In Afro-American music in the United States, three broad subdivisions

Question

In Afro-American music in the United States, three broad subdivisions are distinguishable. In order of decreasing stylistic conservatism, these are: sacred music such as spirituals, jubilees, and gospels; secular music such as country and urban blues and most jazz before the Second World War; “art” music or jazz since 1945.
 
Jazz has been written about extensively; the great bulk of religious music has been ignored almost completely; the blues tradition, thanks to a recent spurt of interest, ranks in an intermediate position, as far as quantity of literature is concerned. Although a number of books and articles have been written about the blues and blues musicians, all the authors without exception refuse to look at, much less discuss, the music as it exists today.
 
Why this complete avoidance of recent and contemporary blues forms in every treatise on the subject? In trying to answer this question, I find that those who write books about the blues are often more interesting than the books themselves. Most of these authors exemplify what might be called the “moldy fig mentality,” “moldy fig” being a term used by “modern” jazz musicians and their supporters to designate individuals whose interest in jazz is restricted to the prewar period. These writers on blues share a number of interests or preoccupations, foremost of which is a quest for the “real” blues. The criteria of these writers for a real blues singer, implicit or explicit, are the following. Old age: the performer should preferably be more than sixty years old, arthritic, and tooth less. Obscurity: the blues singer should not have performed in public or have made a recording in at least twenty years; among deceased blues musicians, the best seems to be those who appeared in a big city one day in the 1920’s, made from four to Six recordings, and then disappeared into the countryside forever. Correct tutelage: the singer should have played with or been taught by some legendary figure. Agrarian milieu: a blues musician should have spent many years as a sharecropper, coaxing mules and picking cotton, uncontaminated by city influences. 
 
Writers on blues  manifest the moldy-fig mentality  in different ways and to varying degrees. Admittedly, their criteria for including a given singer among the “true blue” are slightly exaggerated as listed here. But the  romanticizing  move or element is omnipresent in blues writing, and readers must keep this factor in mind when evaluating any book on the subject. For example, Samuel Charters’ best-known work, The Country Blues, has a chapter on postwar developments in which the adjectives “crude,” “loud,” “unsophisticated,” “monotonous,” and the like are applied liberally throughout. Charters, like other writers, seems to feel that the blues have been diluted and polluted beyond recognition.    1 
 1. Which of the following best expresses the author's main point?

(A) Afro-American music in the United States can be broadly classified as sacred, secular, and “art” music.
(B) The authors of books on blues are more interesting as people than as musical analysts.
(C) Contemporary blues forms are more interesting than secular prewar blues forms.
(D) Analysts of prewar secular blues differ from analysts of urban blues developed since 1945 in that the latter project their romantic bias onto the future.
(E) Recent blues forms are ignored in books and articles on blues because all writers on blues are influenced by a romantic definition of blues.

2  
 2. The passage supplies information for answering which of the following questions?

(A) What assumptions do writers about prewar blues share with writers about prewar jazz?
(B) How do contemporary blues musicians differ from those of the 1920's?
(C) What makes postwar jazz less conservative than prewar jazz?
(D) What standards do writers on blues generally use to define authenticity in blues musicians?
(E) How do writers distinguish between urban blues style and genuine country blues style?

3  
 3. In asserting that writers on blues “manifest the moldy-fig mentality" ( Highlighted ), the author most probably means that they are

(A) biased against most contemporary blues and blues musicians
(B) idealistic in their view of famous prewar blues musicians 
(C) indifference to modern jazz
(D) ignorant of Afro-American sacred music
(E) hostile toward well-known urban musicians

4  
 4. It can be inferred from the passage that the author believes which of the following concerning the writers of books and articles about blues musicians?

(A) The qualities that they value in blues musicians make it virtually impossible for them to explore the blues music of young urban musicians.
(B) The romanticizing element in their analysis of blues is necessary for readers to understand blues musicians and their backgrounds.
(C) The connection between “real” blues and “real” jazz does not warrant the scrutiny they give it.
(D) They have all shown their resistance to separating blues musical style from jazz musical style. 
({E) Their opinions about blues are obsolete because they made their analyses before the Second World War.

5  
 5. The tone of the passage suggests that the author most probably regards contemporary blues and blues musicians with

(A) sentimentality
(B) interest
(C) indifference
(D) indignation
(E} scorn

6  
 6. Which of the following statements is most clearly an example of the “romanticizing” referred to by the author in lines ( Highlighted )?

(A) Prewar blues are all too often less interesting and musically sophisticated than are postwar blues because prewar blues do not grow out of the harsh but real agrarian experiences of the rural South.
(B) The authentic blues musicians of the prewar period became very well known among blues lovers as a result of immensely popular recordings made very late in their lives after a long musical silence.
(C) Well-known younger blues musicians playing and singing in urban areas like Chicago cannot hope to capture the essence of blues, which reflects the glory and the pain of being unknown and close to the soil.
(D) The musical training provided by great blues musicians of the 1920's produced blues artists whose music was untainted by fame and success, but the music of a number of obscure young blues musicians playing today can equal even that earlier intense expression of pain and loss.
(E) Postwar blues, consistently shaped by youthful dreams and refined by urban suffering, are quite as interesting in their way as the original blues created by legendary musicians of the 1920's and their often poor and obscure students.

7  
 7. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) analyze the differences between prewar and postwar blues
(B) explain the charlatanistic common to most prominent blues musicians
(C) criticize the musical analysis of blues writer Samuel Charters
(D) explore the motives for blues writers’ concentration on prewar blues
(E) suggest new approaches co contemporary blues analysis

DropletMaverick · Answer

I got the fifth question wrong because I selected option C when the correct answer was B. I understand that the author explains how the new blues singers and the old ones are viewed differently, but I think the author himself is indifferent toward them. So why is the answer B (interested) and not C (indifferent)? Even though he wrote about the differences in detail, the question probably asks how he regards both groups. So why isn???t C the correct answer?

vishu789 · Answer

I want to know the answers which i got wrong

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Hello DropletMaverick

The author is not endorsing the dismissive view, but rather arguing against it. He seems concerned that contemporary blues is  wrongly overlooked  and  unfairly judged.  So the author’s own attitude toward contemporary blues and blues musicians is not indifference or scorn, and certainly not sentimentality (that’s the “moldy fig” writers’ attitude).

Between  interest and indignation,  the author is clearly interested in contemporary blues (wants it studied, taken seriously), but the passage’s tone when discussing how others neglect or scorn it carries a note of criticism, even frustration.

Indignation  (righteous anger) is a bit too strong, the passage is analytical, not raging. The author’s primary stance is one of scholarly interest and advocacy for contemporary blues, with a  critical but measured tone  toward those who ignore it.

Hence, the best answer is  (B)  .

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Hello vishu789

Welcome to GMAT Club!

We can only help you if we know which questions you got wrong any why?

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Explanation

1. Which of the following best expresses the author's main point?

This is a global (Main point) question so we need to keep track of the whole passage to answer it. A summary of each paragraph should be in your mind before you go to the answer choices.

Paragraph 1:  Introduces three broad subdivisions of Afro-American music, in order of decreasing stylistic conservatism.
 Paragraph 2:  Notes jazz has been written about a lot, religious music ignored, blues somewhat in between, but all authors on blues avoid discussing the music  “as it exists today.” 
 Paragraph 3:  Asks why avoidance of recent blues? Says authors exemplify  “moldy fig mentality”  they romanticize old, obscure, rural, aged blues singers.
 Paragraph 4:  Explains that this romanticizing bias is pervasive, and readers must account for it when reading blues literature (example: Charters describing postwar blues negatively).

Now attack the answer choices one by one.

(A) Afro-American music in the United States can be broadly classified as sacred, secular, and “art” music. 
This is just background from  paragraph 1 , not the main point. It’s not what the passage is arguing overall.

(B) The authors of books on blues are more interesting as people than as musical analysts. 
The passage says  “those who write books about the blues are often more interesting than the books themselves”  in  paragraph 3 , but that’s a provocative aside, not the main argument. It’s part of the reason to examine their biases, but not the thesis.

(C) Contemporary blues forms are more interesting than secular prewar blues forms. 
The author never says contemporary forms are more interesting; the point is they’re unjustly ignored, not that they’re superior.

(D) Analysts of prewar secular blues differ from analysts of urban blues developed since 1945 in that the latter project their romantic bias onto the future. 
Confusing wording: there aren’t separate groups contrasted here. The analysts discussed are all about prewar blues, ignoring recent blues.  “Project their romantic bias onto the future”  isn’t quite accurate, they project it onto the past (idealizing the past, denigrating the present).

(E) Recent blues forms are ignored in books and articles on blues because all writers on blues are influenced by a romantic definition of blues. 
This matches our passage structure above.

Answer: E

In Afro-American music in the United States, three broad subdivisions

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In Afro-American music in the United States, three broad subdivisions

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