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Black country music : listening for revolutions / Francesca T. Royster.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: American music series (Austin, Tex.)Publisher: Austin : University of Texas Press, 2022Copyright date: ©2022Edition: First editionDescription: ix, 230 pages ; 23 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781477326497
  • 1477326499
  • 9781477323526
  • 147732352X
Subject(s):
Contents:
Introduction. Where my people at? -- Uneasy listening : tuning into Tina Turner's queer frequencies in Tina turns the country on! and other albums -- "Love you, my brother" : Darius Rucker's bro-intimacy and acts of sonic freedom -- How to be an outlaw : Beyoncé's Daddy lessons -- Valerie June : ghost catcher -- Can the Black banjo speak? Notes on Songs of Our Native Daughters -- Thirteen ways of looking at Lil Nas X's Old town road -- Epilogue. Black country afrofuturisms : Mickey Guyton, Rissi Palmer, and DeLila Black.
Summary: ""What happens when we look at US country music through a black feminist and queer eye?" Francesca Royster suggests it reveals a group of mostly invisible fans and performers in a "white" musical genre, some of whom are intervening in that space in ways that are creative, risky and inherently "soulful." While loving country music can be an exercise in shaming and rejection for these fans, the music is also a space of creativity, resistance, and power. Royster contends that the pleasures country music offers some Black listeners can be connected to Eve Sedgwick's idea of queerness as "the open mesh of possibilities" within any group that "doesn't signify monolithically." That makes for a useful lens for exploring the ways that country music changes people as they listen, perform and consume, both as individuals and in community"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 781.642 R892 Available 33111011073331
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

2023 Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
2024 Woody Guthrie Book Award, International Association for the Study of Popular Music-US Branch (IASPM-US)
2023 ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research, Association for Recorded Sound Collections​
2023 The Judy Tsou Critical Race Studies Award, American Musicological Society

How Black musicians have changed the country music landscape and brought light to Black creativity and innovation.

After a century of racist whitewashing, country music is finally reckoning with its relationship to Black people. In this timely work--the first book on Black country music by a Black writer--Francesca Royster uncovers the Black performers and fans, including herself, who are exploring the pleasures and possibilities of the genre.

Informed by queer theory and Black feminist scholarship, Royster's book elucidates the roots of the current moment found in records like Tina Turner's first solo album, Tina Turns the Country On! She reckons with Black "bros" Charley Pride and Darius Rucker, then chases ghosts into the future with Valerie June. Indeed, it is the imagination of Royster and her artists that make this music so exciting for a genre that has long been obsessed with the past. The futures conjured by June and others can be melancholy, and are not free of racism, but by centering Black folk Royster begins to understand what her daughter hears in the banjo music of Our Native Daughters and the trap beat of Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road." A Black person claiming country music may still feel a bit like a queer person coming out, but, collectively, Black artists and fans are changing what country music looks and sounds like--and who gets to love it.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-219) and index.

Introduction. Where my people at? -- Uneasy listening : tuning into Tina Turner's queer frequencies in Tina turns the country on! and other albums -- "Love you, my brother" : Darius Rucker's bro-intimacy and acts of sonic freedom -- How to be an outlaw : Beyoncé's Daddy lessons -- Valerie June : ghost catcher -- Can the Black banjo speak? Notes on Songs of Our Native Daughters -- Thirteen ways of looking at Lil Nas X's Old town road -- Epilogue. Black country afrofuturisms : Mickey Guyton, Rissi Palmer, and DeLila Black.

""What happens when we look at US country music through a black feminist and queer eye?" Francesca Royster suggests it reveals a group of mostly invisible fans and performers in a "white" musical genre, some of whom are intervening in that space in ways that are creative, risky and inherently "soulful." While loving country music can be an exercise in shaming and rejection for these fans, the music is also a space of creativity, resistance, and power. Royster contends that the pleasures country music offers some Black listeners can be connected to Eve Sedgwick's idea of queerness as "the open mesh of possibilities" within any group that "doesn't signify monolithically." That makes for a useful lens for exploring the ways that country music changes people as they listen, perform and consume, both as individuals and in community"-- Provided by publisher.

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