Blackness, radicalism, sound: Black Consciousness and Black Popular Music in the United States (1955-1971)

The concern in this thesis is with the relationship between black music and black radicalism. This relationship is addressed through three case studies which centre on the co-emergence of the Black Consciousness movement and new forms of Black popular music in the United States between 1955 and 1971. The contention is that the relationship between the movement and the new popular music during this period is indicative of a general exchange between black music and black radicalism and can be analysed by paying attention to phonic substance. The relationship between these practices and traditions is primarily sonic, and it is as phonic substance that the blackness of black music and black radicalism emerges. The theorisation of blackness and phonic materiality is informed by a set of ongoing debates taking place within the field of Black studies. These debates address the structural and political meanings of blackness in the West and as such form the background to the research presented in the case studies on the Black Consciousness movement and Black popular music. Each of the case studies is made up of archival material ranging in format. The focus is always on how this material contributes to an analysis of the sonic form and content of the movement and the music. In this respect the archive is not a stable resource from which information is extracted but is always under construction and informing the arguments being made about the phonic materiality of black music and black radicalism.