Souled American: How Black Music Transformed White Culture Review

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(More customer reviews)By far the best comprehensive read on music made in the United States that I've read. Phinney weaves a story line that takes us all the way back to the era of the African slave trade where an Englishman named Richard Jobson becomes the first European in recorded history to write about his observance of witnessing Africans involved in the making of music. He brings us through history right to today's doorstep where music makers as diverse as Eminem to Wynton Marsalis continue to tell the story not only of their music, but who we are as people living and contributing to an constantly evolving culture. The research is extensive and exhaustive. It reminds me of Ken Burn's Jazz series on steroids as it encompasses all genres of music through many centuries including slave work songs, minstrelsy, gospel, ragtime, blues, jazz, rock and roll, R & B, rock and todays hip-hop. There isn't enough attention made to the Latin tinge in American music but that ommission just as it was with the Burns series doesn't take away from all of the great research that defines this book. For music lovers and people who are interested in the underpinnings of American culture in general, it is a must read! It is a definitive statement of the addage that music is a mirror that reflects the people and times it was created in. Highly recommended!!
Bobby Jackson
Cleveland, OH

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From Jim Crow to Eminem, white culture has been transformedby black music. To be so influenced by the boundlessimagination of a race brought to America in chains setsup a fascinating irony, and Souled American, an ambitiousand comprehensive look at race relations as seen throughthe prism of music, examines that irony fearlessly—withilluminating results. Tracing a direct line from plantation fieldhollers to gangsta rap, author Kevin Phinney explains howblacks and whites exist in a constant tug-of-war as theycreate, re-create, and claim each phase of popular music.Meticulously researched, the book includes dozens of exclusivecelebrity interviews that reveal the day-to-day strugglesand triumphs of sharing the limelight. Unique, intriguing,Souled American should be required reading for everyAmerican interested in music, in history,or in healing our country's troubledrace relations.•Combines social history and pop cultureto reveal how jazz, blues, soul, country,and hip-hop have developed•Includes interviews with Ray Charles,Willie Nelson, B. B. King, David Byrne,Sly Stone, Donna Summer, Bonnie Raitt,and dozens more•Confronts questions of race and findsmeaningful answers•Ideal for Black History Month

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