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From Library Journal
Seminal rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy once asked the musical question, "Who stole the soul?" In this anthology, perhaps the first to deal solely with the business of black music, Chuck D, editor Kelley (author of the Nina Halligan mysteries), and other name contributors (including Courtney Love) attempt to come up with some answers. This is not a study of the appropriation of African American musical styles which was ably covered in Leroi Jones's Blues People: Negro Music in White America, among other titles but rather an examination of why white-owned entertainment conglomerates have profited so much and blacks as a whole so little from the worldwide explosion of hip-hop. Kelley's introductory piece sets the tone, describing the current state of the music industry as a continuation of a "structure of stealing" that has plagued African Americans for centuries. The history of the modern recording industry, including the gray line between major and "independent" labels, is dissected in several eyeopening contributions that should be required reading for anyone interested in popular music. The collection comprises 20 pieces (seven are new and two are substantially revised) from a variety of journalists, music industry insiders, and historians, as well as an interview with Rap Coalition founder Wendy Day. Recommended for larger public and all academic libraries. David Valencia, King Cty. Lib. Syst., Seattle
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
This book's message is that the pop music business has ripped off black performers and fans for years. The copiously referenced pieces in it, whose writers include both academics and musicians, identify the industry's sins, general and particular. David Sanjek, director of the BMI Archives and consultant to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, critiques a never-made-public Harvard report on the early '70s "soul market," which found that Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk possessed almost no "soul content" and recommended strategies for leveling the industry playing field. As Sanjek reports, the effects of those recommendations have been mixed. Former Public Enemy member and rap legend Chuck D. details the "morphing of" certain "black folk into a new race: the Niggro. The Niggro is rewarded by ignorance [and] lauded in Vibe and Source for its thug spirit." As D. sees it, Niggros accept "'nigger ways,' confusing it with the soul root of black people," and become easily entertained members of lucrative marketing demographics. Hot stuff for politically and economically astute pop-music collections. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Solid analysis that you won't find anywhere else,
By A Customer
This review is from: R&B (Rhythm & Business): The Political Economy of Black Music (Hardcover)
This book, despite a few flaws, is a good book. The whiny musician from new york is correct that the book is a little bit redundant, but it remains a good book because no one else is talking about what they are talking about. Many of the essays are very strong and a pleasure to read, especially the editor's essay. So what if Courtney Love is in the book, so is Chuck D. Why can't a white musician speak to the exploitation of artists by the major record labels in a book that focuses on racism in the music industry? The subtitle afterall is the Political Economy of Black Music, which means that the issues discussed are race AND class. Duh? And, Courtney should be in the book because gender is a factor that matters just as much as race and class. Most of the books on the music industry out there are [bad] because they are written from the point of view of the major record labels and they are either cheezy biographies of musicians that tell you nothing important about how the industry works, or stupid boring guide books written by lawyers that try to fool you into beleiving that the corporations are ready to give you mad dough for playing your guitar if you just follow the steps outlined in their book. NOT! Thank God for Norman Kelley. We finally get a book that tells the truth about the exploitation of musicians by the major record labels. If you want to find out exactly how the major record labels and the corporate establishment exploit musicians than go buy this book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Freshest music anthology in years!,
By Raul Deznermio (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: R&B (Rhythm & Business): The Political Economy of Black Music (Hardcover)
Covering not just hip hop and issues facing today's black artists, this collection of essays takes a highly informed historical look at how artists have fared in the music industry back from blues to jazz to R&B, up to today's contemporary music. Plus the book explores the *economic* side of the equation, which few writers touch in today's timid world of music journalism. Norman Kelley and the other contributors to this book should be applauded for raising the bar on serious music journalism.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Superficial treatment of an important subject,
By A Customer
This review is from: R&B (Rhythm & Business): The Political Economy of Black Music (Hardcover)
I played in a jazz quartet back in the '60s and I know from first hand experience how musicians are exploited in the music industry. I was ripped off many times and I knew a lot of other musicians, black and white, who had the same experience. That's a big reason why I quit the business. This is an important subject that deserves more than the superficial and repetitious treatment it gets here. It's too bad that it's taken so long for this to be addressed and it's too bad it took a star like Michael Jackson to get the headlines that the subject deserves. The people who put this book together seem to be really into stars too, though, since Courtney Love is the best known contributor. I think it's pretty weird that the most famous contributor to a book on R&B is white like she is, but that's another rant. My son is in an indie rock band playing in clubs in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn and he tells that things are even worse now than they were when I was his age, not just in music, but in publishing and films and other art forms. He said that some independent music companies he knows about don't even want to give its musicians contracts, that the musicians are supposed to trust the owner's goodwill for some reason. Give me a break! Maybe they'd buy the Brooklyn Bridge from me. Norman Kelley seems sincere in his desire to address old injustices, but he doesn't go far enough. He has to know about some of the things that my son told me about, but he hasn't dealt with them or anything else very deeply. Hopefully one of these days all of this will be exposed more fully in another, better book. We don't need stars like Michael Jackson and Courtney Love to do it, just artists who have really been there.
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