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I Don't Like the Blues: Race, Place, and the Backbeat of Black Life
How do you love and not like the same thing at the same time? This was the riddle that met Mississippi writer B. Brian Foster when he returned to his home state to learn about Black culture and found himself hearing about the blues. One moment, Black Mississippians would say they knew and appreciated the blues. The next, they would say they didn’t like it. For five years, Foster listened and “How?” “Why not?” “Will it ever change?” This is the story of the answers to his questions.
In this illuminating work, Foster takes us where not many blues writers and scholars have into the homes, memories, speculative visions, and lifeworlds of Black folks in contemporary Mississippi to hear what they have to say about the blues and all that has come about since their forebears first sang them. In so doing, Foster urges us to think differently about race, place, and community development and models a different way of hearing the sounds of Black life, a method that he calls listening for the backbeat.
In this illuminating work, Foster takes us where not many blues writers and scholars have into the homes, memories, speculative visions, and lifeworlds of Black folks in contemporary Mississippi to hear what they have to say about the blues and all that has come about since their forebears first sang them. In so doing, Foster urges us to think differently about race, place, and community development and models a different way of hearing the sounds of Black life, a method that he calls listening for the backbeat.
- GenresMusicNonfictionHistory
206 pages, Paperback
Published December 14, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 3, 2026
In 2018 I did a US road trip that took me through Clarksdale MS, leaving me with mixed feelings on hindsight. While I got to see the landmarks (most famously the earliest residence of Muddy Waters) and hear the music that shaped my life, I had this nagging feeling at the back of my mind that a proportion of it was specifically curated for travellers like myself amidst the authenticity which was nevertheless present throughout. Juxtaposed against the neglected downtown area and general poverty in the state, it felt like blues culture as a tourism draw had not reaped it's full potential in terms of uplifting the community.
"I Don't Like The Blues" starts on the surface as a discussion of the tired stereotype that black folks residing in Clarksdale should appreciate the blues (just like the many times I've been asked if I l know kung-fu) but quickly delves into their world view and sense of self/place in relation to how the blues has been utilised as an economic instrument against the larger backdrop of the city's history (in particular pertaining to the Civil Rights Movement), culture and demography. Having immersed himself in the community for years, the author captures the frustration of locals at the state authorities' single-minded focus on blues music and culture without a holistic approach to pulling the city out of economic depression in a manner sustainable beyond blues festival season. This generalises into the black residents of Clarksdale lacking affinity with the blues, not necessarily musically but because to them, it represents the administrative neglect and disappointment that comes with promise after promise of urban renewal unfulfiled.
This doesn't take anything away from the many audiences of all races (including yours truly) who genuinely love the music and partake in the events and culture, but at least I now view my time there through a new lens of understanding and hope for the music to move more than just our bodies and uplift more than just our souls.
"I Don't Like The Blues" starts on the surface as a discussion of the tired stereotype that black folks residing in Clarksdale should appreciate the blues (just like the many times I've been asked if I l know kung-fu) but quickly delves into their world view and sense of self/place in relation to how the blues has been utilised as an economic instrument against the larger backdrop of the city's history (in particular pertaining to the Civil Rights Movement), culture and demography. Having immersed himself in the community for years, the author captures the frustration of locals at the state authorities' single-minded focus on blues music and culture without a holistic approach to pulling the city out of economic depression in a manner sustainable beyond blues festival season. This generalises into the black residents of Clarksdale lacking affinity with the blues, not necessarily musically but because to them, it represents the administrative neglect and disappointment that comes with promise after promise of urban renewal unfulfiled.
This doesn't take anything away from the many audiences of all races (including yours truly) who genuinely love the music and partake in the events and culture, but at least I now view my time there through a new lens of understanding and hope for the music to move more than just our bodies and uplift more than just our souls.
June 29, 2022
Professor Brian Foster takes to task the notion of musical tourism, specifically the development of blues tourism in Clarksdale, Mississippi, his hometown and arguably the cradle of American blues music.
The thesis posits that such economic development centered around music leaves behind the community that created the music, and Foster provides plenty of evidence, both anecdotal and data, to back it up. He doesn't provide a solution because he doesn't need to — when creating tourism opportunities centered around any artform, you had better consult and include the communities that created the art or you will have problems of authenticity. And that has nothing to do with economics, which is the issue at the heart of such cultural tourism.
Interestingly, at no point in the book did I read the phrase "cultural appropriation," which has kicked around in my head for a few years. Where is the line between appropriation and appreciation? Who knows? But the idea is at least top of mind in the crux of the book.
Like a good academic, Foster provides more than 100 pages of notes, methodologies, tables and index, so you know he did the research.
An essential read for travelers who love the arts and want to consider paying proper tribute to the people and places seminal in those arts, the entire experience of reading this felt like a personal attack, because I am guilty of going on musically related tourism, from finding geographic locations namechecked in song lyrics to... driving to Clarksdale to see the Crossroads. This book will inform my travles going forward, as I dig in to the myths and realities of music in the south.
The thesis posits that such economic development centered around music leaves behind the community that created the music, and Foster provides plenty of evidence, both anecdotal and data, to back it up. He doesn't provide a solution because he doesn't need to — when creating tourism opportunities centered around any artform, you had better consult and include the communities that created the art or you will have problems of authenticity. And that has nothing to do with economics, which is the issue at the heart of such cultural tourism.
Interestingly, at no point in the book did I read the phrase "cultural appropriation," which has kicked around in my head for a few years. Where is the line between appropriation and appreciation? Who knows? But the idea is at least top of mind in the crux of the book.
Like a good academic, Foster provides more than 100 pages of notes, methodologies, tables and index, so you know he did the research.
An essential read for travelers who love the arts and want to consider paying proper tribute to the people and places seminal in those arts, the entire experience of reading this felt like a personal attack, because I am guilty of going on musically related tourism, from finding geographic locations namechecked in song lyrics to... driving to Clarksdale to see the Crossroads. This book will inform my travles going forward, as I dig in to the myths and realities of music in the south.
May 15, 2025
Continuing to read about cultural tourism in Mississippi, this is basically a case study of blues tourism in Clarksdale and how the African-American community feels/relates to it. Or chooses not to.
As a museum person, I think a lot about spaces where people are comfortable or feel welcome and why so there was definitely things to extrapolate from Clarksdale to my facility. I also liked the idea of not liking something being an autonomous quality.
I really enjoyed Foster's writing and even though I am so not a sociologist, I appreciated how transparent he was about his language, methodology and ideas.
As a museum person, I think a lot about spaces where people are comfortable or feel welcome and why so there was definitely things to extrapolate from Clarksdale to my facility. I also liked the idea of not liking something being an autonomous quality.
I really enjoyed Foster's writing and even though I am so not a sociologist, I appreciated how transparent he was about his language, methodology and ideas.
April 21, 2021
Basically a case study on development in the Mississippi Delta, using Clarksdale as the example. Blends the technical really well with the story it's trying to tell, extensively utilizing interviews and his lived experience in the town. The extended metaphor centering around the blues and blues development as a way to discuss Black history and life in the Delta and Clarksdale worked well.
March 28, 2025
Cool Ethnography we read for Joaquin's class. Challenges our conception of tourist-based economies and who they actually benefit. Through daily conversations with local Clarksdalians, Foster shows the reader the impacts of investments in blues tourism at the expense of disinvestment in public services.
June 7, 2022
This book is the blues in every sense of the word. It's a must-read.
August 18, 2021
An amazing look at the intersection of race, gentrification and class in Clarksdale, Mississippi. A must read for blues fans and those interested in music based economic development.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews