Breaks in the Air: The Birth of Rap Radio in New York City
In Breaks in the Air John Klaess tells the story of rap’s emergence on New York City’s airwaves by examining how artists and broadcasters adapted hip hop’s performance culture to radio. Initially, artists and DJs brought their live practice to radio by buying time on low-bandwidth community stations and building new communities around their shows. Later, stations owned by New York’s African American elite, such as WBLS, reluctantly began airing rap even as they pursued a sound rooted in respectability, urban sophistication, and polish. At the same time, large commercial stations like WRKS programmed rap once it became clear that the music attracted a demographic that was valuable to advertisers. Moving between intimate portraits of single radio shows and broader examinations of the legal, financial, cultural, and political forces that indelibly shaped the sound of rap radio, Klaess shows how early rap radio provides a lens through which to better understand the development of rap music as well as the intertwined histories of sounds, institutions, communities, and legal formations that converged in the post-Civil Rights era.
1140546695
Breaks in the Air: The Birth of Rap Radio in New York City
In Breaks in the Air John Klaess tells the story of rap’s emergence on New York City’s airwaves by examining how artists and broadcasters adapted hip hop’s performance culture to radio. Initially, artists and DJs brought their live practice to radio by buying time on low-bandwidth community stations and building new communities around their shows. Later, stations owned by New York’s African American elite, such as WBLS, reluctantly began airing rap even as they pursued a sound rooted in respectability, urban sophistication, and polish. At the same time, large commercial stations like WRKS programmed rap once it became clear that the music attracted a demographic that was valuable to advertisers. Moving between intimate portraits of single radio shows and broader examinations of the legal, financial, cultural, and political forces that indelibly shaped the sound of rap radio, Klaess shows how early rap radio provides a lens through which to better understand the development of rap music as well as the intertwined histories of sounds, institutions, communities, and legal formations that converged in the post-Civil Rights era.
99.95 Out Of Stock
Breaks in the Air: The Birth of Rap Radio in New York City

Breaks in the Air: The Birth of Rap Radio in New York City

by John Klaess
Breaks in the Air: The Birth of Rap Radio in New York City
Add to Wishlist
Breaks in the Air: The Birth of Rap Radio in New York City

Breaks in the Air: The Birth of Rap Radio in New York City

by John Klaess

Overview

In Breaks in the Air John Klaess tells the story of rap’s emergence on New York City’s airwaves by examining how artists and broadcasters adapted hip hop’s performance culture to radio. Initially, artists and DJs brought their live practice to radio by buying time on low-bandwidth community stations and building new communities around their shows. Later, stations owned by New York’s African American elite, such as WBLS, reluctantly began airing rap even as they pursued a sound rooted in respectability, urban sophistication, and polish. At the same time, large commercial stations like WRKS programmed rap once it became clear that the music attracted a demographic that was valuable to advertisers. Moving between intimate portraits of single radio shows and broader examinations of the legal, financial, cultural, and political forces that indelibly shaped the sound of rap radio, Klaess shows how early rap radio provides a lens through which to better understand the development of rap music as well as the intertwined histories of sounds, institutions, communities, and legal formations that converged in the post-Civil Rights era.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781478016236
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication date: 09/27/2022
Pages: 232
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

John Klaess is an independent scholar based in Boston.

Table of Contents

Preface  ix
Acknowledgments  xiii
Introduction. Breaks in the Air  1
1. Deregulating Radio  19
2. Sounding Black Progress in the Post-Civil Rights Era  32
3. Commercializing Rap with Mr. Magic’s Rap Attack  63
4. Programming the Street at WRKS  88
5. Broadcasting the Zulu Nation  116
6. Listening to the Labor of The Awesome 2 Show  139
Epilogue  162
Notes  175
Bibliography  193
Index  215

What People are Saying About This

Black Ephemera: The Crisis and Challenge of the Musical Archive - Mark Anthony Neal

“As a social history of Black radio in New York City, Breaks in the Air foregrounds a larger conversation about the sounds of Blackness on commercial radio in the period. Brilliant in its detail, it makes an important contribution to the studies of hip hop culture, race and broadcast media, and the cultural history of New York City in the 1980s.”

Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm - Dan Charnas

"In The Big Payback, I endeavored to show how hip-hop reshaped radio. In Breaks in the Air, John Klaess meticulously flips the script, showing how radio in fact reshaped hip-hop in the 1980s, engendering a novel way of composing and consuming music.”

From the B&N Reads Blog
Page 1 of

Related Subjects

Music, Film & Performing Arts
Music
Popular & Dance Music
Rap/Hip-Hop/Urban
Music, Film & Performing Arts
Music
Popular & Dance Music
Rap/Hip-Hop/Urban

Customer Reviews