Civil Rights Music: The Soundtracks of the Civil Rights Movement

by Reiland Rabaka

Overview

This book critically examines the music and politics that emerged from the Civil Rights Movement as incredibly important sites and sources of spiritual rejuvenation, social organization, political education, and cultural transformation. The book is primarily preoccupied with that liminal, in-between, and often inexplicable place where black popular music and black popular movements meet and merge.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498531801
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	05/03/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Reiland Rabaka is professor of African, African American, and Caribbean studies in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the author of The Hip Hop Movement: From R&B and the Civil Rights Movement to Rap and the Hip Hop Generation and Hip Hop’s Amnesia: From Blues and the Black Women’s Club Movement to Rap and the Hip Hop Movement.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Sociology of the Civil Rights Movement Chapter 2: The Musicology of the Civil Rights Movement Chapter 3: Gospel and the Civil Rights Movement Chapter 4: Rhythm & Blues and the Civil Rights Movement Chapter 5: Rock & Roll and the Civil Rights Movement  

Editorial Reviews

Although Reiland Rabaka focuses mainly on the music associated with civil rights protest movements of the 1960s, his splendid new book, Civil Rights Music, offers intriguing insights about the close relationship that has long existed between African-American popular music and African-American freedom struggles. This major addition to the civil rights literature shows how black culture and black politics cannot be fully understood separately because they have always transformed one another.

Clayborne Carson

In this expert account of civil rights "movement music," Reiland Rabaka weaves an intricate tapestry around the musical stars and everyday people who struggled for black liberation. In so doing, he offers a new way of hearing and writing the social histories encoded in song.

Emily Lordi

Drawing on a wide range of studies, Rabaka traces the history of African American music, focusing on how that music intersected with the Civil Rights Movement. The author interprets 'civil rights music' broadly within a complex theoretical structure. In the first two chapters, Rabaka takes up, respectively, the sociology and the musicology of the Civil Rights Movement in the wake of WW II. In chapter 2, he writes that 'Africana critical theory involves not only the critique of domination and discrimination, but also—à la the Civil Rights Movement—a deep commitment to human liberation and radical democratic social transformation.' In the remaining three chapters, he looks at musical genres, examining the gospel, rhythm and blues, and rock 'n' roll music associated with the movement. Numerous scholars and songs are cited.... Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Choice Reviews

Drawing on a wide range of studies, Rabaka traces the history of African American music, focusing on how that music intersected with the Civil Rights Movement. The author interprets 'civil rights music' broadly within a complex theoretical structure. In the first two chapters, Rabaka takes up, respectively, the sociology and the musicology of the Civil Rights Movement in the wake of WW II. In chapter 2, he writes that 'Africana critical theory involves not only the critique of domination and discrimination, but also—à la the Civil Rights Movement—a deep commitment to human liberation and radical democratic social transformation.' In the remaining three chapters, he looks at musical genres, examining the gospel, rhythm and blues, and rock 'n' roll music associated with the movement. Numerous scholars and songs are cited.... Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Choice

Drawing on a wide range of studies, Rabaka traces the history of African American music, focusing on how that music intersected with the Civil Rights Movement. The author interprets 'civil rights music' broadly within a complex theoretical structure. In the first two chapters, Rabaka takes up, respectively, the sociology and the musicology of the Civil Rights Movement in the wake of WW II. In chapter 2, he writes that 'Africana critical theory involves not only the critique of domination and discrimination, but also—à la the Civil Rights Movement—a deep commitment to human liberation and radical democratic social transformation.' In the remaining three chapters, he looks at musical genres, examining the gospel, rhythm and blues, and rock 'n' roll music associated with the movement. Numerous scholars and songs are cited.... Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

CHOICE