Mark Anthony Neal reads the story of black communities through the black tradition in popular music. His history challenges the view that hip-hop was the first black cultural movement to speak truth to power. Beginning with the role of music in 19th-century slave culture, Neal covers key black cultural movements (Harlem, jazz, blaxploitation films, Motown, hip-hop, etc.), the social forces and organizations that countered them, including the FBI and the Nixon administration, a myriad of artists (Marvin Gaye figures significantly), and the relation of black music to such forces as the black...

Soul Babies examines the world of black youth since the Black Power and Civil Rights era. Reading political events, musical works, social forms, media representations and literary productions, Neal argues that a 'Post-Soul Aesthetic' is forming that repudiates much of black modern traditions and focuses instead on contemporary problems of culture and identity.

Soul Babies examines the world of black youth since the Black Power and Civil Rights era. Reading political events, musical works, social forms, media representations and literary productions, Neal argues that a 'Post-Soul Aesthetic' is forming that repudiates much of black modern traditions and focuses instead on contemporary problems of culture and identity.

In Songs in the Key of Black Life, acclaimed cultural critic Mark Anthony Neal turns his attention to Rhythm and Blues. He argues that R&B - often dismissed as 'just a bunch of love songs', yet the second most popular genre in terms of sales - can tell us much about the dynamic joys, apprehensions, tensions, and contradictions of contemporary black life. Neal guides us through the work of classic and contemporary artists ranging from Marvin Gaye to Macy Gray.

In Songs in the Key of Black Life, acclaimed cultural critic Mark Anthony Neal turns his attention to Rhythm and Blues. He argues that R&B-often dismissed as just a bunch of love songs, yet the second most popular genre in terms of sales - can tell us much about the dynamic joys, apprehensions, tensions, and contradictions of contemporary black life, if we listen closely. With a voice as heartfelt and compelling as the best music, Neal guides us through the work of classic and contemporary artists ranging from Marvin Gaye to Macy Gray.

Mark Anthony Neal's Looking for Leroy is an engaging and provocative analysis of the complex ways in which black masculinity has been read and misread through contemporary American popular culture. Neal argues that black men and boys are bound, in profound ways, to and by their legibility. The most -legible- black male bodies are often rendered as criminal, bodies in need of policing and containment. Ironically, Neal argues, this sort of legibility brings welcome relief to white America, providing easily identifiable images of black men in an era defined by shifts in racial, sexual,...

Ten years ago, Mark Anthony Neal's New Black Man put forth a revolutionary model of Black masculinity for the twenty-first century-one that moved beyond patriarchy to embrace feminism and combat homophobia. Now, Neal's book is more vital than ever, urging us to imagine a New Black Man whose strength resides in family, community, and diversity. Part memoir, part manifesto, this book celebrates the Black man of our times in all his vibrancy and virility.

The tenth anniversary edition of this classic text includes a new foreword by Joan Morgan and a new introduction and...

Ten years ago, Mark Anthony Neal's New Black Man put forth a revolutionary model of Black masculinity for the twenty-first century-one that moved beyond patriarchy to embrace feminism and combat homophobia. Now, Neal's book is more vital than ever, urging us to imagine a New Black Man whose strength resides in family, community, and diversity. Part memoir, part manifesto, this book celebrates the Black man of our times in all his vibrancy and virility.

The tenth anniversary edition of this classic text includes a new foreword by Joan Morgan and a new introduction and...