Boogaloo: The Quintessence of American Popular Music [Hardcover]

Arthur Kempton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 3, 2003

Boogaloo—the synonym of choice among the cognoscenti for rhythm and blues—is a stylish and profound meditation on the art, influence, and commerce of black American popular music. At once deeply knowing and keenly observant, Arthur Kempton reveals the tensions between the sacred and the profane at the heart of “soul music,” and the complex centrality of “Aframericans” in the evolution of our mass musical culture. What that culture is all about, who owns it, and who gets paid—these are issues of moment in his epic narrative.

Kempton brilliantly traces the interconnections among a century’s worth of signal personalities, events, and achievements: from Thomas A. Dorsey, the so-called Father of Gospel Music, whose career (“Got to Know How to Work Your Show”) sheds light on Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, and James Brown, among
others, to the rise of that “handsome Negro lad,” Sam Cooke (perhaps the greatest of soul singers) and his definitive crossover dreams; from Berry Gordy Jr.’s infatuation with Doris Day and his sharp business plan to capture and exploit the sounds of young America through Motown (“It’s What’s in the Grooves That Counts”) to the founding of Stax Records and Memphis Soul by a white farm kid who grew up dreaming of being a country fiddler; from the visionary funk of George Clinton to the ascendancy of hip hop (“Sharecropping in Wonderland”), the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, and the story of Death Row Records.

Boogaloo is a monumental work, informed by a rare fierceness of intellect, which debunks many a myth and canard about our popular music heritage even as it enlarges our understanding of its quintessence.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1965, the boogaloo, a dance akin to the jitterbug as well as the title of a record by a Chicago soul group, leapt out of the communities of black America and swept across America. Since then, insiders in the music industry have used the word boogaloo to describe rhythm and blues, or soul music. Musicologist Kempton traces the genealogy of boogaloo in this grand and sweeping survey of the history of soul music in America. He masterfully narrates the careers of several musicians who played key roles in establishing the legacy of boogaloo. Sam Cooke, for example, molded his sweet and seductive style in his early days with the traveling gospel group, the Soul Stirrers. When Cooke discovered that he could make soul music by simply changing the words of many of the gospel tunes he was crooning, his career took a new and lucrative turn. Kempton also focuses on the ways that boogaloo captured the hearts not only of black Americans but also of white teenagers, driving men like Berry Gordy and the founders of Stax Records to find singers who could capitalize on this crossover appeal. In addition to profiles of Cooke and Gordy, Kempton offers detailed portraits of two other men-gospel great Thomas Dorsey and Parliament Funkadelic's leader, George Clinton-instrumental in making boogaloo the soul of American music. In a brilliant sketch of the history of rap music, Kempton anoints Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre and other rappers as heirs to these R&B musicians, arguing elegantly that hip-hop is modern boogaloo.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Arthur Kempton was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and received a B. A. in English from Harvard. He has been a radio disk jockey, deputy superintendent of Boston’s public school system, and an educational consultant. A frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; 1ST edition (June 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375406123
• ISBN-13: 978-0375406126
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,115,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hip, stylish and deeply insightful, June 15, 2003

By 

ziggy1 (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boogaloo: The Quintessence of American Popular Music (Hardcover)

Boogaloo is very cool - and in many ways stunning. Arthur Kempton has written a book that is simultaneously a treatise on black music, black culture, and american capitalism over the last century. And he has done it with great style - he is an amazing writer. On nearly every page there is at least one line (often many) that is totally quotable. I often would find myself re-reading a line over and over as I admired the combination of totally hip insight and wordsmithing. And it is that combination that largely makes this book so worthwhile. His handling of this vast subject is in fact deeply idiosyncratic - but it is through his own individual prism that the subject comes all the more alive. The selection of the photos parallel the writing, portraying the same eye for the ironic and revelatory. It would indeed have been totally cool to have an accompanying cd as the soundtrack of the book.

Boogaloo outlines the consistent threads that run through black music from the early 20th century onwards, from its early roots in blues and the church, to the soul and funk years, up to the hip hop of today. Kempton uses the lives and music of Thomas Dorsey, Sam Cooke, Barry Gordy, George Clinton, Tupac Shakur and other hip hop artists as the examples of the evolution of these threads. But this work is far more that a stylish review of different styles of black music.There are a number of broader themes at work here. One constant is a demonstration of the evolution of how black music has been marketed to young whites. Perhaps most importantly, Kempton sees popular culture as one of america's greatest exports, and black culture (in particular its music) at the heart of this, and his book is in part a demonstration of how this came to be.

One of the beauties of Kempton's accomplishment is that he doesn't always make explicit the connections in order to outline these themes, he allows the reader to do this for himself. With his particular selection of players and incidents from such a vast subject matter, combined with his own obvious love of the subject, and his wry humor and insights, Arthur Kempton has supplied us with both a revelatory and stylish treatise on black music, that in the process reveals much about american culture. He makes it clear in his short preface that this has been a life long study - and there is no doubt that anyone seriously interested in these subjects should take advantage of that study by reading this book. Besides that, it is totally cool and fun.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Arthur Kempton is amazing., July 21, 2003

By 

Dr. Jeffrey Schnitzer (Lexington, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Boogaloo: The Quintessence of American Popular Music (Hardcover)

Boogaloo is one of the finest books to come my way in a very long time. I would recommend it even for anyone who has no interest in the subject. The writing is that good. The reader comes to care because Mr. Kempton so clearly does. Yet, though passionate, Mr. Kempton's tone is very much that of a gentleman - the kind who has the grace not to hit people over the head. Mr. Kempton's prose is as considered and thought provoking as that of William Trevor. I know no higher praise. An amazing tour de force. Buy copies for your friends. I have.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing history of the art and influence for African-American music, May 2, 2006

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boogaloo: The Quintessence of American Popular Music (Paperback)

Boogaloo: The Quintessence Of American Popular Music is the paperback edition of the informative and informational textbook offering an intriguing history of the art and influence for African-American music presented by American popular music expert Arthur Kempton. (formerly a radio disc jockey, deputy superintendent of Boston's public school system, an educational consultant, and a frequent contributor to the "New York Review of Books"), An eloquent approach to the politics and historical significance of pop-culture, Boogaloo is an explorative documentation of the what a difference the Afro-American culture had in influencing the movement of America's transitional decades and from which trend to the next. Very strongly recommended to all American history enthusiasts, students of Back History, and students of American music, American Culture, Boogaloo is to be given very high praise for its extensively researched and well documented presentation.