African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Surveys the origins of rock 'n' roll from the minstrel era to the emergence of Bill Haley and Elvis Presley. Dispelling common misconceptions, this book examines rock's origins in hokum songs and big-band boogies as well as Delta blues, detailing the embrace by white artists of African-American styles long before rock 'n' roll appeared. This study ranges far and wide, highlighting not only the contributions of obscure but key precursors like Hardrock Gunter and Sam Theard but also the influence of celebrity performers like Gene Autry and Ella Fitzgerald. Too often, rock historians treat the genesis of rock 'n' roll as a bolt from the blue, an overnight revolution provoked by the bland pop music that immediately preceded it and created through the white appropriation of music until then played only by and for black audiences. Here, Birnbaum argues a more complicated history of rock's evolution from a heady mix of ragtime, boogie-woogie, swing, country music, mainstream pop, and R&B—a melange of genres that influenced one another along the way, from the absorption of blues and boogies into jazz and pop to the integration of country and Caribbean music into R&B.
Before finding international success and stardom with a string of well-known radio hits, Billy Ocean grinded on the U.K. circuit for well over a decade. The singer-songwriter released a handful of singles and four relatively unknown albums prior to the breakthrough in the mid-1980s, which included a mix of ballads, Caribbean-influenced R&B, club-shaking disco, synth-filled boogie, and even country-inflected Southern soul. The pre-fame arc of Ocean's career is traced record by record.
Unedited] Focusing on R&B neo-soul singer D’Angelo’s 1999 album Voodoo, this article explores the relationship (both real and imagined) between African American popular music and Afro-Caribbean religion. While most songs on the album do not use traditional Caribbean rhythms, the album’s imagery appears to equate Voodoo’s blend of funk, soul, and gospel with Afro-Diasporic religious practices such as Santeria or Vodou. Not only do D’Angelo’s own statements about the album affirm this connection, but his fans also contribute valuable evidence supporting the link. Surveying the reception of Voodoo by music critics as well as hundreds of online customer reviews of the album via Amazon.com, I argue that D’Angelo’s listeners characterize the album as an inner-directed musical experience approximating spirit-possession. By consicously linking the repetitious, circular grooves of black popular music with the form and function of Afro-Diasporic religious traditions, D’Angelo and his fans testify to the value of black spirituality and offer a critique of the hypermasculinity and materialism pervading contemporary hip-hop and rap music. Voodoo refocuses our attention on the spiritual qualities of African American music that persist even in an age of mass-mediated global capitalism.
Focuses on interrelations between popular music genres in the Spanish Caribbean exemplifying the Dominican Republic. The genre son has been the source of ideological conflicts for the middle and upper classes, particularly for Dominican musicians and intellectuals. The most urgent inquiry is about the local origin of the so considered primary authentic work, the “Son de la Ma’ Teodora'. Analyzing both historiographic and oral sources, the significance and the symbolic value of the musical genre son in the national history and context are discussed., unedited non–English abstract received by RILM] En este artículo se discuten las interrelaciones entre géneros musicales populares en el Caribe Hispánico tal y como aparecen en la República Dominicana. El género son ha sido fuente de conflictos ideológicos entre las clases media y alta dominicana, así como entre músicos e intelectuales. El asunto más polémico en este sentido gira alrededor del origen local de la así considerada primera obra documentada, el “Son de La Ma’ Teodora”. Haciendo uso de diferentes fuentes historiográficas y orales se discute el significado y valor simbólico del género musical son en relación a la historia nacional dominicana.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Examines the role music has played in the formation of the political and national identity of the Bahamas. It analyzes Bahamian musical life as it has been influenced and shaped by the islands’ location between the United States and the rest of the Caribbean; tourism; and Bahamian colonial and postcolonial history. Focusing on popular music in the second half of the twentieth and early 21st c., in particular rake-n-scrape and Junkanoo, the author finds a Bahamian music that has remained culturally rooted in the local even as it has undergone major transformations. Highlighting the ways entertainers have represented themselves to Bahamians and to tourists, he illustrates the shifting terrain that musicians navigated during the rapid growth of tourism and in the aftermath of independence.
Unedited] The conference took place 18–24 February, 2008. The following contributions are cited separately in RILM: Kam-Au AMEN, Entertainment and cultural enterprise management (RILM ref]2012-19744/ref]); Peter ASHBOURNE, From mento to ska and reggae to dancehall (RILM ref]2012-19730/ref]); Erna BRODBER, Reggae as black space (RILM ref]2012-19729/ref]); Louis CHUDE-SOKEI, Roots, diaspora and possible Africas (RILM ref]2012-19739/ref]); Brent CLOUGH, Oceanic reggae (RILM ref]2012-19741/ref]); Carolyn COOPER, Reggae studies at the University of the West Indies (RILM ref]2012-19743/ref]); Samuel Furé DAVIS, Reggae in Cuba and the Hispanic Caribbean (RILM ref]2012-19733/ref]); Cheikh Ahmadou DIENG, Reggae griots in Francophone Africa (RILM ref]2012-19738/ref]); Teddy ISIMAT-MIRIN, Reggae in the French Caribbean (RILM ref]2012-19734/ref]); Ellen KOEHLINGS, Pete LILLY, The evolution of reggae in Europe with a focus on Germany (RILM ref]2012-19732/ref]); Amon Saba SAAKANA, The impact of Jamaican music in Britain (RILM ref]2012-19731/ref]); Roger STEFFENS, Reggae music in the bloodstream (RILM ref]2012-19736/ref]); Marvin Dale STERLING, Gender, class and race in Japanese dancehall culture (RILM ref]2012-19740/ref]); Michael E. VEAL, Dub: Electronic music and sound experimentation (RILM ref]2012-19742/ref]); Leonardo VIDIGAL, Reggae music documentaries in Brazil (RILM ref]2012-19735/ref]); Klive WALKER, The journey of reggae in Canada (RILM ref]2012-19737/ref]).
Abbey,Eric James, (Ed.And Intro.) and Helb,Colin, (Ed.And Intro.)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
01/01; 2014
Published:
Lanham: Lexington Books
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
The following contributions are cited separately in RILM: Eric James ABBEY, The cult of Hellmouth: The success of contemporary hardcore (RILM ref]2014-01826/ref]); Sean AHERN, Let the Shillelagh fly: The dropkick Murphys and Irish—American hybridity (RILM ref]2014-01818/ref]); Brian COGAN, The last report: Throbbing gristle and audio extremes (RILM ref]2014-01823/ref]); Mika ELOVAARA, Am I evil? The meaning of metal lyrics to its fans (RILM ref]2014-01819/ref]); Marcus ERBE, By demons be driven? Scanning 'monstrous' voices (RILM ref]2014-01820/ref]); Kevin FELLEZS, Black metal soul music: Stone vengeance and the aesthetics of race in heavy metal (RILM ref]2014-01824/ref]); Ross HAGEN, No fun: Noise music, avant-garde aggression, and sonic punishment (RILM ref]2014-01822/ref]); Colin HELB, 'The time is right to set our sight on salvation': The strange tale of how the Hare Krishnas came to play hardcore punk (RILM ref]2014-01825/ref]); Eliut RIVERA-SEGARRA, Nelson VARAS-DIAZ, Heavy metal music in the Caribbean setting: Politics and language at the periphery (RILM ref]2014-01821/ref]); Evan WARE, Food for thought: On Sid Vicious's cannibalization of My way (RILM ref]2014-01817/ref]).
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
The following contributions are cited separately in RILM: Godfrey BALDACCHINO, Yoko ORYU, French Caribbean: Adieu foulard, adieu madras: A sonic study in (post)colonialism (RILM ref]2011-12101/ref]); Sergio BONANZINGA, Sicily: Navigating responses to global cultural patterns (RILM ref]2011-12111/ref]); Kathryn A. BURNETT, Ray BURNETT, Scotland's Hebrides: Song and culture, transmission, and transformation (RILM ref]2011-12104/ref]); Jennifer CATTERMOLE, Fiji Islands: A sustainable future for sigidrigi? (RILM ref]2011-12107/ref]); Ijahnya CHRISTIAN, English Caribbean: When people cannot talk, they sing (RILM ref]2011-12099/ref]); Judith R. COHEN, Ibiza and Formentera: Worlds of singers and songs (RILM ref]2011-12113/ref]); Cristoforo GARIGLIANO, Aeolian Islands: Three singers, their folk songs, and the interpretation of tradition (RILM ref]2011-12112/ref]); Waldo GARRIDO, Philip HAYWARD, Chiloé: An offshore song culture (RILM ref]2011-12109/ref]); Maria HNARAKI, Crete—Souls of soil: Island identity through song (RILM ref]2011-12110/ref]); Henry M. JOHNSON, Jersey: Jèrriais, song, and language revitalization (RILM ref]2011-12105/ref]); Soraya MARCANO, Spanish Caribbean: Liquid identities (RILM ref]2011-12100/ref]); Owe RONSTRÖM, Gotland: Where folk culture and island overlap (RILM ref]2011-12114/ref]); Heather SPARLING, Cape Breton Island: Living in the past? Gaelic language, song, and competition (RILM ref]2011-12102/ref]); Deatra WALSH, Newfoundland: From Ron Hynes to Hey Rosetta! (RILM ref]2011-12103/ref]); Oli WILSON, Papua New Guinea: Popular music and the continuity of tradition—An ethnographic study of the songs by the band Paramana Strangers (RILM ref]2011-12106/ref]).
With Joe Arroyo's passing on 26 July 2011, the world has lost a superstar and true innovator of modern Latin music. His work combined lyrics of protest, romance, and spirituality with a joyful music that was at once fresh and accessible. The sixth album Arroyo put out with La Verdad marked a transition from a less adventurous to a more radical approach, where the diverse mix heard on later records is fully embraced for the first time. With Me le fugué a la candela (I escaped the fire) his players gelled, and the pan-Caribbean sound they became famous for came into its own, especially on side two.
Belafonte,Harry, (Author) and Shnayerson,Michael, (Collab.)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
01/01; 2011
Published:
New York: Alfred A. Knopf
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
A personal account of an era of enormous cultural and political change, which reveals Harry Belafonte as not only one of America's greatest entertainers, but also one of our most profoundly influential activists. Belafonte spent his childhood in both Harlem and Jamaica, where the toughness of the city and the resilient spirit of the Caribbean lifestyle instilled in him a tenacity to face the hurdles of life head-on and channel his anger into positive, life-affirming actions. He returned to New York City after serving in the Navy in World War II, and found his calling in the theater, before transitioning into a career as a singer and Hollywood leading man. During the 1960s civil rights movement, Belafonte became close friends with Martin Luther King, Jr., and used his celebrity as a platform for his activism in civil rights and countless other political and social causes. This book tells the inspiring story of an original and powerful entertainer who has always engaged fiercely with the issues of his day.
