Blacksound explores the sonic history of blackface minstrelsy and the racial foundations of American musical culture, revealing how the popular music industry and popular entertainment arose out of slavery and blackface. It challenges the notion of Blacksound as the music or sounds produced by Black Americans and instead focuses on the material and fleeting remnants of their sounds and performances that have been co-opted and amalgamated into popular music. Morrison unpacks the relationship between performance, racial identity, and intellectual property to reveal how blackface minstrelsy scripts became absorbed into commercial entertainment through an unequal system of intellectual property and copyright laws.

Format: Hardback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 05 March 2024
Publisher: University of California Press

Blacksound is a groundbreaking new concept that explores the sonic history of blackface minstrelsy and the racial foundations of American musical culture from the early 1800s through the turn of the twentieth century. Author Matthew D. Morrison develops the idea of Blacksound to uncover how the popular music industry and popular entertainment in general in the United States arose out of slavery and blackface. Blacksound is not the music or sounds produced by Black Americans but instead the material and fleeting remnants of their sounds and performances that have been co-opted and amalgamated into popular music. Morrison unpacks the relationship between performance, racial identity, and intellectual property to reveal how blackface minstrelsy scripts became absorbed into commercial entertainment through an unequal system of intellectual property and copyright laws. By introducing this foundational new concept in musicology, Blacksound highlights what is politically at stake—for creators and audiences alike—in revisiting the long history of American popular music.

Blacksound: Uncovering the Sonic History of Blackface Minstrelsy and the Racial Foundations of American Musical Culture

Blacksound is a groundbreaking new concept that explores the sonic history of blackface minstrelsy and the racial foundations of American musical culture from the early 1800s through the turn of the twentieth century. Author Matthew D. Morrison develops the idea of Blacksound to uncover how the popular music industry and popular entertainment in general in the United States arose out of slavery and blackface. Blacksound is not the music or sounds produced by Black Americans but instead the material and fleeting remnants of their sounds and performances that have been co-opted and amalgamated into popular music. Morrison unpacks the relationship between performance, racial identity, and intellectual property to reveal how blackface minstrelsy scripts became absorbed into commercial entertainment through an unequal system of intellectual property and copyright laws. By introducing this foundational new concept in musicology, Blacksound highlights what is politically at stake—for creators and audiences alike—in revisiting the long history of American popular music.

The Concept of Blacksound

Blacksound is not the music or sounds produced by Black Americans but instead the material and fleeting remnants of their sounds and performances that have been co-opted and amalgamated into popular music. Morrison unpacks the relationship between performance, racial identity, and intellectual property to reveal how blackface minstrelsy scripts became absorbed into commercial entertainment through an unequal system of intellectual property and copyright laws. By introducing this foundational new concept in musicology, Blacksound highlights what is politically at stake—for creators and audiences alike—in revisiting the long history of American popular music.

The Relationship between Performance, Racial Identity, and Intellectual Property

Morrison unpacks the relationship between performance, racial identity, and intellectual property to reveal how blackface minstrelsy scripts became absorbed into commercial entertainment through an unequal system of intellectual property and copyright laws. By introducing this foundational new concept in musicology, Blacksound highlights what is politically at stake—for creators and audiences alike—in revisiting the long history of American popular music.

Conclusion

Blacksound is a groundbreaking new concept that explores the sonic history of blackface minstrelsy and the racial foundations of American musical culture from the early 1800s through the turn of the twentieth century. Author Matthew D. Morrison develops the idea of Blacksound to uncover how the popular music industry and popular entertainment in general in the United States arose out of slavery and blackface. Blacksound is not the music or sounds produced by Black Americans but instead the material and fleeting remnants of their sounds and performances that have been co-opted and amalgamated into popular music. Morrison unpacks the relationship between performance, racial identity, and intellectual property to reveal how blackface minstrelsy scripts became absorbed into commercial entertainment through an unequal system of intellectual property and copyright laws. By introducing this foundational new concept in musicology, Blacksound highlights what is politically at stake—for creators and audiences alike—in revisiting the long history of American popular music.

Weight: 544g
Dimension: 229 x 152 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780520390577