Contemporary interest in Rap and Hip-Hop music has once again
turned the cultural spotlight on African American music and
especially on its locus within the institutional and cultural
framework of the United States. Today it is not unusual to find
television commercials employing Rap lyrics and rhythms to sell
various commodities, or to observe suburban white youth
listening to the latest Hip-Hop hits. We can even watch on TV
how the old Colonel of KFC is now infected with the Hip-Hop bug.
Such attention to African American music is not new in this
country. At an earlier time, Blues and Jazz were the
centerpieces of popular cultural attraction, commercial
activity, and political economic exploitation (of music) in this
country. The recording industry found Blues artists (especially
African American female vocalists) a source for a sizeable
commercial market, and at the same time the African American
community as consumers and listeners related to the strong
messages about the life of the working masses of Bla