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Just around Midnight: Rock and Roll and the Racial Imagination Hardcover – Illustrated, September 26, 2016

by Jack Hamilton (Author)

4.2 53 ratings

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By the time Jimi Hendrix died in 1970, the idea of a black man playing lead guitar in a rock band seemed exotic. Yet a mere ten years earlier, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley had stood among the most influential rock and roll performers. Why did rock and roll become “white”? Just around Midnight reveals the interplay of popular music and racial thought that was responsible for this shift within the music industry and in the minds of fans.

Rooted in rhythm-and-blues pioneered by black musicians, 1950s rock and roll was racially inclusive and attracted listeners and performers across the color line. In the 1960s, however, rock and roll gave way to rock: a new musical ideal regarded as more serious, more artistic―and the province of white musicians. Decoding the racial discourses that have distorted standard histories of rock music, Jack Hamilton underscores how ideas of “authenticity” have blinded us to rock’s inextricably interracial artistic enterprise.

According to the standard storyline, the authentic white musician was guided by an individual creative vision, whereas black musicians were deemed authentic only when they stayed true to black tradition. Serious rock became white because only white musicians could be original without being accused of betraying their race. Juxtaposing Sam Cooke and Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones, and many others, Hamilton challenges the racial categories that oversimplified the sixties revolution and provides a deeper appreciation of the twists and turns that kept the music alive.

Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harvard University Press
Publication date

September 26, 2016
Dimensions

5.9 x 1 x 8.3 inches
ISBN-10

9780674416598
ISBN-13

978-0674416598
See all details

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“From Little Richard and Chuck Berry to the Dominoes, Ike Turner, and Howlin’ Wolf, rock and roll’s founding figures were African American, yet ‘rock’ as we know and hear it now is coded white…In some of his sharpest passages, Hamilton shows how much rockism’s whiteness depended on [the] confining ideas of blackness…He contributes a new and valuable piece to a larger and still contentious project: the struggle against the essentialization of racial and ethnic identity.”―Colin Vanderburg, Los Angeles Review of Books

“Ambitious and rewarding… Just around Midnight seeks to tell the story of [black] erasure [from rock ‘n’ roll], and it does so quite compellingly by bringing together artists and songs that our implicitly segregationist narratives have encouraged us to keep apart.”―Kevin J. H. Dettmar, Chronicle of Higher Education

“Extraordinary…Hamilton doesn’t pretend to have all the answers in Just around Midnight but he asks all the right questions. It challenges so much of what we’ve taken for granted about rock and roll history that one reading won’t do…Any future book that deals with the social and racial aspects of popular music in the 20th century will have to contend with Just around Midnight. The bar has been raised.”―Adam Ellsworth, Arts Fuse

“Brilliant…[A] valuable engagement with the unheard narrative of race in rock and roll.”―Emma Rees, Times Higher Education

“To the age-old cries that ‘rock is dead,’ Jack Hamilton’s book says, ‘Think again!’ Just around Midnight considers the often-elided racial mythologies, cross-cultural intimacies, and racially-charged aesthetic obfuscations that haunt the foundations of American popular music culture. For anyone who remains easily seduced by the romance of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame canon-building, this book is a necessary read.”―Daphne Brooks, Yale University

“This new listening to the black-and-white racial politics of rock in the 1960s is full of rich insights, provocative thinking, and persuasive writing. As the revolutions of critical race and ethnic studies continue to reveal new generations of critics born in their wake, revisitations of rock history like this one will be crucial to rethinking the musical past.”―Josh Kun, University of Southern California

“As musically detailed as it is theoretically expansive, Just around Midnight reveals that popular music of the 1960s was defined by more vibrant interracial collaborations and more violent anti-black erasures than we could have imagined. This is a beautifully written and provocatively argued work of intellect, heart, and soul.”―Emily Lordi, University of Massachusetts Amherst

“As Jack Hamilton makes clear in this exceptionally perceptive work, the most common way to talk about race in rock music is to not talk about it at all…Hamilton’s text is bold, sophisticated, and brilliant. For anyone looking for a book challenging conventional narratives of music history, this is a fantastic candidate.”―Joshua Friedberg, PopMatters

Review

From Little Richard and Chuck Berry to the Dominoes, Ike Turner, and Howlin’ Wolf, rock and roll’s founding figures were African American, yet ‘rock’ as we know and hear it now is coded white…In some of his sharpest passages, Hamilton shows how much rockism’s whiteness depended on [the] confining ideas of blackness…He contributes a new and valuable piece to a larger and still contentious project: the struggle against the essentialization of racial and ethnic identity.
-- Colin Vanderburg Los Angeles Review of Books
Ambitious and rewarding… Just around Midnight seeks to tell the story of [black] erasure [from rock ‘n’ roll], and it does so quite compellingly by bringing together artists and songs that our implicitly segregationist narratives have encouraged us to keep apart.
-- Kevin J. H. Dettmar Chronicle of Higher Education
Extraordinary…Hamilton doesn’t pretend to have all the answers in Just around Midnight but he asks all the right questions. It challenges so much of what we’ve taken for granted about rock and roll history that one reading won’t do…Any future book that deals with the social and racial aspects of popular music in the 20th century will have to contend with Just around Midnight. The bar has been raised.
-- Adam Ellsworth Arts Fuse
Brilliant…[A] valuable engagement with the unheard narrative of race in rock and roll.
-- Emma Rees Times Higher Education
To the age-old cries that ‘rock is dead,’ Jack Hamilton’s book says, ‘Think again!’ Just around Midnight considers the often-elided racial mythologies, cross-cultural intimacies, and racially-charged aesthetic obfuscations that haunt the foundations of American popular music culture. For anyone who remains easily seduced by the romance of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame canon-building, this book is a necessary read.
-- Daphne Brooks, Yale University
This new listening to the black-and-white racial politics of rock in the 1960s is full of rich insights, provocative thinking, and persuasive writing. As the revolutions of critical race and ethnic studies continue to reveal new generations of critics born in their wake, revisitations of rock history like this one will be crucial to rethinking the musical past.
-- Josh Kun, University of Southern California
As musically detailed as it is theoretically expansive, Just around Midnight reveals that popular music of the 1960s was defined by more vibrant interracial collaborations and more violent anti-black erasures than we could have imagined. This is a beautifully written and provocatively argued work of intellect, heart, and soul.
-- Emily Lordi, University of Massachusetts Amherst
As Jack Hamilton makes clear in this exceptionally perceptive work, the most common way to talk about race in rock music is to not talk about it at all…Hamilton’s text is bold, sophisticated, and brilliant. For anyone looking for a book challenging conventional narratives of music history, this is a fantastic candidate.
-- Joshua Friedberg PopMatters

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0674416597
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard University Press; 1st edition (September 26, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780674416598
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674416598
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.18 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.9 x 1 x 8.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,257,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #329 in Ethnomusicology (Books)
- #3,265 in Music History & Criticism (Books)
- #3,806 in Rock Music (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.2 53 ratings

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Jack Hamilton

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Jack Hamilton is an assistant professor of American Studies and Media Studies at the University of Virginia. He is also the pop critic for Slate magazine, where he writes about music, sports, film, TV, books, and other areas of culture. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, NPR, ESPN, Transition, L.A. Review of Books, Free Darko, and elsewhere.

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4.2 out of 5

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eager reader

thought-provoking and well-written book

Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2017

Verified Purchase

This book exposes a very interesting aspect of cultural history -- how rock and roll went from black to white. It's well written, full of examples that indicate the author's deep knowledge of the music and the times. Would be of special interest to those aging Boomers who lived through it all!

One person found this helpful

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D. Arnold

It's Complicated

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2022

Verified Purchase

The subject matter of this book is complicated. It follows the development of rock and roll from black music to white ownership. Race and music are intertwined, this books attempts to unravel that intertwining. It is well researched and has numerous footnotes from source material. Listening to the music used as examples in the book can help in understanding the points made by the author.

3 people found this helpful

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Fernando Luna

Excellent

Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2017

Verified Purchase

A study in white appropriation of black music and, in turn, of African America's legacy in American popular music. A great read. Highly recommend!

One person found this helpful

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Frank Stoaks

A fascinating book on a fascinating subject

Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2017

Personally, I've often wondered why the canon of rock greats is so... well... white. This has always confused me since early rock n roll in the fifties had its share of popular African American performers (Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley) who are now considered to be rock gods, but from the sixties onward critically acclaimed rock musicians seem to be almost entirely white (Hendrix being the exception).

It turns out I'm not the only one who's wondered this. Jack Hamilton (an Assistant Professor of American Studies and pop culture critic) has too. Hamilton makes many arguments as to why this is (I won't try to summarize all of his arguments here) and comes up with some very interesting answers. For instance, white musicians who used black music for inspiration were hailed as geniuses, yet black musicians who used elements from white pop in their music were often unfairly labeled as sellouts. Hamilton makes this point very well by comparing Bob Dylan with Sam Cooke, a comparison which not only informed me about the way that race has influenced rock music, but also gave me a new appreciation of both musicians. Hamilton also discusses the manner in which black music in rock criticism is often only referred to as a precursor to rock (when in fact much black music that influenced rock was created at the same time as much of white rock music), how the discussions of who has "soul" impacted rock criticism and how the line between white and black music was not as clear-cut among musicians as some believe.

Overall, Hamilton does an excellent job. His writing style is accessible enough to entertain and inform a non-scholar like me, but at the same time the ideas he deals with are meaty enough to be of use to a student or academic studying pop culture or popular music. Hamilton is not afraid to challenge conventional wisdom throughout the book, but at the same time does not engage in idol-toppling for its own sake. Even though I don't agree with everything that Hamilton writes (I'm not nearly as keen on the Rolling Stones as Hamilton is) I learned a great deal from reading this book. Anyone interested in the history of race in America or American popular music needs to have this on their shelf.

5 people found this helpful

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Steve

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2017

Verified Purchase

received as advertised. would buy again from seller

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Amazon Customer

Challenge the categories and assumptions we've made regarding our favorite musicians from the 1960s!

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2016

This book did a great job of placing some of my favorite 1960's musicians in their own complicated and changing times. Even more, it helped me think more deeply about the most commonly accepted stories that music fans have told ourselves about the race and artistic decisions of these icons. It is full of provoking anecdotes that give insight into how the musicians themselves thought of themselves and their work, which often challenges how we came to imagine them and categorize them in the decades that followed.

Most importantly though “Just Around Midnight” is a book about songs. Jack Hamilton looks bar-by-bar (often chord-by-chord) at some of our favorite songs including a breakdown of "Gimme Shelter" in the last chapter that I had to re-read after I dug up the track on my iPod and listened to it in it's entirety. This is a book that will have you going back into your music library and hearing your old favorite songs in a new way!

Even for the super fan who has already read the big biographies of the artists Jack Hamilton discusses (Cooke, Dylan, The Beatles, The Stones, Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin...), "Just Around Midnight" is a great companion book because it will reveal some of the assumptions we have been making about these artists, how we tell their stories, and, most importantly, how we experience their music.

26 people found this helpful

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Amazon Kunde

Geschenkoption

Reviewed in Germany on November 20, 2017

Verified Purchase

Schönes Buch, was als Geschenk hoffentlich den Nerv des Beschenkten trifft. Für Musikbegeisterte sicherlich sehr geeignet und auch wenn auf es auf Englisch ist gut verständlich!

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Stan FREDO

Ségrégation musicale

Reviewed in France on December 28, 2016

Verified Purchase

Je ne sais plus comment je suis arrivé à apprendre l'existence de ce livre (je suspecte une recommandation d'amazon) mais son interrogation principale a retenu mon attention : qu'est-ce qui a fait qu'un genre de musique né du croisement de musiques créées par des musiciens noirs autant (sinon plus) que de musiciens blancs est aujourd'hui (et depuis longtemps) massivement perçue comme une "musique de blancs" ?
Le fait que cette question soit abordée par un auteur étatsunien était pour moi un plus, le rock étant une création des USA, avec une aide déterminante des anglais, que ce livre n'oublie pas.
L'auteur, Jack Hamilton, est un universitaire, aujourd'hui maître assistant au sein du département d'étude des média de l'université de Virginie. "Thirty-something", Hamilton est né et a grandi dans la région de Boston et, près avoir travaillé professionnellement en tant que musicien pendant quelques années, il a passé un bachelor of arts en Anglais à l'université de New York en 2003, et a ensuite préparé et obtenu en 2013 un doctorat en "American Studies" à Harvard.
Ce premier livre est le résultat de plusieurs années de recherches et regroupe la matière de plusieurs travaux précédents.
Cet ouvrage, qui est son premier livre, présente six points spécifiques d'observation historique qui, via une analyse minutieuse, révèle les mouvements à l'oeuvre aux USA (mais aussi en Angleterre) dans les années 1960 (et un peu avant) pour qu'au final, lorsque l'on évoque le "classic rock" des années 1970 et le rock des années suivantes (même "indé"), les musiciens afro-américains soient totalement absents des bacs à disques.
Un premier chapitre aborde les destins croisés au tout début des années 1960, de Sam Cooke et de Bob Dylan. Le premier, jeune star de la scène gospel, se mue en star de la musique soul mais aussi pop en même temps qu'il se lance dans le business. Il doit faire face à des critiques de tous bords mais qui on pour point commun une accusation plus ou moins marquée de trahison puisqu'il abandonne le gospel, puis - selon certains - la musique noire en écrivant des hits pop et en chantant dans des endroits fréquentés par la bourgeoisie blanche (le "Copa"), sans compter la dimension entrepreneuriale. Cooke écrira la chanson 'A Change Is Gonna Come', son chef d'oeuvre, sur inspiration de 'Blowin' In The Wind' de Bob Dylan. Ce dernier, de même, sera accusé de trahison pour être passé au "folk-rock" (pour ne pas dire carrément au rock) alors même qu'il s'est toujours réclamé de Little Richard et qu'il jouait du piano dans des groupes rock'n'roll avant de se convertir à Woody Guthrie. Au passage, Bob Dylan contribuera fortement à montrer que le rock n'est pas une mode et il inventera (à son corps défendant) le "rock adulte" ou le "rock moderne".
Cooke autant que Dylan seront l'objet d'injonctions contradictoires alimentées en particulier par les grands médias, les maisons de disques et la presse spécialisée (cf. en particulier le Billboard et ses hit-parades).
Le chapitre suivant aborde la "British Invasion" vécue par les USA avec l'arrivée des Beatles puis d'un ensemble de groupes anglais, les Rolling Stones parmi eux. L'auteur montre qu'il n'y a pas vraiment eu "invasion britannique" des USA et que les îles britanniques avaient eu elles aussi à "subir" des invasions étatsuniennes. Hamilton évoque longuement les "trads", les "teds" et le skiffle. "Trads" et "Teds" donnent aussi dans les injonctions paradoxales. Les "trads" vénèrent la musique jazz afro-américaine du milieu du siècle mais considèrent le "bop" - la musique jazz du moment -, comme quantité négligeable. A leur suite, les fans de blues auront tendance à se poser en "puristes" et à préférer des artistes morts ou retraités à la musique afro-américaine dominante du moment, plutôt R&B et soul, qui est une trahison. Les "teds" adorent le rock'n'roll mais sont très conservateurs et aussi plutôt racistes. Quant au skiffle, c'est d'abord plus cette musique qui a généré tout un engouement des jeunes britanniques au milieu des années 1950 que le rock'n'roll lui-même. A nouveau, les musiciens afro-américains du moment sont plutôt négligés, sauf exception (cf. le travail d'Alexis Korner etc.).
Particulièrement intéressant, le troisième chapitre souligne l'influence de la musique afro-américaine sur la musique des Beatles, montrant que les Beatles - contrairement à ce qui est souvent soutenu - sont moins des paragons du rock blanc à vélléités symphoniques que des musiciens à l'écoute de ce qui se passait en particulier du côté de la Motown et notamment de son bassiste génial James Jamerson. Hamilton étant musicien, il propose quelques comparaisons de tablatures à l'appui. Inversement, des artistes afro-américains se sont appropriés sans difficulté apparente des chansons des Beatles telles que "Eleanor Rigby" ou "Yesterday".
L'auteur consacre ensuite tout un chapitre à trois chanteuses majeures des années 1960 : Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin et Dusty Springfield. Le fond de la question est ici : "qu'est-ce que chanter "soul" et qui a le droit ou pas de chanter "soul" "? Janis Joplin copiait-elle les chanteurs et chanteuses afro-américain(e)s ou bien extériorisait-elle son "âme" ? Et, avec quasiment les mêmes musiciens, qui a le mieux chanté "Son of A Preacher Man" ? 'Re ou Dusty ?
Tout un chapitre est ensuite consacré à Jimi Hendrix, qui était il y a 50 ans un "OVNI" et qui, à bien des égards, le reste aujourd'hui. Hendrix, au cours de sa courte vie de "band leader", a passé son temps à innover, bien loin des manières de penser blanches ou noires, créant de toutes pièces une musique nouvelle dont une partie donnera le hard-rock et le heavy metal. Jusqu'à Prince, Hendrix a longtemps été l'exception qui confirme la règle : le seul artiste afro-américain à figurer dans les bacs à disques "rock moderne".
Le dernier chapitre traite des Rolling Stones, ce groupe britannique qui a tout le temps cité ses inspirations et sources afro-américaines (Chuck Berry, Jimmy Reed, Chess Records etc.), a longtemps refusé l'étiquette "rock'n'roll" pour finalement devenir nolens volens le plus grand groupe de rock du monde. Hamilton s'arrête sur la reprise de 'Not Fade Away' (qui redonne à Bo Diddley ce que la reprise de Buddy Holly avait mis de... Buddy Holly), sur 'Satisfaction' et ses reprises par Otis Redding et Aretha Franklin, puis sur 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' et 'Gimme Shelter'. Malgré tout le discours du groupe sur les musiques qui l'inspirent, au-delà des premières parties - qui ont notamment mis Ike & Tina en lumière auprès du grand public -, les Stones restent massivement perçus comme un groupe "rock". Une vision que peut-être leur dernier album en date, composé intégralement de reprises de vieux blues - vise à redresser.
S'il s'agit indubitablement d'un travail universitaire, le livre se lit relativement facilement, notamment bien sûr si on s'intéresse au rock, au blues, à la soul music etc. En fin d'ouvrage sont regroupées toutes les notes qui auraient pu figurer en bas de page au fur et à mesure ainsi que les très nombreuses et variées sources de l'auteur. La manie de coller des étiquettes, les préjugés, les stratégies commerciales, le racisme plus ou moins latent sont bien entendu en filigrane de cette évolution qui en quelques années a passé Chuck Berry et ses successeurs afro-américains aux oubliettes.

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