Soundscapes of Liberation: African American Music in Postwar France
In Soundscapes of Liberation, Celeste Day Moore traces the popularization of African American music in postwar France, where it signaled new forms of power and protest. Moore surveys a wide range of musical genres, soundscapes, and media: the US military's wartime records and radio programs; the French record industry's catalogs of blues, jazz, and R&B recordings; the translations of jazz memoirs; a provincial choir specializing in spirituals; and US State Department-produced radio programs that broadcast jazz and gospel across the French empire. In each of these contexts, individual intermediaries such as educators, producers, writers, and radio deejays imbued African American music with new meaning, value, and political power. Their work resonated among diverse Francophone audiences and transformed the lives and labor of many African American musicians, who found financial and personal success as well as discrimination in France. By showing how the popularity of African American music was intertwined with contemporary structures of racism and imperialism, Moore demonstrates this music's centrality to postwar France and the convergence of decolonization, the expanding globalized economy, the Cold War, and worldwide liberation movements.
"1138263736"
Soundscapes of Liberation: African American Music in Postwar France
In Soundscapes of Liberation, Celeste Day Moore traces the popularization of African American music in postwar France, where it signaled new forms of power and protest. Moore surveys a wide range of musical genres, soundscapes, and media: the US military's wartime records and radio programs; the French record industry's catalogs of blues, jazz, and R&B recordings; the translations of jazz memoirs; a provincial choir specializing in spirituals; and US State Department-produced radio programs that broadcast jazz and gospel across the French empire. In each of these contexts, individual intermediaries such as educators, producers, writers, and radio deejays imbued African American music with new meaning, value, and political power. Their work resonated among diverse Francophone audiences and transformed the lives and labor of many African American musicians, who found financial and personal success as well as discrimination in France. By showing how the popularity of African American music was intertwined with contemporary structures of racism and imperialism, Moore demonstrates this music's centrality to postwar France and the convergence of decolonization, the expanding globalized economy, the Cold War, and worldwide liberation movements.
107.95 In Stock
Soundscapes of Liberation: African American Music in Postwar France

Soundscapes of Liberation: African American Music in Postwar France

by Celeste Day Moore
Soundscapes of Liberation: African American Music in Postwar France

Soundscapes of Liberation: African American Music in Postwar France

by Celeste Day Moore

Hardcover

$107.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

In Soundscapes of Liberation, Celeste Day Moore traces the popularization of African American music in postwar France, where it signaled new forms of power and protest. Moore surveys a wide range of musical genres, soundscapes, and media: the US military's wartime records and radio programs; the French record industry's catalogs of blues, jazz, and R&B recordings; the translations of jazz memoirs; a provincial choir specializing in spirituals; and US State Department-produced radio programs that broadcast jazz and gospel across the French empire. In each of these contexts, individual intermediaries such as educators, producers, writers, and radio deejays imbued African American music with new meaning, value, and political power. Their work resonated among diverse Francophone audiences and transformed the lives and labor of many African American musicians, who found financial and personal success as well as discrimination in France. By showing how the popularity of African American music was intertwined with contemporary structures of racism and imperialism, Moore demonstrates this music's centrality to postwar France and the convergence of decolonization, the expanding globalized economy, the Cold War, and worldwide liberation movements.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781478013761
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication date: 10/29/2021
Series: Refiguring American Music
Pages: 310
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Celeste Day Moore is Assistant Professor of History at Hamilton College.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations  ix
Acknowledgments  xi
Introduction: Making Soundwaves  1
1. Jazz en Liberté: The US Military and the Soundscapes of Liberation  17
2. Writing Black, Talking Back: Jazz and the Value of African American Identity  43
3. Spinning Race: The French Record Industry and the Production of African American Music  71
4. Speaking in Tongues: The Negro Spiritual and the Circuits of Black Internationalism  103
5. The Voice of America: Radio, Race, and the Sounds of the Cold War  133
6. Liberation Revisited: African American Music and the Postcolonial Landscape  161
Epilogue: Sounding like a Revolution  195
Notes  201
Sources  251
Index  283
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews