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Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound
Daphne A. Brooks explores more than a century of music archives to examine the critics, collectors, and listeners who have determined perceptions of Black women on stage and in the recording studio. How is it possible, she asks, that iconic artists such as Aretha Franklin and Beyoncé exist simultaneously at the center and on the fringe of the culture industry? Liner Notes for the Revolution offers a startling new perspective on these acclaimed figures--a perspective informed by the overlooked contributions of other Black women concerned with the work of their musical peers. Zora Neale Hurston appears as a sound archivist and a performer, Lorraine Hansberry as a queer Black feminist critic of modern culture, and Pauline Hopkins as America's first Black female cultural commentator. Brooks tackles the complicated racial politics of blues music recording, song collecting, and rock and roll criticism. She makes lyrical forays into the blues pioneers Bessie Smith and Mamie Smith, as well as fans who became critics, like the record-label entrepreneur and writer Rosetta Reitz. In the twenty-first century, pop superstar Janelle Monae's liner notes are recognized for their innovations, while celebrated singers Cécile McLorin Salvant, Rhiannon Giddens, and Valerie June take their place as cultural historians.
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First published February 23, 2021
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About the author
Daphne A. Brooks
14 books12 followersDaphne A. Brooks is author of Jeff Buckley’s Grace and Bodies in Dissent, winner of the Errol Hill Award for outstanding scholarship in African American performance studies. The William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of African American Studies and Professor of Theater Studies, American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale University, Brooks has written liner notes to accompany the recordings of Aretha Franklin, Tammi Terrell, and Prince, as well as stories for the New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, and Pitchfork.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 20, 2021
Transcendent. Incandescent. Historic.
One of the foremost treatises on art, race, history, and memory I’ve ever read, Brooks takes on the deepest of dives into the role Black women have played in the creation of modern Western music. Liner Notes for the Revolution takes great pains to amplify forgotten voices, reclaim misunderstood ones, and showcase the artists who continue to point the way forward in the 21st century and beyond.
Across eight dense, yet elegant chapters, the reader is treated to a profound mix of critical scholarship, vintage crate-digging, and old-fashioned truth-telling. Brooks does not pull any punches when she breaks down the racist mythology and perspectives that have kept the lives and impact of Black women out of the books people and the stories people tell.
"Side A” takes the reader on a ride through key figures in the 20th and 21st centuries including Zora Neal Hurston, Lorraine Hansberry, Rosetta Reitz, and Ellen Willis. The section pays special attention to the intellectual lives of Black feminists as artists and the attendant music criticism that followed their work. I was also entranced by her use of Janelle Monae’s art, music, and overall creative energy as an overarching lens for these initial four chapters.
“Side B” explores the work of archivists and historians of Black women’s music. But instead of focusing on the nuts and bolts of how the work is done, Brooks investigates the hows and whys of the work. In Chapter Six, she delivers crushing critiques into the overt and subtle ahistorical practices of white blues fans, writers, and collectors. She counters that activity in Chapter Eight by writing eloquently about practical artist-as-archivist work being conducted by Black women such as Carrie Mae Weams, Rhiannon Giddens, Valerie June, and Cecile McLorin Salvant.
Liner Notes is both resplendent historiography and worshipful music criticism that showcases Brooks’ overflowing admiration for these artists and their legacies. If you have even a passing interest in music history, Black history in America, or contemporary feminist history, you MUST read this book.
One of the foremost treatises on art, race, history, and memory I’ve ever read, Brooks takes on the deepest of dives into the role Black women have played in the creation of modern Western music. Liner Notes for the Revolution takes great pains to amplify forgotten voices, reclaim misunderstood ones, and showcase the artists who continue to point the way forward in the 21st century and beyond.
Across eight dense, yet elegant chapters, the reader is treated to a profound mix of critical scholarship, vintage crate-digging, and old-fashioned truth-telling. Brooks does not pull any punches when she breaks down the racist mythology and perspectives that have kept the lives and impact of Black women out of the books people and the stories people tell.
"Side A” takes the reader on a ride through key figures in the 20th and 21st centuries including Zora Neal Hurston, Lorraine Hansberry, Rosetta Reitz, and Ellen Willis. The section pays special attention to the intellectual lives of Black feminists as artists and the attendant music criticism that followed their work. I was also entranced by her use of Janelle Monae’s art, music, and overall creative energy as an overarching lens for these initial four chapters.
“Side B” explores the work of archivists and historians of Black women’s music. But instead of focusing on the nuts and bolts of how the work is done, Brooks investigates the hows and whys of the work. In Chapter Six, she delivers crushing critiques into the overt and subtle ahistorical practices of white blues fans, writers, and collectors. She counters that activity in Chapter Eight by writing eloquently about practical artist-as-archivist work being conducted by Black women such as Carrie Mae Weams, Rhiannon Giddens, Valerie June, and Cecile McLorin Salvant.
Liner Notes is both resplendent historiography and worshipful music criticism that showcases Brooks’ overflowing admiration for these artists and their legacies. If you have even a passing interest in music history, Black history in America, or contemporary feminist history, you MUST read this book.
May 15, 2021
Kimley and I will be interviewing Daphne A. Brooks on her "Liner Notes for the Revolution" this coming May 15th. It's an excellent book and a wonderful guest: Listen to it here: Book Musik podcast
January 20, 2024
Please someone make this into a podcast!!!
The writing was so academic and inaccessible. Who was the intended audience? It seems to be her peers rather than the public and that is a shame because it’s brilliant and people would love it. There were just so many sentences with way too much packed in to be easily understood. These ideas could really take you on a journey but the writing got in the way. I really think this was intended for an academic audience and hope someone takes it up and presents it in another format where the music she is talking about can be brought into the story.
I’m giving it four stars for the theories but I wouldn’t recommend it cause it was a slog. The epilogue though, perfect!!
The writing was so academic and inaccessible. Who was the intended audience? It seems to be her peers rather than the public and that is a shame because it’s brilliant and people would love it. There were just so many sentences with way too much packed in to be easily understood. These ideas could really take you on a journey but the writing got in the way. I really think this was intended for an academic audience and hope someone takes it up and presents it in another format where the music she is talking about can be brought into the story.
I’m giving it four stars for the theories but I wouldn’t recommend it cause it was a slog. The epilogue though, perfect!!
May 7, 2021
A staggering, monumental, and quite overwhelming work of Black feminist scholarship. It's theoretically solid but eminently readable, its focus always on Black women's unsung creative and intellectual labor in and around the music industry.
March 29, 2023
For anyone interested in a deep dive of Black women in music, this is an amazing resource. The narration is excellent but I do wish I'd read it off the page because many of the women she references were unfamiliar to me and I just wanted to Google them and/or listen to their music while reading.
This is definitely an academic book-- it does pair nicely with a favorite book of mine from last year, Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop.
This is definitely an academic book-- it does pair nicely with a favorite book of mine from last year, Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop.
March 22, 2023
There's a lot of good material in this book about Black women's production of music (mostly throughout the early-mid 20th century) and about archival practices regarding popular culture and music, but this comes with just as much if not more overly abstract academic theory that seriously hampers the writing (which even when not discussing Hegel and friends is unnecessarily dense) and often leaves big arguments severely undermechanized. For a book with so much to say about the gatekeeping of popular culture by formal institutions and devoted specialists, this book uses a remarkable amount of graduate school seminar language that will likely limit what should be a vast public audience interested in the topic
May 22, 2021
DNF, but only because this wonderful book is 600 pp of content that’s dense as a brick, and life is short. But I loved browsing the index. Brooks upped my understanding of the artists I thought I knew, and added a whole bunch of others to learn about. This would be a good reference work on anyone’s shelf.
January 23, 2022
(Coming and posting a review here is really a way I get my thoughts together about a book after finishing it - it's not that I feel like I'm so smart that people should listen to me. That is particularly true in writing about this book.)
This book was quite interesting even as I sometimes felt I was not smart enough to read it. The author is a professor at Yale, and I've found that there is a certain linguistic flavor in books by academics that make them hard for me to read, being 40-plus years out of academia. If you are really bothered or flummoxed by academic language you might want to give this book a pass.
At first I wasn't sure I was going to stick with it - the introduction was fairly concentratedly academic, being 40-plus pages of Brooks telling us what she was going to tell us. But I moved on because I felt like there was stuff here I should read.
The book is NOT about black women musicians, at least not directly. The first part is about black women who wrote about and studied the music of black women in the early to mid 20th century. I had never heard of Pauline Hopkins and was impressed with her story. The other chapters in this part discuss the engagement with and writing about music of Lorraine Hansberry, Zora Neale Hurston, Mary Lou Williams, and others who are known for things other than music criticism. A chapter about Rosetta Records was interesting for its flood of names of singers and records I wanted to hear, and for the surprising degree to which a white woman got things right about the music of black women.
The second part is mostly about how black women musicians have mined and honored the "archive" of previous black women's music to create their own. Again there is some music mentioned here that I want to go hear, especially Rhiannon Giddens. I'm not 100% sure what Brooks means, that when discussing these three musicians (Giddens, Valerie June, and Cécile McLorin Salvant) she points out several times that their audiences are overwhelmingly white. Is it an issue of access - that they perform in venues that are mostly inhospitable to the average person black or white, such as Lincoln Center? Is it puzzlement over who finds their music appealing? - this is comes up in quotes from interviews with Giddens, that she herself is puzzled by it. Is it a quiet hint that once again white people are trying to polish their woke bonafides by patronizing black musicians that don't push their auditory limits? I don't quite know.
The most interesting segment of the second part, for me, was the discussion of two black women from Texas who traveled to Wisconsin around 1930 to record sides for Paramount Records. I am not a student of early 20th century blues, or a collector of 78s, so I had never heard of Geeshie Wiley and LV Thomas, but I was completely compelled by their story. This part of the book also considers the role of white 78 collectors in the way the story of early black music is told (who gets those records, and how, and from whom? which ones are most valued?), as well as how record stores and 78s and little record players became so important to black listeners in the 1930s and 40s. Six tracks remain of whatever Wiley and Thomas recorded, and they are some of the most sought-after pieces of shellac in the world. Unfortunately, this often leads to people with the music and the information hoarding it, which means when they die it's just lost. Anytime I read about people trying to solve such mysteries by research, it really perks up my ears, so the search for Geeshie and LV fascinated me. Brooks cites a NYT Magazine article about them from 2014 which describes the almost cloak-and-dagger operation that broke some of this information out of a hoard. I went looking for that article, found it online, and was also rewarded with a couple of embedded songs from their records. I can only say to go read the article and listen to the clips - what voices.
The book ends with an epilogue that focuses on Beyoncé's "Lemonade" and how it draws upon black music and history.
This book really isn't going to be for everyone and I'm amazed it's in my local public library. It almost wasn't for me - I can never remember what "heuristic" means, and I don't use "ludic" or "imbricated" in my entire life as much as they were used in a single chapter here (and I have to go look them up too), and I hate the verb "musicking" - Brooks did not make this up, I've seen it in other books by musicians in the academy - but I still hate it! But beneath the academic language and the kind of meta nature of it (not about music, but about writing about music), there is a lot here that is very worth knowing, and some music I have to go find now.
This book was quite interesting even as I sometimes felt I was not smart enough to read it. The author is a professor at Yale, and I've found that there is a certain linguistic flavor in books by academics that make them hard for me to read, being 40-plus years out of academia. If you are really bothered or flummoxed by academic language you might want to give this book a pass.
At first I wasn't sure I was going to stick with it - the introduction was fairly concentratedly academic, being 40-plus pages of Brooks telling us what she was going to tell us. But I moved on because I felt like there was stuff here I should read.
The book is NOT about black women musicians, at least not directly. The first part is about black women who wrote about and studied the music of black women in the early to mid 20th century. I had never heard of Pauline Hopkins and was impressed with her story. The other chapters in this part discuss the engagement with and writing about music of Lorraine Hansberry, Zora Neale Hurston, Mary Lou Williams, and others who are known for things other than music criticism. A chapter about Rosetta Records was interesting for its flood of names of singers and records I wanted to hear, and for the surprising degree to which a white woman got things right about the music of black women.
The second part is mostly about how black women musicians have mined and honored the "archive" of previous black women's music to create their own. Again there is some music mentioned here that I want to go hear, especially Rhiannon Giddens. I'm not 100% sure what Brooks means, that when discussing these three musicians (Giddens, Valerie June, and Cécile McLorin Salvant) she points out several times that their audiences are overwhelmingly white. Is it an issue of access - that they perform in venues that are mostly inhospitable to the average person black or white, such as Lincoln Center? Is it puzzlement over who finds their music appealing? - this is comes up in quotes from interviews with Giddens, that she herself is puzzled by it. Is it a quiet hint that once again white people are trying to polish their woke bonafides by patronizing black musicians that don't push their auditory limits? I don't quite know.
The most interesting segment of the second part, for me, was the discussion of two black women from Texas who traveled to Wisconsin around 1930 to record sides for Paramount Records. I am not a student of early 20th century blues, or a collector of 78s, so I had never heard of Geeshie Wiley and LV Thomas, but I was completely compelled by their story. This part of the book also considers the role of white 78 collectors in the way the story of early black music is told (who gets those records, and how, and from whom? which ones are most valued?), as well as how record stores and 78s and little record players became so important to black listeners in the 1930s and 40s. Six tracks remain of whatever Wiley and Thomas recorded, and they are some of the most sought-after pieces of shellac in the world. Unfortunately, this often leads to people with the music and the information hoarding it, which means when they die it's just lost. Anytime I read about people trying to solve such mysteries by research, it really perks up my ears, so the search for Geeshie and LV fascinated me. Brooks cites a NYT Magazine article about them from 2014 which describes the almost cloak-and-dagger operation that broke some of this information out of a hoard. I went looking for that article, found it online, and was also rewarded with a couple of embedded songs from their records. I can only say to go read the article and listen to the clips - what voices.
The book ends with an epilogue that focuses on Beyoncé's "Lemonade" and how it draws upon black music and history.
This book really isn't going to be for everyone and I'm amazed it's in my local public library. It almost wasn't for me - I can never remember what "heuristic" means, and I don't use "ludic" or "imbricated" in my entire life as much as they were used in a single chapter here (and I have to go look them up too), and I hate the verb "musicking" - Brooks did not make this up, I've seen it in other books by musicians in the academy - but I still hate it! But beneath the academic language and the kind of meta nature of it (not about music, but about writing about music), there is a lot here that is very worth knowing, and some music I have to go find now.
November 10, 2024
I have an addendum to my first review. The second chapter was written quite clearly and much more accessible and quite passionate. I think it only fair to mention that because it was one of the most articulate and stirring pieces I've read in a long time. Sadly, in the third chapter, she resumed her style of jargon-encrusted pontification. I had to constantly resort to using my Kindle dictionary and many times the words weren't even there! They must be obscurities she and her colleagues use like a dialect from somewhere far removed from us mere bachelors plus grads. The great Bessie Smith deserves better. The author blunts and obfuscates her assertions. That's unfortunate because she has a lot to offer. There is definitely a pony in that pile, so why make us work so hard just to find it? Whoever does she imagine her audience is? To quote Pete Seeger and Ray Dalio, “Any damn fool can make it complex. It takes a genius to make it simple”. She's no fool but if she wishes to communicate with anyone outside her own academic circles, she needs an editor who will bring her back to the real world.
July 26, 2022
The celebration of black women in any field is long overdue. The author brilliantly shines a lens on black women at the intersection of literature, music, and radical intellectualism from the perspective of a scholar and music critic. The author is too be lauded for the attempt, however, this could easily have been two or three books. All of it in one is overwhelming. Too much and very scholarly.
January 26, 2024
this book is a tome. 600 pages of pure beauty and intricate history. i also got a lot of song recommendations from this book which is always great. she was at my university (rutgers) tonight for a lecture on porgy and bess and hearing her speak was awe-inspiring. the book was a LOT to get through but the journey of getting through it is half the fun!
May 15, 2021
Tosh and I discuss this with author Daphne Brooks on our Book Musik podcast.
Brooks asks: “Who gets to tell the story of Black women who were both performing and producing thought about popular music culture, and how will this story be told?” The vital and influential work of Black female performers, writers, critics, intellectuals and cultural historians has long been neglected, marginalized or lost altogether. Brooks has taken it upon herself to fill in the archives and gift us with this rich history long in the making that will undoubtedly send you down many a rabbit hole to discover even more.
Brooks asks: “Who gets to tell the story of Black women who were both performing and producing thought about popular music culture, and how will this story be told?” The vital and influential work of Black female performers, writers, critics, intellectuals and cultural historians has long been neglected, marginalized or lost altogether. Brooks has taken it upon herself to fill in the archives and gift us with this rich history long in the making that will undoubtedly send you down many a rabbit hole to discover even more.
February 27, 2022
Someday I hope to find the right words to convey my profound gratitude to Professor Brooks for creating this incredible volume of blisteringly brilliant Black feminist culture, curation, and critique. The book is remarkable.
August 25, 2022
A really interesting exploration of the music of Black women from the past ~100 years. This work was thorough, politically in-touch, provocative (in the best of ways), and inspired awe. A bit dry at times, but otherwise a great read.
Read
May 11, 2023dnf bc did not like
May 27, 2021
An expansive book about Black women’s music criticism and archives.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews