FIMS Publications
Maureen Mahon, Right to Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Cultural Politics of Race (Review)
Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
2005
Abstract
Right to Rock is an account of the rise and long life of the still active Black Rock Coalition, a group of African American musicians and entertainment industry professionals that organized in New York City in the mid 1980s to discuss the difficulties and obstacles preventing black rock musicians’ access to mainstream markets at that time. This coalition formed initially for the purpose of discussion and “kvetching” about the unwillingness of the music industry to offer recording contracts to African American artists playing rock music; specifically, as some of Mahon’s informants indicate, “to get Vernon’s band a deal” (7)[1]. “Vernon” is Vernon Reid, guitarist and bandleader of Living Colour (the BRC band that has enjoyed the most commercial success), a central BRC figure.
Notes
Published by the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM). Available at http://www.iaspm.net/review/mahon.htm