Soul's Children: Black Music and the Black Liberation Movement, 1970-Present

Session Submission Type: Paper Session: Traditional Format

Abstract

Throughout history African American music has served as the soundtrack and the heartbeat to black resistance movements. From gospel, blues, jazz, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and hip-hop, music has been used to mobilize, politicize and narrate the push among Black Americans for freedom, justice, and equality. The papers in this panel explore that bridge between music, political mobilization, and grassroots activism. As African Americans transitioned from simply serving as talent to becoming music moguls and entrepreneurs, as in the case of Motown and Stax Records, music transformed from solely an inspirational and motivational art form for African Americans to an outlet to showcase Black Power and self-determination, as well as economic advancement. On this panel we will critically engage the ways in which black music and the struggle for black liberation broadly defined has been inextricably linked. These papers will also investigate how the recording industry, specifically in the case of Motown, memorialized the struggle by providing an outlet for ideologues to administer messages for the masses, as well as how musical icons used their influence to intervene in local community struggles. Finally, this panel explores how hip-hop, particularly southern hip-hop, influenced by southern soul music narrated the struggles of young African Americans in the deindustrialized, post-civil rights South.

Sub Unit

• American Studies Association Annual Meeting

Chair

• Sean Trundle, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Individual Presentations

• Detroit and Motown’s Black Forum Label, 1970-1973 - Darius J. Young, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University

• Black Moses and Black Power: Memphis, Stax Soul, and Black Youth Activism - Shirletta J Kinchen, University of Louisville

• This Ain’t No…Hip Hop Records…These Country Rap Tunes: Southern Soul and Trap - Maurice J Hobson, Georgia State University