Revolution Televised.pdf

56 What You See Is What You Get
end of the line films the dancers as they move without compromise
and confront the viewer with their style and rhythm, seemingly
challenging the audience to question their ability. The younger sister
provokes the boys when they try to perform the latest moves.
“Y’all better move, somebody could get hurt . . . You can’t dance.”
To which one of the dancing brothers replies, “Y’all got no soul.”
The brothers finally get it down and sing and move in time with one
another and their onscreen counterparts. The father enters the room
and asks them to turn off the TV, to which the boys respond in chorus,
“Come on, Dad, we’re watching the SO-O-O-U-U-U-U-U-UL
Train.”
This is a scene from Spike Lee’s Crooklyn (1994), a moment undoubtedly
played out in living rooms across black America in the
1970s, when Don Cornelius brought Soul Train to U.S. television.
Soul Train—the music, the performances, and the dancers—has
been a part of African American culture and the American television
landscape for the past thirty years. During the 1970s Soul
Train provided a community-forming locus, which allowed the
show to cross the country and motivate a convergence of African
American cultural expression and empowerment. As African American
cultural critic Todd Boyd explains,
[T]elevision can provide certain legitimacy, a form of cultural identity
for those who see their image represented in an affirmative way.
And in a society that had fully adopted the television set as a vital
component in the domestic sphere, “Soul Train” assured a black
presence when all other forms of representation were leaving something
to be desired. 3
For an accurate understanding of Soul Train’s role, it is perhaps
best first to explain the significant position of oral culture in African
American society, as expressed through radio and popular music in
this era. Also, recognizing the influence of black music and culture
on American culture as a whole will help to clarify how Soul Train
became a forum for black cultural politics.
The Oral Tradition: Black Music and Black Radio
[R]adio has historically been so intimately connected with the consciousness
of blacks that it remained their primary source of entertainment
and information well into the age of television. Even in today’s