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Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs
Blue Chicago takes us inside the world of contemporary urban blues clubs to uncover how iconic—yet empty—images of the blues are manufactured and sold to music fans and audiences. Drawing on countless nights in dozens of blues clubs throughout Chicago, David Grazian shows how this quest for authenticity has transformed the very shape of the blues experience. He explores the ways in which professional and amateur musicians, club owners, and city boosters define authenticity and dish it out to tourists and bar regulars. He also tracks the changing relations between race and the blues over the past several decades, including the increasing frustrations of black musicians forced to slog through the same set of overplayed blues standards for mainly white audiences night after night. In the end, Grazian finds that authenticity lies in the eye of the a nocturnal fantasy to some, an essential way of life to others, and a frustrating burden to the rest.
"Chicago has given the world distinctive forms of urban blues and urban sociology. . . . In Blue Chicago , David Grazian's lucid and bracingly unpious study of the blues scene, the two homegrown traditions meet with satisfying results."—Carlo Rotella, Chicago Tribune
"Chicago has given the world distinctive forms of urban blues and urban sociology. . . . In Blue Chicago , David Grazian's lucid and bracingly unpious study of the blues scene, the two homegrown traditions meet with satisfying results."—Carlo Rotella, Chicago Tribune
- GenresMusicSociologyNonfiction
328 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 29, 2019
“I’m not a tourist — I’m a traveler.”
“Only corn tortillas for me, flour’s not authentic.”
“There're too many white people in this Chinese restaurant, there’s no way it’s authentic.”
Have you not heard variations of these sentiments coming from your or your acquaintances lips sometime before? Sometimes ironically, sometimes not; sometimes it hard to know how many layers of irony rest atop one of these lines. But in any case, the standing logic is that the search for authenticity exerts a certain gravity on cultural tastes. We all bend to it somehow. Why? Grazian provides some great starting points for the enquiry: the authentic seems is forever elusive; the authentic is protean; the authentic exists in relativity: it can only ever be measured or understood in a relational sense. Yet I, and you perhaps too dear reader, might well leave propounding dissatisfied. What exactly is the authentic? Does it inhere in the cultural object/performance? Does it depend on the audience consuming it? The producer? A synthesis of all of them? Why do we desire it so (Grazian says it’s to nurture our nocturnal selves, but that answer merely punts the question further down the road)? When is it important, and when is it not importing to taste-making?
“Only corn tortillas for me, flour’s not authentic.”
“There're too many white people in this Chinese restaurant, there’s no way it’s authentic.”
Have you not heard variations of these sentiments coming from your or your acquaintances lips sometime before? Sometimes ironically, sometimes not; sometimes it hard to know how many layers of irony rest atop one of these lines. But in any case, the standing logic is that the search for authenticity exerts a certain gravity on cultural tastes. We all bend to it somehow. Why? Grazian provides some great starting points for the enquiry: the authentic seems is forever elusive; the authentic is protean; the authentic exists in relativity: it can only ever be measured or understood in a relational sense. Yet I, and you perhaps too dear reader, might well leave propounding dissatisfied. What exactly is the authentic? Does it inhere in the cultural object/performance? Does it depend on the audience consuming it? The producer? A synthesis of all of them? Why do we desire it so (Grazian says it’s to nurture our nocturnal selves, but that answer merely punts the question further down the road)? When is it important, and when is it not importing to taste-making?
April 23, 2009
In Blue Chicago, David Grazian presents a vivid, ethnographic depiction of Chicago's blues scene.
In his 'search for authenticity,' Grazian finds that such a concept is hardly tangible, yet rather exists within the minds of those who consume, produce and distribute blues music within the city. Furthermore, notions of authenticity are found to be shapped by, and influence, the local political, economic, racial and social context in which they are presented.
This was a great read and a welcome exploration into the notion of authenticity in the world of music. During my senior year of college I explored a few chapters of the book (recommended to me by Professor Diane Grams) to find material for a report I was writing on New Orleans' Jazz Fest. While I never really got into the book then, I'm glad I took the time to read it now as it not only is a thoughtful exploration of Chicago's blues culture but also stoked my interest in possibly pursuing the field of cultural sociology. . .who knows.
My only issue with the book is that I felt like I was left hanging. Sure, there's no 'real' authentic blues, or anything for that matter but I feel like Grazian leaves the reader without a real sound wrapup. I was a bit put off by the introduction of rave, hip-hop and indie music into the concluding chapter though I understand the parallels that were drawn. I just feel like more could have been said about Chicago or blues as a genre, though I obviously have nothing more to offer!
Excellent read and well worth the time of any sociology student or pleasure reader with and interest in music, Chicago or the blues.
In his 'search for authenticity,' Grazian finds that such a concept is hardly tangible, yet rather exists within the minds of those who consume, produce and distribute blues music within the city. Furthermore, notions of authenticity are found to be shapped by, and influence, the local political, economic, racial and social context in which they are presented.
This was a great read and a welcome exploration into the notion of authenticity in the world of music. During my senior year of college I explored a few chapters of the book (recommended to me by Professor Diane Grams) to find material for a report I was writing on New Orleans' Jazz Fest. While I never really got into the book then, I'm glad I took the time to read it now as it not only is a thoughtful exploration of Chicago's blues culture but also stoked my interest in possibly pursuing the field of cultural sociology. . .who knows.
My only issue with the book is that I felt like I was left hanging. Sure, there's no 'real' authentic blues, or anything for that matter but I feel like Grazian leaves the reader without a real sound wrapup. I was a bit put off by the introduction of rave, hip-hop and indie music into the concluding chapter though I understand the parallels that were drawn. I just feel like more could have been said about Chicago or blues as a genre, though I obviously have nothing more to offer!
Excellent read and well worth the time of any sociology student or pleasure reader with and interest in music, Chicago or the blues.
October 25, 2006
My friend Dave's book began life as his U-Chicago doctoral thesis, and is a sociological study of Chicago Blues clubs.
February 16, 2008
Great scholarly review of the blues business. I don't agree with all of it but a great book none the less.
October 27, 2011
The commodification of local subculture in contemporary society and the quest for "authenticity".
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews