of Blue as a rhetorical artifact is just as immense. The potential strength of a rhetorical artifact is that it can be consumed, understood, and appreciated beyond the generation in which it was originally produced.