Rios’s insightful, nuanced, and accessible book is a must-read for anyone interested in social justice and the arts. Drawing on multidisciplinary scholarship, personal interviews, and original analysis of well-chosen case studies, Rios shows how performers’ musical, visual, and textual gestures demonstrate resistance in this timely study.
This is America”: Race, Gender, and Politics in America’s Musical Landscape is an insightful and substantial consideration of our tumultuous recent history. Rios’ cutting analyses prompted me to reconsider the methods by which music helps us process trauma, seek justice, and articulate identity. As the author reminds us, music is not just something heard, but rather something communal and embodied, even in our digital era.
Borrowing her title from Childish Gambino’s music video “This Is America"—and using that video as a starting point—Rios discusses the fight for social justice in the US as conveyed through work by contemporary musicians and artists. Repeated symbols and gestures used to convey the underlying meaning of music, and other art works, serve as encoded elements of resistance and amplify the meaning of each featured artist’s words…. Relying extensively on rap, as well as blue notes, Caribbean rhythms, and call-and-response, Miranda uses familiar Black music traditions, sarcasm, and humor to energize Ron Chernow’s eponymous biography of Hamilton. Hamilton and the other works Rios features serve as calls to action, urging modern listeners to “look around” and “rise up” to address social injustices. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.
"This is America" Race, Gender, and Politics in America's Musical Landscape is an insightful and substantial consideration of our tumultuous recent history. Rios' cutting analyses prompted me to reconsider the methods by which music helps us process trauma, seek justice, and articulate identity. As the author reminds us, music is not just something heard, but rather something communal and embodied, even in our digital era.
Borrowing her title from Childish Gambino's music video "This Is America"--and using that video as a starting point--Rios discusses the fight for social justice in the US as conveyed through work by contemporary musicians and artists. Repeated symbols and gestures used to convey the underlying meaning of music, and other art works, serve as encoded elements of resistance and amplify the meaning of each featured artist's words.... Relying extensively on rap, as well as blue notes, Caribbean rhythms, and call-and-response, Miranda uses familiar Black music traditions, sarcasm, and humor to energize Ron Chernow's eponymous biography of Hamilton. Hamilton and the other works Rios features serve as calls to action, urging modern listeners to "look around" and "rise up" to address social injustices. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.
Katie Rios paints a vivid picture of politicized popular music in the Trump years. She asks readers to see and hear how mass-mediated performances serve as sites of cultural resistance.
Rios's insightful, nuanced, and accessible book is a must-read for anyone interested in social justice and the arts. Drawing on multidisciplinary scholarship, personal interviews, and original analysis of well-chosen case studies, Rios shows how performers' musical, visual, and textual gestures demonstrate resistance in this timely study.
Borrowing her title from Childish Gambino’s music video “This Is America"—and using that video as a starting point—Rios discusses the fight for social justice in the US as conveyed through work by contemporary musicians and artists. Repeated symbols and gestures used to convey the underlying meaning of music, and other art works, serve as encoded elements of resistance and amplify the meaning of each featured artist’s words…. Relying extensively on rap, as well as blue notes, Caribbean rhythms, and call-and-response, Miranda uses familiar Black music traditions, sarcasm, and humor to energize Ron Chernow’s eponymous biography of Hamilton. Hamilton and the other works Rios features serve as calls to action, urging modern listeners to “look around” and “rise up” to address social injustices. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.
