Question

from louisiana to the midwest and everywhere in between, theres perhaps no musical genre more quintessentially american than the blues. like barbecue and blue - jeans, the blues has acquired an iconic status in american popular culture, and bearing the names of the regions in which they flourished, the branches of blues music exist in as many permutations. but from the delta blues, to the chicago blues, to the more recent texas blues, american blues music demonstrates a remarkable conservation of structure and motif across all its divergent incarnations. dig a little deeper and youll find the influence of the blues not only interwoven throughout the whole evolution of rock n roll, but still firmly embedded in popular music today. however, for all its intimate history with american culture, it is important to realize that a stunning majority of what makes the blues bluesy originated not in texas, chicago or even on the mississippi delta, but arrived in america with the slaves captured from west africa. unlike its close relative, jazz, which has undergone unprecedented structural reinvention and heterogenesis in its lifetime, blues music has managed in spite of its similarly considerable longevity to retain several pervasive musical hallmarks. this, perhaps more than anything else, divides jazz and blues on the issue of ancestry. for while artistic mutation has obscured the early history of jazz, and caused the list of its suggested precursors to include not only african american spirituals but also spanish flamenco and provencal folk music, the comparatively well - preserved precepts of blues music are unequivocal evidence of a west african origin. among the most significant offspring of these musical forerunners are the distinctive scales used in blues. a blues scale - like many folk music scales - follows a pentatonic progression, but includes several unique, flattened notes, specifically the third, fifth and seventh. the inclusion of these flattened notes in the scale is in itself, so iconic and exemplary of blues music that they are often referred to as the blue notes. in effect, the blue notes impart a minor key tonality to a major key tune. in the western musical tradition, such an arrangement is described as dissonance, and seldom appears in european folk music. however, blue notes were and continue to be used extensively in traditional singing throughout regions of west and central africa, and are particularly prevalent in the jola tribes playing of akontings - a stringed west african folk - instrument which, incidentally, is also thought to be a forebear of the american banjo. another remnant of the blues african heritage survives in the structure of its vocal and lyrical components. traditionally, a single verse of blues lyrics consists of one line repeated twice over mutually inverse chord changes, followed by a third, rhyming line that resolves the frame. although this form cannot be said to have been extracted directly from traditional african music, its lineage is consistently traced back to the work songs used by african laborers. according to popular music expert dr. reebee garofalo, these early predecessors to the blues were not so much music for the sake of music as they were a functional expression, rendered in a call - and - response style without accompaniment or harmony and unbounded by the formality of any particular musical structure. the transformation of the amorphous and irregular african work songs into the more tightly regulated blues form we know today is thought, perhaps, to have occurred due to the intermixing of western folk music with the songs of african american slaves. indeed, by the first half of the twentieth century the blues had become so fixed in lyrical anatomy that one might recognize the structure of several lines from a billie holiday song, my man dont love me, treats me awful mean / oh, hes the lowest man ive ever seen, as iambic pentameter. the incubation of blues music began with the first arrival of west african slaves in america, and through the revolution and the emergence of the united states, to the abolition of slavery and onward, the blues continued to evolve and proliferate, taking on new forms, instrumentations and significance. and although today the blues may seem as american as apple pie, we mustnt forget the creative debt this most american of musical genres owes to its west african ancestors. what is the authors purpose in mentioning dr. reebee garofalo in line 62? to provide the backing of an authority to justify his argument in the fourth paragraph to appeal to a scholar who has clearly stated how he agrees with the thesis of the passage as a whole to give the testimony of a person who has had to perform african work songs as a laborer to show how a modern - day musician continues to be influenced by west - african cultural contributions

Explanation:

The author mentions Dr. Reebee Garofalo to lend credibility to the argument in the fourth - paragraph about the origin of blues lyrics from African work songs. By citing an authority in popular music, the author's claim is more persuasive.

Answer:

To provide the backing of an authority to justify his argument in the fourth paragraph