In June 1954, Professor S.I. Hayakawa presented a most interesting paper at the Second Conference on General Semantics in St. Louis, Missouri. Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa (1906 – 1992) combined his professional activity as linguist, psychologist and above all as a semanticist, with his lively interest in jazz.

The paper dealt with the contrast between the semantics and the symbolism in popular songs on the one hand, and blues and jazz songs on the other. I’m not able to judge the psychological statements he makes in his paper, but I guess that one needs to take his thesis with more than a bit of precaution from a scientific point of view. Nevertheless, his exposition is interesting and somewhat 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 ‘disorganization’ 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 white artists, for the white consumer, 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 for instance. This magic aura brings everything else within reach and will solve all of life’s problems. Of course, this ideal is never reached in reality. This in turn, 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, for example, “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 in no way prepares youngsters for the facts of life. It offers no assistance for organizing the experiences that youngsters will confront in 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 however, the love theme approach is of a totally different nature. Blues songs don’t show a magical attitude towards love. The blues sees love as a human relationship with duties and responsibilities. Addionally, more than in popular songs, the physical, sexual aspect of human relations 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 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 demoralization. I quote Hayakawa : “Instead of the self-abasement that we find,  the heartbroken men and women of the blues songs regroup their emotional forces and carry on without the breakdown of morale. There is the constant willingness to pursue life.”

The author calls the blues “equipment for living”. It could be argued that it is equipment for living humble, laborious and precarious lives at the outskirts of society. In any case, he states, the blues lyrics offer more realistic symbolism therefore 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 point of view. Blues is the expression of the way that the African - Americans have learned to live in a society which was oppressive. Blues music helped people to survive and cope with their sociological conditions. 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 undertones. “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?”

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 for you the reactions that his article provoked amongst the white middle-class parents in the 1950’s 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 like Romeo and Juliet.