Second in a series of reposts from the always insightful History is Made at Night blog. This entry deals with one of my abiding interests as a scholar, how boundaries of race are maintained, negotiated and challenged in popular culture. It also highlights the power of a “fictional” writing approach to capture the truth of a [...]
Zombies! The connection between Resident Evil 5, South African xenophobia & global capitalism
Zombies, EVIL ZOMBIES, are a recurrent problem in the Resident Evil series of video games (comic books, films…) but the zombies in Resident Evil 5 created a minor controversy. The Resident Evil 5 zombies are Africans living in a township type setting and some of the scenes do not make a clear distinction between the [...]
Breaking down racial barriers: the “new” folk revival
I’ve written several pieces on what is often described as an ongoing revival of American traditional music (listed below with links). A piece on NPR today and in the N.Y. Times earlier this week on Southern California’s Frank Fairfield brought the subject back to mind. While you (or I) may argue with the assertion that [...]
A history of jazz & country interchange
Histories of American popular music have tended to create a clear bifurcation of “White” and “Black” musical genres. Country music has been portrayed as a genre primarily drawn from Anglo-Scottish roots. The significant influences of African Americans on the genre have been diminished or placed in a carefully constructed pre-history. African American musical genres have [...]
Long overdue attention to Appalachian blues
Classic Appalachian Blues from Smithsonian Folkways Various Artists SFW40198 The “mountain cousin” of the Delta blues, Appalachian blues bears the stamp of a distinctive regional blend of European and African styles and sounds born at the cultural crossroads of railroad camps, mines, and rural settlements. Drawn from deep within the Folkways collection and from historic live [...]
Billy Bragg explores what it means to be English in “Pressure Drop”
As part of the nine-month Identity exhibition at London’s Wellcome Collection (Identity: Eight rooms, nine lives – 26 November 2009 – 06 April 2010) Billy Bragg and his band are performing Pressure Drop, a play ‘of passion and prejudice” written by Mick Gordon. The play (19 April-12 May, 2010) explores what it means to be [...]
Race & Chinese Pop Culture
Earlier this year, China picked Ding Hui, a young man from Hangzhou, for its national volleyball team. Last month a 20-year-old Shanghainese, Lou Jing, made the last 30 in the Chinese version of Pop Idol. Neither event would have attracted unusual notice but for the one thing the two young people have in common: they are in [...]
