Souled American: How Black Music Transformed White Culture by Kevin Phinney  (7)
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The American Game: Baseball and Ethnicity (Writing Baseball) by Allan H Selig  (2)
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Making an indisputable if sometimes obvious case for non-white influence on American culture, Wynter, an NPR commentator and former Wall Street Journal columnist, here joins a chorus chronicling the dissolution of America's once-clear racial delineations into a "transracial" culture. With vivid, witty prose, Wynter carefully explicates the influence of black musical idiom on mainstream ragtime, jazz and Tin Pan Alley in the 1920s; the black roots of rock and roll and disco; the multiracial casting in the 1997 Disney TV special of Cinderella (following the sharp increase in the 1980s of corporate marketing along ethnic and racial lines); MTV's 2000 "hip-hopera" based on Bizet's Carmen; the emergence of black-urban-inspired clothing, such as the FUBU (For Us, By Us) line in major department stores; and many more object lessons in cultural exchange. The downside of "transracialism" is "the steady erosion of black identity as the organizing principle for community development," but Wynter concludes that "the future is not about black people leading black people [but] about black people leading all Americans, especially black Americans" through popular culture and the commercial marketplace, which, for better or worse, he sees as the motor of race relations.-- about black people leading all Americans, especially black Americans" through popular culture and the commercial marketplace, which, for better or worse, he sees as the motor of race relations.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Former Wall Street Journal columnist Wynter analyzes the long, arduous history of the powerful but often unacknowledged effect that America's nonwhite population has had on its mainstream culture and identity. Tracing the influences of African Americans back to slavery, Wynter shows the lineage of American music from blues and jazz, and its appropriation by whites who capitalized on the appeal of a more luscious and lively musical tradition, sanitized for an ersatz white population by imitators from Irving Berlin and Benny Goodman to Elvis Presley. The advent of ragtime music marked the first time that the American culture and economy acknowledged that blacks had something to sell other than menial labor, Wynter observes. He contrasts the struggle for reward and recognition of early black artists such as Scott Joplin with the enormous commercial appeal of Michael Jordan and Oprah Winfrey. Evolving attitudes on race and a newfound appreciation for the profitability of marketing black culture have transformed sports, fashion, film, and other cultural outlets, signaling the browning of American cultural influences. Wynter brings cutting insights to this absorbing and refreshing look at American race relations and cultural diversity. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
Making an indisputable if sometimes obvious case for non-white influence on American culture, Wynter, an NPR commentator and former Wall Street Journal columnist, here joins a chorus chronicling the dissolution of America's once-clear racial delineations into a "transracial" culture. With vivid, witty prose, Wynter carefully explicates the influence of black musical idiom on mainstream ragtime, jazz and Tin Pan Alley in the 1920s; the black roots of rock and roll and disco; the multiracial casting in the 1997 Disney TV special of Cinderella (following the sharp increase in the 1980s of corporate marketing along ethnic and racial lines); MTV's 2000 "hip-hopera" based on Bizet's Carmen; the emergence of black-urban-inspired clothing, such as the FUBU (For Us, By Us) line in major department stores; and many more object lessons in cultural exchange. The downside of "transracialism" is "the steady erosion of black identity as the organizing principle for community development," but Wynter concludes that "the future is not about black people leading black people [but] about black people leading all Americans, especially black Americans" through popular culture and the commercial marketplace, which, for better or worse, he sees as the motor of race relations.-- about black people leading all Americans, especially black Americans" through popular culture and the commercial marketplace, which, for better or worse, he sees as the motor of race relations.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Former Wall Street Journal columnist Wynter analyzes the long, arduous history of the powerful but often unacknowledged effect that America's nonwhite population has had on its mainstream culture and identity. Tracing the influences of African Americans back to slavery, Wynter shows the lineage of American music from blues and jazz, and its appropriation by whites who capitalized on the appeal of a more luscious and lively musical tradition, sanitized for an ersatz white population by imitators from Irving Berlin and Benny Goodman to Elvis Presley. The advent of ragtime music marked the first time that the American culture and economy acknowledged that blacks had something to sell other than menial labor, Wynter observes. He contrasts the struggle for reward and recognition of early black artists such as Scott Joplin with the enormous commercial appeal of Michael Jordan and Oprah Winfrey. Evolving attitudes on race and a newfound appreciation for the profitability of marketing black culture have transformed sports, fashion, film, and other cultural outlets, signaling the browning of American cultural influences. Wynter brings cutting insights to this absorbing and refreshing look at American race relations and cultural diversity. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
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