Black Power Music! : Protest Songs, Message Music, and the Black Power Movement

Black Power Music! Protest Songs, Message Music, and the Black Power Movement critically explores the soundtracks of the Black Power Movement as forms of “movement music.” That is to say, much of classic Motown, soul, and funk music often mirrored and served as mouthpieces for the views and values, as well as the aspirations and frustrations, of the Black Power Movement. Black Power Music! is also about the intense interconnections between Black popular culture and Black political culture, both before and after the Black Power Movement, and the ways in which the Black Power Movement in many senses symbolizes the culmination of centuries of African American politics creatively combined with, and ingeniously conveyed through, African American music. Consequently, the term “Black Power music” can be seen as a code word for African American protest songs and message music between 1965 and 1975. “Black Power music” is a new concept that captures and conveys the fact that the majority of the messages in Black popular music between 1965 and 1975 seem to have been missed by most people who were not actively involved in, or in some significant way associated with, the Black Power Movement. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Acknowledgements 9 Introduction: protest songs, message music, and the Black Power Movement 10 1 The Black Power Movement, the Black Arts Movement, and the Black aesthetic 26 2 Motown and the emergence of message music 50 3 Soul men, musical machismo, and the Black Power Movement 86 4 Soul sisters, musical feminism, and the Black Women’s Liberation Movement 113 5 Funk, musical militancy, and the Black Power Movement 145 Conclusion: Blackness. Power. Music. – ad infinitum 195 Index 205 "Black Power Music! is a study about music and socio-political movements, aesthetics and politics, as well as the ways in which African Americans' unique history, culture, and struggles have consistently led them to create musics that have served as the soundtracks or 'mouthpieces' for their socio-political aspirations and frustrations, their socio-political organizations and movements. Drawing on thinking from a variety of disciplines whose discourses traditionally are kept mostly apart, the author finds the consilience that binds these disciplines together vis-à-vis black power music. The book will be essential reading for all students engaged in black popular music studies, African American studies, popular culture studies, ethnic studies as well as sociology, ethnomusicology and political science"-- Provided by publisher