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Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness, and Race Relations
One of the most innovative and ambitious books to appear on the civil rights and black power movements in America, Just My Soul Responding also offers a major challenge to conventional histories of contemporary black and popular music. Brian Ward explores in detail the previously neglected relationship between Rhythm and Blues, black consciousness, and race relations within the context of the ongoing struggle for black freedom and equality in the United States. Instead of simply seeing the world of black music as a reflection of a mass struggle raging elsewhere, Ward argues that Rhythm and Blues, and the recording and broadcasting industries with which it was linked, formed a crucial public arena for battles over civil rights, racial identities, and black economic empowerment.
Combining unrivalled archival research with extensive oral testimony, Ward examines the contributions of artists and entrepreneurs like Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Berry Gordy to the organized black struggle, explaining what they did for the Movement and―just as important―why they and most of their peers failed to do more. In the process, he analyses the ways in which various groups, from the SCLC to the Black Panthers, tried―with very mixed results―to use Rhythm and Blues and the politics of celebrity to further their cause. He also examines the role that black-oriented radio played in promoting both Rhythm and Blues and the Movement, and unravels the intricate connections between the sexual politics of the music and the development of the black freedom struggle.
This richly textured study of some of the most important music and complex political events in America since World War II challenges the belief that white consumption of black music necessarily helped eradicate racial prejudice. Indeed, Ward argues that the popularity of Rhythm and Blues among white listeners sometimes only reinforced racial stereotypes, while noting how black artists actually manipulated those stereotypes to increase their white audiences. Ultimately, Ward shows how the music both reflected and affected shifting perceptions of community, empowerment, identity, and gender relations in America during the civil rights and black power eras.
Combining unrivalled archival research with extensive oral testimony, Ward examines the contributions of artists and entrepreneurs like Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Berry Gordy to the organized black struggle, explaining what they did for the Movement and―just as important―why they and most of their peers failed to do more. In the process, he analyses the ways in which various groups, from the SCLC to the Black Panthers, tried―with very mixed results―to use Rhythm and Blues and the politics of celebrity to further their cause. He also examines the role that black-oriented radio played in promoting both Rhythm and Blues and the Movement, and unravels the intricate connections between the sexual politics of the music and the development of the black freedom struggle.
This richly textured study of some of the most important music and complex political events in America since World War II challenges the belief that white consumption of black music necessarily helped eradicate racial prejudice. Indeed, Ward argues that the popularity of Rhythm and Blues among white listeners sometimes only reinforced racial stereotypes, while noting how black artists actually manipulated those stereotypes to increase their white audiences. Ultimately, Ward shows how the music both reflected and affected shifting perceptions of community, empowerment, identity, and gender relations in America during the civil rights and black power eras.
612 pages, Paperback
First published March 31, 1998
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September 28, 2016
This is a monumental dive into the intertwining histories of race relations, the Civil Rights movement, black nationalism, and the popular music made by and/or loved by African-Americans between 1950 and 1980. Ward has extraordinarily good musical taste for a historian - with one major exception, I found myself either agreeing with or discovering something new because of his short comments on particular records or artists. Heck fire, I never heard the Smokey Robinson song which gives the book its name until the other day, and that is a major, major record which has escaped my attention. Ward is particularly good at addressing the early days of rock'n'roll as a reflection of the optimism on display in regards to integration in the late 50s, and recovering respect for the doo wop and girl group music which followed. He holds no respect for the extraordinary sexism he found in jump blues shouters and late 60s soul, despite an acknowledgement of the artistry involved. He is also very detailed when he explores the interplay between black activists and African American corporate interests over the years. His two pages on the way disco served its audience and morphed into hip hop are downright beautiful. His epilogue namechecks most of the really good artists of the 80s and 90s who "acted as a bulwark against the psychological ravages of racism, frustration, often poverty, and sometimes despair in the black community." Also, he put Chuck Berry on the cover!
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