本书聚焦于美国的非裔族群这一特定群体的音乐文化。内容涵盖爵士、布鲁斯、拉格泰姆、融合、摇滚乐等各式各样的音乐类型, 试图用一本书的体量为读者提供关于非裔美国人音乐文化的整体样貌, 并且对其中蕴含的文化精神做剖析。本稿件作者为美国人, 也是首次外文著作在中国出版社出版世界首版。本书为梅多斯教授针对非裔美国人音乐文化撰写的专著, 对其涵盖的音乐文化做了细致的分析和概述。书中列举了这一音乐文化中大量的著名音乐家, 基本可以涵盖所有重要的人物。全书内容丰富。

Introduction

Part I African Influences, Early Styles

Cultural Spheres

Richard Waterman

Oily Wilson

Eddie S. Meadows

Old-Time Music, Composers and Performers

Mississippi Sheiks, Howard Armstrong

Joseph Aquller Thompson

Carolina Chocolate Drops

Harlem Renaissance Social Context Issues

Pre-1900 African American Theater

African American Musical Theater in the Harlem Renaissance

Africa in Blues

Blues Styles

Mississippi Delta

Texas

Kevin Moore (Keb Mo)

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks (Taj Mahal)

Classic Blues

Early Urban and Urban Blues

Profiles of Selected Blues Musicians

Eddie James "Son" House

Charley Patton

Robert Johnson

McKinley Morganfield (Muddy Waters)

Bessie Smith

Riley Ben King (B. B. King)

Boogie Woogie and Ragtime

Concepts

New Orleans Ragtime

Jelly Roll Morton Influence

St. Louis Ragtime

Eastern Ragtime

Boogie Woogie vs Ragtime

Part II Evolution of Jazz, 1900-

Africa in Jazz

Randolph Edward Weston

Steve Coleman

Jazz Styles

New Orleans Jazz

Profiles of New Orleans Jazz Composers and Performers

Louis Armstrong

Jelly Roll Morton

Swing

Concepts, Composers, and Performers

Musical attributes of Swing

Duke Ellington

Count Basic

Bebop

Comcepts, Profiles

Dizzy Gillespie

Thelonious Monk

Charles Parker

Hard Bop

Jazz Fusions Styles

Soul Jazz

Jazz Rock

Third Stream

Profiles of Jazz Fusion Composers and Performers

Horace Silver

Miles Davis

Herbie Hancock

Weather Report

Generic Concepts of Fusion Jazz

From Hard Bop to the Avant-garde: John Coltrane

Coltrane's Use of Modes

John Coltrane's Late Modal Style Summarized

Avant-garde, Free, Creative Music

Concepts, Profiles

Generic concepts

Sun Ra

Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)

Art Ensemble of Chicago

Wadada Leo Smith, AACM, Creative Music

Ornette Coleman

Profiles of Contemporary Jazz Composers and Performers

Steve Coleman

Robert Glasper

Charles Gayle

Jason Moran

Gonzalo Rubalcaba

Matthew Shipp

Kimasi Washington

Musical Attributes of Jazz Vocalists

Issues, Trends, and Developments in Jazz, Past and Present

Musical Developments and Trends

Non-Musical Developments and Trends

Part III Popular Music after

Doo Wop, Rhythm and Blues

White Covers of Black Rhythm and Blues

Soul Music

Curtis Mayfield

Funk

Motown Records

The Stax Sound

Philadelphia International Records

Atlantic Records

Neo Soul

Hip Hop Culture

Pioneers of Hip Hop

Elements of Hip Hop Culture

Additional Core Hip Hop Cultural Elements

Regional Rap

New Directions and Criticism

Rappers who converted to Islam

Profiles of Rappers

Cordozar Calvin Broadus, jr. (Snoop Dogg)

Shawn Corey Carter (Jay-Z)

Sean John Combs (P. Diddy)

Lesane Parish Crooks (Tupac Amaru Shakur)

Curtis James Jackson 111 (50 Cent)

O'Shea Jackson, Sr. (Ice Cube)

Kendrick Lamar

N.W.A. (Niggaz Wit Attitudes)

Christopher George Wallace (Notorious B.I.G.)

Kanye O. West

Andre Romelle Young (Dr. Dre)

Part IV Religious Music

Spirituals

Profiles of Spiritual Performers:

Fisk Jubilee Singers

Paul Leroy Robeson

Marian Anderson

Gospel Music

Profiles of Gospel Music Composers and Performers

Charles Albert Tindley

Thomas A. Dorsey

Mahalia Jackson

James Cleveland

Andrae Crouch

Part V Euro-American Classical Music

African American Composers and Performers of Euro-American

Classical Music

Thomas Jefferson Anderson

Margaret Allison Bonds

Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork

Ulysses Kay

Florence Price

Hale Smith

William Grant Still

George Theophilus Walker