Segregating Sound: Inventing Folk and Pop Music in the Age of Jim Crow (Refiguring American Music) Paperback – March 1, 2010

This is a very interesting re-examination of the cultural milieu in which southern music came to be marketed by the incipient record industry and the way that Jim Crow shaped both cultural expectations of audiences and musicians. It also takes to task the expectations and assumptions of early folklorists whose classist, racist search for "authenticity" led them to distort the world and humanity of the subjects of their research. Miller is careful to portray the complexity of the subject matter. Throughout, miller paints a careful and moderate picture of southern musical culture from 1880 to around 1920. He notes the ambivalent nature of a culture where Afro American composers of coon songs can use white racist stereotypes of black former slaves to lift themselves and while the folklorists seeking to preserve "authentic" primitive culture lament that the world they assume exists has been "contaminated" by the outside world.Of particular value is Miller's original research tracing the historiography of the oral historians themselves who have preserved so much of the history of the south that might otherwise be lost to us. While noting the invaluable nature of this work, Miller also points out some aspects of it that ought to give us pause as various commentators seek to push into territories guided by their own ideological biases and presumptions, which leave them blind to what they are actually being told by their informants. A clear, and revelatory, example of this is found in the interaction of John Lomax and Roosevelt Sykes where Lomax is pressing for information about anti-white or anti-Jim Crow lyrics, but Sykes cagily dissembles insisting that nobody sings those types of songs. While it should be clear to any reader, and may even have been clear to Lomax on reflection, that Sykes's reticence is out of fear for his own safety in the face of this white man who could do him real harm, it also illustrates how little Lomax understood his informant at the time and therefore illuminates why we should have pause in taking the work of early folklorists and anthropologists at face value, despite the pricelessness of the work they did.Which leads me to my only real criticism of the book. Where Miller is astute and adept in calling into question the paradigms and framings of early generations of folklorists and anthropologists, he is less perspicacious where it comes to the theories currently operatant in his own academic culture. Throughout the book, Miller regularly uses modern theories of race relations to analyze source material in a manner that, while perhaps legitimate is still left entirely unjustified. So when Miller occasionally puts on his critics hat and deploys anachronistic ideas like "white skin privilege" when talking about white bluesman Frank Hutchison or addresses Jim Crow in terms of "white supremacy," the modern reader follows and understands his point. But given this is all done within a book challenging such racial paradigms of a previous era, there seems to inevitably be a bit of cognitive dissonance present that more careful unpacking of such language might have avoided.I'm also not a fan of the election to use endnotes rather than footnotes or chapter endnotes. This is an editorial style that makes close reading more awkward than it needs to be and is regrettable, although only a minor inconvenience.All in all, I highly recommend the book to anyone interested of the history of popular music in the United States. There is startling and fascinating material here that one would have to be a profession scholar to find on your own that I have not seen reproduced elsewhere and that alone recommends it. Miller's excellent historiography, agree with his conclusions or not, is thought provoking and well reasoned and his thesis is well worth considering.

This is the best book I know of for understanding how the racial categories through which we view American music came to be what they are. Consistently eye-opening, and sometimes astonishing, it's a work of serious scholarship which also has an engaging writing style. I consider it not only recommended but essential.

all good.

A gussied-up version of a PHD thesis by an associate professor of music and applied tedium in Austin, Texas. So offended am I by it and the selective use of quotes to support pre-determined views, that I have obtained his report card for this work, which I now reproduce in the public interest. Marks out of ten are shown for each category;Originality of Thought 2Grasp of Subject 5Armchair Research 10Field Research 0Use of Very Long Footnotes 10Waffle & Subsequent Boredom Factor 8Overall Pomposity 10Soundness of Conclusions Drawn 5Length of Bibliography 10Curious Absences in Bibliography 10Quality of Indexing 10Remarks by his tutor; "Talks too much in class. Essentially harmless as long as he is ignored"

Fascinating discussion of the origins of the recording industry in America, its effect on what is considered "folk" music, and how "white" and "black" categories of music were emphasized for marketing purposes.The chapters in this book are separate and distinct, so you can skip the parts that are of less interest--I read about 80% of it. Some of the highlights:* the early record industry in the USA focused on selling highbrow records, but eventually expanded to more popular fare that instantly sold well--a decision in part based on their commercial experience in other countries;* early "black" music was recorded by white artists; once black artists were allowed to record their own work, white artists who recorded "black" music had to shift their style;* record companies emphasized black/white dichotomies in their categorization of the market--black artists such as Leadbelly were only allowed to record music that could safety be categorized as "black" Leadbelly's favorite song was by Gene Autry, a country-western singer;* Record companies shifted white southern artists into safety "hillbilly" categories, and weren't interested in hearing their renditions of pop or show tunes, thus distorting a real sense of the music they really played.Underlying all this is the question of what "folk" music is, and the impact of academic experts on the burgeoning study of folk music, and their interaction with and effect on the recording industry (e.g. how musical styles such as the blues shifted from being "pop" to "folk" music).

Really a fine piece of scholarship, especially if you're open to re-thinking the meaning and origins of some of the categories ("blues" "folk" etc.) that music is often placed. If you're not, well, you're likely to write a review much like a couple of the ones here.

The division of music into so-called genres is something done by record companies, to help buyers find "their kind of music". But in reality it is all from the same well--and this book sets the record straight about the common source of so-called black and white music.

All arrived (very slightly tatty) but otherwise prompt and as described