A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of America

Five Stars Good for history class.. Nice Try tffrph This book actually is quite good. The only problem is the author fixates on certain artists. Since the book is in chronological order it plays like a movie starting with blues performers and also jazz. It jumps into the 60's rapidly and this is by far the most interesting section. Motown, Stax and the Philly Sound are defined well by the author. Each sub genre of black music seems to be tied to the equal rights movement. Not to sure there. Motown was highly polished music made for enjoyment and . "Rare popular music book of intelligent and engaging writing" according to Jeff Delfield. Talk about a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, the popular music literature out there seems to fall into two camps. The first populates journalism school dropouts who, because of their love for the music, feel the need to share their passion with the whole wide world. Their writings are usually superficial and they're the crowd Dylan complained about when he said (paraphrase), "they're a bunch of Rare popular music book of intelligent and engaging writing Jeff Delfield Talk about a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, the popular music literature out there seems to fall into two camps. The first populates journalism school dropouts who, because of their love for the music, feel the need to share their passion with the whole wide world. Their writings are usually superficial and they're the crowd Dylan complained about when he said (paraphrase), "they're a bunch of 40 year olds writing for a bunch of 10 year olds." The other group is made up of academics who, th. 0 year olds writing for a bunch of 10 year olds." The other group is made up of academics who, th

"extraordinarily far-reaching. This new edition, featuring four new and updated chapters, will reintroduce Werner's seminal study of black music to a new generation of readers.Craig Werner is Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin, and author of many books, including Playing the Changes: From Afro-Modernism to the Jazz Impulse and Up Around the Bend: An Oral History of Creedence Clearwater Revival. His most recent book is Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soul.. Lucid, insightful, with real spiritual, political, intellectual, and emotional grasp of the whole picture. No one can do this better than Craig Werner."-Henry Louis Gates, Jr., W.E.B. highly accessible."-Notes<

He lives in Madison, Wisconsin. . Craig Werner is a professor of African-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin, where he teaches courses on Black Music and American Cultural History. He is the recipient of the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching

Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. He writes with equal clarity aboutAand respect forAgospel icon Mahalia Jackson (who "placed black women and their voices at the center of the freedom struggle") and Public Enemy (who expressed a "combination of political intelligence and street realism"). Cut off from the increasingly "upwardly mobile" Studio 54 scene, the locals developed their own dance music, drawing on snippets from the history of popular music and particularly on the techniques of Jamaican street-party DJs. In