"His wisdom led to the sound effect change of the whole music, which is called country music, blues music, rock music and other types of music," Troutman said.
Before its soft and brisk sound was inseparable from the music in the southern United States, the steel guitar attracted the audience in Hawaii, who were experiencing the most turbulent chapter in the island's history.
The Hawaiian Kingdom came into contact with westerners in the18th century, when the British explorer james cook sailed there for the first time. Cook's arrival shows that North America and Europe are interested in Hawaii, because it is an ideal stop in the Central Pacific for ships sailing between the United States and Asia. In the next few decades, Hawaii will be completely changed by colonization, missionaries and global trade.
1889, just a few years before Hawaii was annexed by the United States, was Kekuku a high school student in Lā? Ie has grown up. According to Troutman, Ley became the home of a Mormon community fleeing persecution in the continental United States.
"Joseph Kekukuku comes from a native Hawaiian community living among Mormon missionaries," said Trutman, who described Ley as a small town with a Hawaiian music tradition. "Mormons seek refuge in Hawaii, and one thing they learn is that they will be more successful if they don't try to overthrow or suppress the tradition of people who try to convert to Mormonism."
When Kiku's parents were devout Mormons and moved to Trutman, Utah, he said that the young musician had been in Kamaihameha boys' school for several years.
"He played music all his life (including the most popular modern Hawaiian songs in the 1980s and early 1990s)." . When Joseph was a student, he began to develop a new guitar playing skill.
This technology will help the steel guitar have all kinds of creative myths, but all these involve a young Kekuku and a genius. According to one of the most popular origin myths, while walking along the railway track, Kaikuku picked up an iron nail and put it in his pocket. Later that day, when he returned to the dormitory to play the guitar, he was inspired. Kiku pulled out the rail and ran along the guitar string while playing, noticing the unique sound of steel.
The exact details of Kiku's invention process have been forgotten by history, but the final product he created has not. As a student, Kekuku modified a guitar, lifted the strings higher from the wallboard, and created a smooth metal cylinder that could roll when playing.
He wrote a book called Kika Kila: How Hawaiian steel guitar changed the sound of modern music. He said that Kekuku created a music technology that lasted for centuries when people put things on stringed instruments all over the world, and it was improved, copied and popularized.
"It's not just about stringing an object up and down," he said. "It actually uses it to create music, adapting it to the existing music at that time and enabling it to play music that has never been imagined before."
After Kikuku's classmates learned about his new playing style, musicians in Honolulu adopted his skills. Scholars say that this guitar came to the coast of Hawaii through Europeans. It is not only popular in the Hawaiian islands, but also has been modified enough to become a local musical instrument in Hawaii-steel guitar.
1893 65438+1October 17, one of the most dramatic events in Hawaiian history happened. A militia mainly composed of American men demanded that Queen Lily Okala resign as monarch. Trutman said that this expulsion occurred after decades of colonial rule over these islands and efforts were made to concentrate more wealth and power in the hands of wealthy American businessmen.
"1893 The overthrow of the Queen was unexpected, terrible and painful." . "Hawaiians have been thinking about how to reverse this situation and restore this kingdom in the next few years."
Scholars say that the guitar was first spread to the coast of Hawaii through Europeans, and after enough transformation, it became a steel guitar, a native instrument of Hawaii. (Redpath Chautouqua Collection, University of Iowa Library) The influence of steel guitars extends beyond the Pacific region. Hawaiian musicians on the west coast attracted a large audience when they toured all over the United States, including in the apartheid south. (Redpath Chautouqua Library, University of Iowa) 1904, Joseph Kaikuku left these islands and traveled up and down the west coast of the United States, where he found a group of willing readers. (Redpath Chautauqua Collection, University of Iowa Library) KDSP, but those foreigners who secretly lobbied for the annexation of Hawaii tried to stop this from happening. With the weakening of local power in Hawaii, the key parts of Hawaiian culture are also banned from using Hawaiian language, surfing and hula hoop, which have achieved varying degrees of success. In the political turmoil, many local people insist on changing their culture. Queen Lily Okala herself was a prolific poseur of Hawaiian songs, which were later sung by a large audience. When there was a regime change in Hawaii in the early 20th century, Hawaiian aborigines began to flee these islands. Many diasporas are singers, dancers and musicians.
"They know that they can continue to perform their forbidden traditions on the island through tourism," Troutman said, adding that many Hawaiians are worried about their fate in the United States. "Many of them are very interesting. They have actually heard the story of Native Americans and how they were kept on the reservation. They fully saw their potential connection as American political aborigines.
1904, Kekuku left these islands and traveled up and down the west coast of the United States, where he found an acceptable audience. After he settled in Seattle, a newspaper called him "the greatest guitar soloist in the world".
Kekuku not only played domestically (and later internationally), but even offered steel guitar lessons. The Broadway play Birds of Paradise, set in Hawaii, has been touring in Hawaii for nine years. 19 15, the opening of the San Francisco World Expo attracted 190,000 people, and exhibited the popular "Hawaii Pavilion", where visitors can hear the sound of steel guitars, which is the most attractive place on the island.
The influence of steel guitars extends beyond the Pacific region, and Hawaiian musicians on the west coast attract a large number of people when traveling all over the country, including the isolated south. Hawaiian aborigines are forbidden to stay in white-only hotels, which stay in host families with African Americans, aborigines and immigrants.