‘The Blackest Disney Movie of All Time!’: A Goofy Movie and the Production of ‘Film Blackness’

Disney films have a distinct way of always feeling in-time, a sensation the company understands and monetizes. A Goofy Movie (AGM) was released in 1995, and since its theatrical release, the film has continued to capture the hearts and minds of a cult audience of passionate fans. Among this array of fans is a core of Black millenials who hold the film in high regard due to its R&B soundtrack and relatable narrative. However, the moments of Black representation within the film are less interesting than how a Black reading becomes possible. What are the component parts of the film’s making when arranged in such a way that invokes an essential Black lifeworld? AGM affixes Blackness to its form not through any profound representation of race. Rather, considering its animators as technical performers, the dark history behind the American cartoon, and how Black music is used to not just make Blackness known but believable instantiate what Michael Gillespie terms, ‘film Blackness’ in Film Blackness: American Cinema and the Idea of Black Film (2016).

African Past, American Future: Uplift Ideology in Early 20th Century Opera

This paper explores how two African American composers, Scott Joplin (c. 1868-1917) and Harry Lawrence Freeman (1869-1954), advocated for Black Advancement and uplift ideology through their syncretic operas in the early 1900s. What is presented here however is the introductory content of a larger work. Joplin and Freeman were intimately conscious and supportive of national debates for Black Advancement, propelled especially by W.E.B. DuBois, and both employed rhetorical strategies paradigmatic of the movement. They were both interested in showing White and Black Americans alike that African American music, such as gospel, spiritual, and ragtime, could be held to the same high esteem as music of the Western canon, just as Black academics often endeavored to prove their intellectual prowess to their White counterparts. To this end, Joplin and Freeman combined “Black” music and classical styles in their operas to declare the equality and richness of an integrated sound. The thematic content of these operas, Treemonisha and Voodoo, respectively, interact with the Black Advancement movement’s drive for progress and education as well. They present Black Americans’ struggle for modernity as a conflict between the “superstitious” West African religious customs still ingrained in emancipated communities and Christianity. However, Joplin and Freeman’s works diverge aesthetically and ideologically from this point forward. Joplin’s aesthetic considerations derived chiefly from ragtime, a modern African American musical form genre, while Freeman took inspiration not only from African ethnic music but Africa itself. Joplin’s form of uplift was found in the education of small Black communities, while Freeman framed his work in a nationalistic and pan-Africanist context. These distinct choices, though crafted with the same aim, help reveal subtle divergences in argumentation within the Black Advancement movement.

Decolonising Arts and Culture in Belgium

This contribution gives insight into the decolonisation of thought by presenting Black Out, a transmedia initiative located in the city of Liège in Belgium. Black Out is a project designed for promoting black music and culture and fighting against racism, principally through information technology and social media. I highlight how Black Out may participate in efforts for decolonising arts and culture in Belgium and Europe. To do so, I present a few contextual elements about racism and the postcolonial debate in Belgium before giving examples on how the projects of Black Out are in line with some of the driving forces of the decolonial approach.

Aebersold’s Mediated Play-A-Long Pedagogy and the Invention of the Beginning Jazz Improvisation Student

In this historical study, I present the emergence and evolution of Jamey Aebersold’s Play-A-Long volumes and their key role in bringing jazz improvisation to formal music education. Drawing on oral histories and using a framework from sound studies, I present chord-scales and pattern playing as Deweyan conceptual technologies that assist beginners in developing a mature technique. I recount how Aebersold learned these as a student of David Baker at Indiana University, then applied the idea through teaching improvisation with the Dorian mode over Davis’s “So What.” In 1967 Aebersold published volume 1, and the Play-A-Long evolved into a system over a dozen years as subsequent volumes included new scale types, like the blues scale; added idiomatic patterns; incorporated his new Scale Syllabus; and licensed standard repertoire. I then describe how these technologies imply the “soloist as such”: a generic model of learning improvisation as a process of learning tunes and tasks from simple to complex around a core unity of theory and performance. This model in particular addressed beginning improvisation and the slogan “Anyone Can Improvise.” Finally, I consider criticisms of the model, note that the chord-scale approach is Black music theory, and suggest future research.

Guilty of Not Being White

Punk is inherently music for the oppressed, yet it is often seen as a genre catering exclusively toward white male subcultures. However, when looking at the genesis of punk, one sees a rich history of blackness and radicalization usurped by white artists over time. From Elvis utilizing rock and roll in a more marketable fashion for a white populous than Ray Charles, to Minor Threat’s proclamation that the oppression of whites was on par with anti-blackness, to the mistreatment of black nonbinary punk act Fuck U Pay Us during a sold-out Bikini Kill concert, it is plain to see multiple instances of black punk voices being extinguished by supposed white allies, ultimately altering the histories of a genre centered around marginalized voices. Nevertheless, by dissecting the appropriation of black music and fashion, one begins to see that blackness not only created punk, but still permeates in the genre’s genes on a level more potent than white contemporaries. Looking at Afropunk, 80s Hardcore, the literary work of James Baldwin, and cover songs by black punk bands, this chapter’s argument will seek to understand people of color’s displacement in punk, as well as what steps need to be taken to reclaim identity, subvert the violence of white appropriation, and remain visible in a genre made for people of color.

Football and the sounds of the Black Atlantic

This article maps and analyses the relationship between football and black sound cultures in the UK. Employing a chronological and thematic approach, specifically, it examines the inclusion of football in post-Windrush calypsos, the appropriation of black music forms in football stadia, reggae as cultural critique of English football and British society, and the connections between transnational sounds and a diasporic footballing consciousness. Theoretically, this article draws on – and places in dialogue – Paul Gilroy’s concept of the ‘Black Atlantic’, Josh Kun’s notion of ‘audiotopia’ and Les Back’s emphasis on ‘deep listening’. This framing illuminates how music forms travel back and forth along diasporic roots and routes between Africa, the Caribbean, the United States and the United Kingdom. Critically, the article locates the relationship between football, music and race as providing the context and capacity for progressive change, and foregrounds its role as an important medium and method of cultural resistance to the marginalisations experienced by Black Atlantic diasporas and within football itself. The article concludes by looking forward, in an era of Black Lives Matter, to consider the spaces and practices of fandom and consumption that might open up as a result of listening and responding sociologically to the relationship between football and black sound cultures.

Reimagining Black Art and Criminology

Martin Glynn explores the relevance black artistic contributions have for understanding crime and justice. Through art forms including black crime fiction, black theatre and black music, this book brings attention to marginalized perspectives within mainstream criminology.

Bridging and bounding Asian-ness in hip-hop : a content analysis of Asian hip-hop lyrics and media discourse

Asian and Asian American rap artists have been marginalized in mainstream American music industry and media for a long time. Searching for a public recognition of their works in a Black music genre, Asian artists during different time periods had to apply different strategies on describing their race in lyrics. Therefore, Asian-ness was also framed differently by journalists during different time period since they receive different messages from Asian rap artists. To find out how Asian rappers mark their racial identities, how media receive and present Asian artists' lyrical messages, as well as a correlation between them, the researcher applied framing theory and racial-aesthetic boundary model (Roy, 2004). This research started with examining three generations of rap artists who debuted in 1990s, 2000s and 2010s on how they applied four racialaesthetic boundary frames and the non-race frame. The results indicated significant differences when Asian rappers of different generations applied identity, appropriation and non-race frames. The researcher also analyzed the usage of the five frames applied by media about Asian-ness when the media refers to the three artists. The researcher then examined the correlation between artists' self-marked frames and media-marked frames. The results indicated a linear-like correlation for identity framing, which means messages under identity frames in lyrics were well perceived and presented by journalists, as well as possible exponential correlations for two negative racial-aesthetic frames, appropriation and segregation, which means messages under the two frames in lyrics were exaggeratedly perceived and presented by journalists. The results also showed that media would mention Asian-ness when cover and review Asian artists even they never mentioned their race in lyrics.