– Blues is good for your mental health

In June 1954, Professor S.I. Hayakawa presented a most interesting paper at the Second Conference on General Semantics in St. Louis, Missouri (1). Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa (1906 – 1992) was a politically active English professor who combined his professional activity as linguist, psychologist and above all as semanticist with his lively interest in (classic) Jazz. The paper dealt with the contrast between the semantics and the symbolism in popular songs on the one hand, and blues / jazz songs on the other hand. Of course, you need to read the paper keeping in mind that it was written more than half a century ago, at the moment that popular rock and roll music was to explode (Round Up of Rhythm, the first Rock and Roll film was issued the same year and Bill Haley would reach number 1 on the charts). I’m not able to judge the psychological statements he makes in his paper, but I guess that one needs to take his thesis also with more than a bit of precaution from a scientific point of view. Nevertheless, his exposition is interesting (and honestly, I find it quite amusing at the same time).

His thesis is based on a concept developed by a fellow semanticist and speech pathologist (Wendell Johnson) who introduced the concept of the IFD-disease.

‘I’ : stands for ‘idealization (the making of impossible demands upon life);
‘F’ : stands for ‘frustration’ (a natural result of the tension between reality and the idealization)
‘D’ : stands for ‘disorganisation’ and ‘despair’ which are the consequence of the frustration.

Popular songs, he states, are basically suffering from the IFD-syndrome in their approach of the love-theme. He illustrates how popular songs (which are according to him mainly written by the white, for the white) contain what he calls a prevalent belief in magic. The love theme in popular music puts forth an ideal woman and an ideal man (the angel, the prince charming). This magic aura brings everything else within reach and will solve all problems, even material ones. Of course, this ideal is never reached in reality, and this is the source of frustration that is manifested in all kinds of psychological problems, finally leading to disappointment, despair (“I’ll never love again”), or even the creation of an artificial world (“I am going to buy myself a paper doll to call my own”, as sung by The Mills Brothers in 1943 on a record which was sold by the millions). In this approach, IFD has a most negative impact on the young generation, according to Hayakawa. The super-romanticism in popular songs leads to ill-considered marriages, “superficial and inadequate ideas regarding the nature of love and how it is organized”. The popular song does in no way prepare the youngster for the facts of life; it offers no assistance for organising the experiences that the youngsters will confront in the daily life. By its clinging to super-romanticism it covers up the harsh realities of life which come like a cold shower when the dream balloon explodes.

In the blues on the contrary the love theme approach is of a totally different nature. Their songs don’t show a magical attitude towards love; the blues sees love as a human relationship with duties and responsibilities. Also, more than in popular songs, the physical, sexual aspect is dealt with in a more candid way. Even if blues songs can testify of disappointments, the nature of those is totally different from the ones in their popular counterpart. It is part of life that men and women can split up, and this is nothing more than one of the inevitabilities in a world that is changing. The blues believe that despite everything that one may do, failure can always be the outcome. But being hurt in love should not lead to demoralisation. I quote Hayakawa : “Instead of the self-abasement that we find in the kick-me-in-the-face-again-because-I-love-you” school of thought, the heartbroken men and women of the blues songs regroup their emotional forces and carry on without breakdown of morale”. There is the constant willingness to pursue life:”I’m a young woman, and I ain’t done running round” (in : “Young Woman’s Blues” by Bessie Smith).

The author calls the blues an “equipment for living”, an equipment for living humble, laborious and precarious lives at the outskirts of society. In any case, he states, the blues’ lyrics more realistic symbolism offers a much better mental preparation for life. This is no other statement than the one which is traditionally made by blues scholars approaching the subject from a social angle: blues is the expression of the way that the African Americans have learnt to live in a society which was oppressive. Blues helped to survive and cope; they contain the necessary antidote that is needed for staying optimistic that one day the sun will be rising at the horizon.

The conclusion of his article contains the moralistic lesson (which is not free of some humoristic undertone): “Cannot our poets and our songwriters try to do at least as much for our young people as Bessie Smith did for her audiences, namely provide them with symbolic experiences which help them understand, organize, and better cope with their problems. Or, if that is too much to ask (), can they not at least cease and desist from further spreading the all-too-prevalent IFD disease”.

Didn’t I tell you? The blues are healthy for the mind; popular music on the contrary creates nothing but frustration and leads to psychological problems and disconnection from society. Viva the blues as psychological equipment for life!

I don’t need to detail you the reactions that his article provoked amongst the white middle-class parents who concluded from Hayakawa’s paper that they were expected to educate their offspring more in the spirit of the barrel house love than along the lines that were set by ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Perhaps the idea was not so bad: I don’t know of many blues artists who committed suicide, whilst Romeo and Juliet…..

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(1) Reprinted in “Write me a few of your lines”, S.C. Tracy, 1999