music

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• SOURCE: JSTOR Daily
  2/26/2023
  

  How (Some) of the Hip Hop Generation Learned Black History

  Historian Pero Dagbovie traces shifts in hip hop's political messages and says that, to some extent the glorification of materialism replaced a focus on Black history and politics as the genre developed. 

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• SOURCE: Boston Globe
  2/9/2023
  

  An Unlikely Coalition Trying to Save a Nashville Black Landmark

  A Nashville Elks lodge building was the 1960s home of a music club where superstars of Black music—and the yet-to-be famous Jimi Hendrix—played during the segregation era. Like many such landmarks, decades of highway building broke up the surrounding community and made the building endangered today. 

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• SOURCE: WTTW
  1/27/2023
  

  Prof. Hasan Kwame Jeffries on Consulting for Hip Hop at 50 Documentary

  The Ohio State professor served as a consultant for the four hour documentary produced by Public Enemy's Chuck D, which begins January 31. 

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• SOURCE: Oxford American
  1/24/2023
  

  Who Gets to Sing About Revenge in Pop Music?

  by Jewel Wicker

  Do the racial politics of musical genre explain why songs about revenge are celebrated in country music and turned into evidence for the prosecution against hip hop artists (even when the songs in question are fiction)?

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• SOURCE: Pop Matters
  1/11/2023
  

  The Unlikely Story of the 1960s Revival of Delta Blues Giant Son House

  After shifts in African American musical styles, the Great Depression and the Great Migration consigned him to obscurity, Son House recorded live music in the 1960s. 

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• SOURCE: Oxford American
  12/13/2022
  

  Exiting/In

  by Francesca T. Royster

  A family and community history in Black Nashville puts the rise of "Music Row" in the context of urban renewal projects that destroyed African American communities and institutions, and the unacknowledged Black presence in country music. 

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• SOURCE: NPR
  12/12/2022
  

  Protege of Gospel Blues Great Reverend Gary Davis Seeks to Preserve Legacy

  Stefan Grossman started studying Davis's fingerpicked style after the older man had settled in the Bronx in the 1960s. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  12/6/2022
  

  Stax Records Co-Founder Jim Stewart Dies at 92

  Stewart's label in its heyday trailed only Motown Records as a purveyor of soul music, and the label's house bands created a distinctive and enduring style associated with Memphis. 

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• SOURCE: UnHerd
  10/28/2022
  

  At 40, Springsteen's "Nebraska" Holds Up as a Harbinger of Rural Despair

  "It sold poorly and due to its troubling themes, Springsteen did not take it on tour. Nebraska was left to speak for itself. Today, exactly 40 years after its release, that voice is no less disquieting."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/27/2022
  

  Stevie Wonder's "Talking Book" at 50

  Musical collaborators and artists later influenced by Stevie Wonder's declaration of musical independence explain the album's creation and impact. 

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• SOURCE: WBUR
  10/21/2022
  

  Steve Waksman on the History of Live Music in America

  Waksman's new book explains how a live performance depends on the confluence of art and business. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/4/2022
  

  Loretta Lynn, Country Music Star Who Voiced Rural Resilience, Dies at 90

  The singer expressed the endurance of hardship but also performed subversive and humorous takes on the changing mores reaching rural America in the 1960s and 1970s. 

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• 10/2/2022
  

  Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Criminal Underworld

  by James Thornton Harris

  T.J. English examines the relationship between jazz and organized crime in Prohibition America, and how the music moved on from the mob. 

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• 9/11/2022
  

  Arena Rockin' The Vote?

  by George Case

  Dismissed, derided, or even deplored by critics, and out of step with the trends, arena rock acts still pack them in in much of America. Is it the sonic key to understanding Trumpism? 

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• SOURCE: NPR
  8/9/2022
  

  Lamont Dozier, Part of Legendary Motown Songwriting Team, Dies at 81

  With Brian and Eddie Holland, Dozier formed the formidable "HDH" songwriting partnership that turned out many of the biggest hits of the 1960s for The Supremes and The Four Tops among other Motown acts. 

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• SOURCE: Texas Standard
  7/22/2022
  

  Texas State Prof. Launches Harry Styles History Course

  Louis Dean Valencia realized during the pandemic that icebreaking conversations with students about pop music opened up many avenues for discussing historical subjects including the politics of celebrity. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  7/20/2022
  

  Is a 23 Year-Old Named Kingfish Bridging the Past and Future of the Blues?

  by Carlo Rotella

  Although he came on the scene as a guitar hotshot, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram's artistic ambitions go beyond the bombastic soloing of the blues-rock genre and incorporate more of the traditional breadth of the blues as African American music. 

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• SOURCE: London Review of Books
  6/9/2022
  

  The Enduring Appeal of the BBC's "Desert Island Discs" – the Longest Running Interview Show

  The famous and would-be famous have faced the dilemma of telling the world about themselves by listing the records (and luxury items) they'd want with them on a desert island; post-1951 episodes are now available as podcasts.

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  5/19/2022
  

  Ukraine's Eurovision Victory Not the First Time Politics Has Been on Stage

  by Tess Megginson

  Since its beginnings in 1956, the Eurovision Song Contest has been a stage for statements about the politics of the continent, from the Cold War to the growth of the EU to the invasion of Ukraine. 

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• SOURCE: Vanity Fair
  4/21/2022
  

  Previewing Tulsa's New Bob Dylan Center

  by Douglas Brinkley

  "The center—a high-tech vessel holding the man’s oeuvre and an overview of the man—will be the spiritual home of Dylan, a relentless performer who is forever on the road."