Black Popular Music in Britain Since 1945 (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series)

Black Popular Music in Britain Since 1945 provides the first broad scholarly discussion of this music since 1990. The book critically examines key moments in the history of black British popular music from 1940s jazz to 1970s soul and reggae, 1990s Jungle and the sounds of Dubstep and Grime that have echoed through the 2000s. While the book offers a history it also discusses the ways black musics in Britain have intersected with the politics of race and class, multiculturalism, gender and sexuality, and debates about media and technology. Contributors examine the impact of the local, the ways that black music in Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester and London evolved differently and how black popular music in Britain has always developed in complex interaction with the dominant British popular music tradition. This tradition has its own histories located in folk music, music hall and a constant engagement, since the nineteenth century, with American popular music, itself a dynamic mixing of African-American, Latin American and other musics. The ideas that run through various chapters form connecting narratives that challenge dominant understandings of black popular music in Britain and will be essential reading for those interested in Popular Music Studies, Black British Studies and Cultural Studies. Cover 1 Contents 6 List of Figures 8 Notes on Contributors 10 General Editors’ Preface 14 Acknowledgements 16 Black Popular Music in Britain Since 1945: An Introduction 18 1 Race, Identity and the Meaning of Jazz in 1940s Britain 28 2 Melting Pot: The Making of Black British Music in the 1950s and 1960s 44 3 Revisiting Britain’s ‘Afro Trend’ of the 1960s and 1970s: Musical Journeys, Fusions, and African Stereotypes 64 4 Britfunk: Black British Popular Music, Identity and the Recording Industry in the Early 1980s 84 5 Black Music and Cultural Exchange in Bristol 102 6 Bass Culture: An Alternative Soundtrack to Britishness 118 7 ‘Men Cry Too’: Black Masculinities and the Feminisation of Lovers Rock in the UK 132 8 The Sounding of the Notting Hill Carnival: Music as Space, Place and Territory 148 9 Voodoo Rage: Blacktronica from the North 170 10 Break/Flow/Escape/Capture: The Energy and Impotence of the Hardcore Continuum 186 11 ‘New Throat Fe Chat’: The Voices and Media of MC Culture 202 References 220 Index 244 Race, identity and the meaning of jazz in 1940s Britain / C. Tackley - Melting pot: the making of black British music in the 1950s / J. Stratton - Revisiting Britain's 'Afro trend' of the 1960s and 1970s: musical journeys, fusions and African stereotypes / M. Coester - Britfunk: black British popular music, identity and the recording industry in the early 1980s / R/ Strachan - Black music and cultural exchange in Bristol / R. Hyder - Bass culture: an alternative soundtrack to Britishness / M. Riley - 'Men cry too': black masculinities and the feminisation of lovers rock in the US / L.A. Palmer - The sounding of the Notting Hill carnival: music as space, place and territory / J. Henriques & B. Ferrara - Voodoo rage: blacktronica from the north / H.C. Rietveld - Break/flow/escape/capture: the energy and impotence of the hardcore continuum / J. Gilbert - 'New throat fe chat': the voices and media of MC Culture / N. Zuberi