So right now, I'm reading Blues People by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) for a class. It's making me absolutely furious. Totally. And. Completely. Now you might say, and with reason, 1) you are a complete asshole and 2) do you hate the academic repatriation of African-American heritage?
To which I might answer, 1) blame Columbia, and 2) no. However, the same academic standards and theories need to be applied to all critical analyses. Granted, the book is 50 years old. But when hearing someone cite exceptionalism on the basis of a cultural/contextual connection between a group of people and the resulting music/art, all i can say is music has never existed, except as a result of people. Basically, this isn't a unique course of events. At all. Sigh.
Rant over.
