Black British Music in America 19672000: Atlantic Crossover historically examines musical and cultural relationships through popular music recordings, exploring the transatlantic journeys via academic, critical, and commercial reception of the music. It addresses an overlooked area of Black popular music, investigating the fluctuating fortunes of artists and the contradictions of exporting such recordings to America.
Examining a complex history spanning the last four decades of the twentieth century, the author reveals the chronologies and the recording industry circumstances shaping the presence of Black British music in America. Readers will discover the conditions under which key recordings were made and released, through detailed analysis and new interviews with participating producers and artists. Including exploration of chart histories, this book also dissects the content of the recordings, uncovering the elements that made many of them successful.
Black British Music in America 19672000 will interest all those who study popular music, cultural studies, and music production, as well as popular music listeners.
Arvustused
Black British Music in America, 19671998: Atlantic Crossover is a timely and original intervention that strengthens the growing body of scholarship on Black British music and its transatlantic relationships. Alleyne combines musicological insight with industry experience to chart how questions of race and cultural legibility affect the reception of Black British artists in the United States during a pivotal period. His attention to recordings and archival sources, enriched by lived testimony, highlights the politics of diaspora and the emergence of distinctly Black British modes of expression. This book should be a key reference for scholars and practitioners seeking to understand the historical dialogue between Black British and Black American musical worlds.
Matthew Williams, University of York, UK
I've been waiting for someone to write this book. Mike Alleyne has finally documented the transatlantic journey of Black British artists properly, from Hot Chocolate and Cymande through to Soul II Soul and Seal, with the chart data and interview evidence to back it up. As string arranger on Soul II Soul's first album and co-writer on Mark Morrison's first single, I know this terrain well. The domestic indifference, the American confusion about artists who didn't fit their categories, the constant question of whether to sound "American enough." Alleyne gets this. He's done the work, spoken to the producers, traced the label politics. That chapter needed telling and Alleyne's told it well.
Mykaell Riley, University of Westminster, UK
Acknowledgements List of Figures
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: Remixing Black Popular Music History: The Black and the British
The Cultural Sound Stage
Black British Outsiders
The Voice and the Instrumental Text
The Weight of History
Dread Out There: The Plight of Black British Reggae
Relocating Heatwave
Chapter 2: Crossing Over, Genre Politics and Music Production
The Mainstream and the Charts
Cultural Dislocation
Genre and Crossover: Charting a Discourse
Record Labels and Genre Labelling
Music Production
Chapter 3: Breaking Into America: The 1960s and 1970s
The Artistic Soundscape
The Beatles and Early Black British Pop
The Foundations: American Arrival
The Equals: The "Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys"
Cymande: Sending the Transatlantic Cultural Message
Joan Armatrading: Beyond Stereotypes
Chapter 4: The Margin and the Mainstream: The 1970s
Hot Chocolate: Brother Louie and Breaking America
Beyond Brother Louie
Blue-Eyed British R&B: The Average White Band and Kokomo
Chapter 5: Transitions, Technologies, and Tensions: The Late 1970s and 1980s
The Britfunk Era and Echoes of the 1970s
Skas Second Wave and American Indifference
Technology Topography
Imaginations New Dimensions
Chapter 6: The New Black British Invasion Continues: The 1980s
Total Contrast: Sync or Swim
Eddy Grant: Electric Propulsion
Billy Ocean: The Breakthrough Journey
Loose Ends: The Art of Hangin On
Chapter 7: Commercial Consolidation: The 1980s and 1990s
Five Star: Broken by America
Desree: Listen as Your Day Unfolds
Soul II Soul: American Conquest
Visual Grooves: Soul II Soul Music Videos
Caron Wheeler and UK Blak
Roachford: A Single Instance
Sade: Platinum Life
Chapter 8: Selling Seal to the States
The Beginning
The Crazy Music Video
The Second Self-Titled Album
The Human Being Reset
Record Company Calamities
Black British Songstress Status
Chapter 9: The Ephraim Lewis Case Study: 1992-1994
Unveiling Skin
Discovery and Signing
The Music Video for It Cant Be Forever
The Textures of Skin
The Unreleased Second Album
Chapter 10: Remastering the Mix: 1990s Snapshots and Black British Echoes
Equalizing the Past
Maxi Priest: Reggae Roots, Pop Success
Massive Attack: Remixing Stardom
Mark Morrison: The Mack Hits Back
Atlantic Coda
Bibliography
Discography
Filmography
Index
Mike Alleyne is Professor Emeritus with the Department of Recording Industry, Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). His publications include co-editing the award-winning collection Analyzing Recorded Music (2023), The Essential Hendrix (2020), and The Encyclopedia of Reggae (2012), and co-editing Prince and Popular Music (2020). His work has been published in Popular Music & Society, Rock Music Studies, Popular Music History, Ethnomusicology Forum, and American Music Perspectives.
