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Book Cover
E-book
Author Kun, Josh.

Title Audiotopia : music, race, and America / Josh Kun
Published Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Press, ©2005

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Description 1 online resource (1 volume)
Series American crossroads ; 18
American crossroads ; 18
Contents Against easy listening, or how to hear America sing -- The yiddish are coming -- Life according to the beat -- Basquiat's ear, Rahsaan's eye -- I, too, sing América -- Rock's reconquista
Summary Ranging from Los Angeles to Havana to the Bronx to the U.S.-Mexico border and from klezmer to hip hop to Latin rock, this groundbreaking book injects popular music into contemporary debates over American identity. Josh Kun insists that America is not a single chorus of many voices folded into one, but rather various republics of sound that represent multiple stories of racial and ethnic difference. To this end he covers a range of music and listeners to evoke the ways that popular sounds have expanded our idea of American culture and American identity. Artists as diverse as The Weavers, Café Tacuba, Mickey Katz, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Bessie Smith, and Ozomatli reveal that the song of America is endlessly hybrid, heterogeneous, and enriching - a source of comfort and strength for populations who have been taught that their lives do not matter. Kun melds studies of individual musicians with studies of painters such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and of writers such as Walt Whitman, James Baldwin, and Langston Hughes. There is no history of race in the Americas that is not a history of popular music, Kun claims. Inviting readers to listen closely and critically, Audiotopia forges a new understanding of sound that will stoke debates about music, race, identity, and culture for many years to come
Analysis america
american culture
american identity
american studies
art and music
artists
bronx
critical analysis
cultural studies
discussion books
ethnic demographic studies
ethnic differences
ethnic minorities
havana
hip hop
klezmer
latin rock
literary movements
los angeles
modern history
music and culture
music historians
music history
music lovers
music studies
music
nonfiction
popular music
race issues
racial history
racial issues
retrospective
us borders
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Popular music -- United States -- History and criticism
Music -- Social aspects -- United States
Multiculturalism -- United States
MUSIC -- Printed Music -- General.
MUSIC -- Genres & Styles -- Pop Vocal.
Multiculturalism
Music -- Social aspects
Popular music
United States
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780520938649
052093864X
1423717295
9781423717294
159875582X
9781598755824
9780520225107
0520225104
9780520244245
0520244249
1282763210
9781282763210
9786612763212
6612763213