This passionate and provocative book tells the complete story of black music in the last fifty years, and in doing so outlines the perilous position of black culture within white American society. In a fast-paced narrative, Nelson George’s book chronicles the rise and fall of “race music” and its transformation into the R&B that eventually dominated the airwaves only to find itself diluted and submerged as crossover music.
The Death Of Rhythm & Blues
Acknowledgments
Introduction: A Meditation on the Meaning of "Death"
One
Philosophy, Money, and Music (1900-30)
Two
Dark Voices in the Night (1930-50)
Three
The New Negro (1950-65)
Four
Black Beauty, Black Confusion (1965-70)
Five
Redemption Songs in the Age of Corporations (1971-75)
Six
Crossover: The Death of Rhythm & Blues (1975-79)
Seven
Assimilation Triumphs, Retronuevo Rises (1980-87)
Epilogue
Notes
Index
Photographs follow pages 80 and 144
“George has uncovered a lot of fresh information, not just on the artists themselves, but on the booking agents, arrangers, and record men.” —Newsweek
“[George’s] reading of history is not only interdisciplin- ary, it has a musical score.... His accounts of the colorful characters who populate this uncharted realm are often informative and...delightful.” —The Washington Post Book World
