The Music of black Americans Book

Caveat one: This is a textbook. You won't like reading it if you don't like reading textbooks.
Caveat two: Goodreads lists the author incorrectly!! How do I fix that?

I found this book while doing some online research on the origin of the blues for my short story, "The Origin of the Blues" - rather what it says on the tin. Obviously, I found the sections on the blues to be the most interesting, as well as the beginning section with all its tantalizingly scant evidence for the very first music of African Americans. I also have a great fondness for the music of the 20s, so that section was riveting. It's nice to own a textbook, because I highlighted and underlined a lot toward the beginning and almost all of the blues section. I would recommend this as a good first resource if you're looking to explore any African American music topic in depth as it has an excellent bibliography. Of course, being a survey history, it doesn't go into depth itself. Time and again I got all excited about a hint of intrigue - a popular singer shot in a speakeasy. What? Why? Oh, now we're on to discussing the next popular singer.

It has provided me with a list of topics to explore in more detail in the academic library I have access too, as well as more ideas for my short story, which may be too short to hold them all.

I also got excited every time Cleveland was mentioned, which seemed to peak in the 20s and 30s. Ah, that's my town. We used to be someplace. Oberlin Conservatory gets a lot of mention, and the Cleveland Symphony and CIM get mentioned in the later chapters. (Here ends the section only interesting to Cleveland residents.)

I felt the book kinda fell down on the later chapters - I don't think the author was quite as interested in modern music as she was in jazz and gospel. The paltry paragraphs on rhythm and blues and rock in particular disappointed, though there is at least a few pages on the origins of rap. I wonder if a later edition wouldn't have more about rock and a longer exploration of the origins of rap and hip-hop.