Music,
and folk music in particular, is often embraced as a form of political
expression, a vehicle for bridging or reinforcing social boundaries, and
a valuable tool for movements reconfiguring the social landscape. Reds, Whites, and Blues
examines the political force of folk music, not through the meaning of
its lyrics, but through the concrete social activities that make up
movements. Drawing from rich archival material, William Roy shows that
the People's Songs movement of the 1930s and 40s, and the Civil Rights
Movement of the 1950s and 60s implemented folk music's social
relationships--specifically between those who sang and those who
listened--in different ways, achieving different outcomes.
Roy explores how the People's Songsters envisioned uniting people in
song, but made little headway beyond leftist activists. In contrast, the
Civil Rights Movement successfully integrated music into collective
action, and used music on the picket lines, at sit-ins, on freedom
rides, and in jails. Roy considers how the movement's Freedom Songs
never gained commercial success, yet contributed to the wider
achievements of the Civil Rights struggle. Roy also traces the history
of folk music, revealing the complex debates surrounding who or what
qualified as "folk" and how the music's status as racially inclusive was
not always a given.
Examining folk music's galvanizing and unifying power, Reds, Whites, and Blues casts new light on the relationship between cultural forms and social activity.
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