Categorizing Sound addresses the relationship between categories of music and categories of people: in other words, how do particular ways of organizing sound become integral parts of whom we perceive ourselves to be and of how we feel connected to some people and disconnected from others? After an introduction that discusses the key theoretical concepts to be deployed, Categorizing Sound presents a series of case studies that range from foreign music, race music, and old-time music in the 1920s up through hillbilly and swing music in the 1940s, soul music in the 1960s, country and rhythm and blues in the 1980s. Each chapter focuses on the process of “gentrification” through which these categories are produced and how these are articulated to categories of identity (especially those of race and gender). This process is traced by an analysis of the discourses through which ideas about genres circulate, the institutions that either support and sustain genres or withhold their support, and the sounds that become identified with a particular genre and a particular demographic group. The conclusion discusses the pertinence of the approach to genre used in the book to the changes brought about by the internet and file sharing to the circulation of popular music genres.
JB was proof that black people were different. Rhythmically and tonally blacks had to be from somewhere else. Proof that Africa was really over there for those of us who had never seen it – it was in that voice. (Thulani Davis, quoted Guralnick 1986, pp. 242–3)If there is any black man who symbolizes the vast differences between black and white cultural and aesthetic values, Soul Brother No. 1 (along with Ray Charles) is that man. (David Levering Lewis, quoted Guralnick 1986, p. 240)Brown has never been a critics' favorite principally because of the apparent monotony of so many of his post-1965 recordings. But attacking him for being repetitive is like attacking Africans for being overly fond of drumming. Where the European listener may hear monotonous beating, the African distinguishes subtle polyrhythmic interplay, tonal distinctions among the various drums, the virtuosity of the master drummer, and so on. Similarly, Brown sounds to some European ears like so much harsh shrieking. (Robert Palmer 1980, p. 141)During the 1960s James Brown single handedly demonstrated the possibilities for artistic and economic freedom that black music could provide if one constantly struggled against its limitations … He was driven by an enormous ambition and unrelenting ego, making him a living symbol of black self-determination … Motown may have been the sound of young America, but Brown was clearly the king of black America. (Nelson George 1988, pp. 98–9)
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