Just encountered this on Amazon: "Just another one of God's gifts": Prince, African-American masculinity, and the sonic legacy of the eighties. By Griffin Mead Woodworth.

Seems to be a dissertation.

[img:$uid]http://i.imgur.com/sAa5JUN.png[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://i.imgur.com/LIvMc1R.png[/img:$uid]

Anybody read this?

"as a way to reclaim black musical history"

for his largely white audience. what a ridiculous statement. reclaim it from who?

Book is a little too pricey for my budget.

What's with the price?!

dandan said:

What's with the price?!

.

If you google it you'll see prices between $40 and $100. Pretty sure it's freely available to those with access to an academic library, though.

.

If you check the guy's LinkedIn, he mentions that he is writing a book, "Prince, Musicologist" (working title) for University of Michigan Press's Tracking Pop series. Nothing there yet at the moment, however.

.

Google Books has some of the pages of this dissertation; I read some and was annoyed to see that he manages to misspell Per Nilsen's name (as Nilson). The dissertation seems to be 300 pages, but it's 300 pages like the ones you see in my first post, i.e. lots of whitespace, very little actual text.

BartVanHemelen said:

dandan said:

What's with the price?!

.

If you google it you'll see prices between $40 and $100. Pretty sure it's freely available to those with access to an academic library, though.

.

If you check the guy's LinkedIn, he mentions that he is writing a book, "Prince, Musicologist" (working title) for University of Michigan Press's Tracking Pop series. Nothing there yet at the moment, however.

.

Google Books has some of the pages of this dissertation; I read some and was annoyed to see that he manages to misspell Per Nilsen's name (as Nilson). The dissertation seems to be 300 pages, but it's 300 pages like the ones you see in my first post, i.e. lots of whitespace, very little actual text.

Thanks for the info.

I didn't really like what I read from the excerpt you posted. I rarely like anaylsis that tries to add a deeper level of meaning to material. It can be very contrived. Prince's use of a guitar as a 'white rock' instrument?? His use of horns to 'reclaim black musical history'? I reckon Prince decided to use horns on whatever tracks the guy cites because it sounded good

I'd be interested to see his musical anaylsis of things like the drumming, keyboard and vocals, but that clearly isn't the point of the dissertation.

Never heard of it, but it sounds like an interesting attempt to academically breakdown Prince's music and its socio-political significance. Difficult to tell if the conclusions are on point from that brief intro, but I'm interested.

EyeHatechu said:

Yes, Prince is a black man. But he makes music for all kinds of people, especially humans who dont look at the color of ones skin.

I don't think you quite understand - this author's work takes into consideration who Prince is within the racial and political domains of America. The discussion isn't about who he is making music for - rather it appears to have more to do with what his lense may be.

10000Degrees said:

More pseudo-intellectual mental masturbation...

EyeHatechu said:

10000Degrees said:

I don't think you quite understand - this author's work takes into consideration who Prince is within the racial and political domains of America. The discussion isn't about who he is making music for - rather it appears to have more to do with what his lense may be.

I understand, i was just making a statement.

Here's the danger of your original comment - by avoiding the lack of cultural diversity that often exists in various parts of the world, you avoid seeing the areas of strength and the areas of need of these cultures as they exist within the larger dominant society.

To pretend to not see colour, you handicap both yourself and the person/people you are with. Fact is, we all see colour - we are all evaluating and compartmentalizing each other based on our prior experience sometimes incorrectly and sometimes correctly. We all want to give people a fair shot and that's what your comment suggests you do.

Here's another example: if we saw a person who had an arm amputated, we could pretend not to notice it or we could acknowledge it (with due respect of course) and provide accomodations for this person in order for them to gain equitable access to the resources of our society (i.e., providing ramps for people with wheelchairs).

Hope this makes sense,

Jay

http://www.soundcloud.com/jaydeep-bhadra

10000Degrees said:

10000Degrees said:

EyeHatechu said:

10000Degrees said: I understand, i was just making a statement.

Here's the danger of your original comment - by avoiding the lack of cultural diversity that often exists in various parts of the world, you avoid seeing the areas of strength and the areas of need of these cultures as they exist within the larger dominant society.

To pretend to not see colour, you handicap both yourself and the person/people you are with. Fact is, we all see colour - we are all evaluating and compartmentalizing each other based on our prior experience sometimes incorrectly and sometimes correctly. We all want to give people a fair shot and that's what your comment suggests you do.

Here's another example: if we saw a person who had an arm amputated, we could pretend not to notice it or we could acknowledge it (with due respect of course) and provide accomodations for this person in order for them to gain equitable access to the resources of our society (i.e., providing ramps for people with wheelchairs).

Hope this makes sense,

Jay

http://www.soundcloud.com/jaydeep-bhadra

Nah.

Some of us judge by actions, not color.

EroticDreamer said:

10000Degrees said:

Here's the danger of your original comment - by avoiding the lack of cultural diversity that often exists in various parts of the world, you avoid seeing the areas of strength and the areas of need of these cultures as they exist within the larger dominant society.

To pretend to not see colour, you handicap both yourself and the person/people you are with. Fact is, we all see colour - we are all evaluating and compartmentalizing each other based on our prior experience sometimes incorrectly and sometimes correctly. We all want to give people a fair shot and that's what your comment suggests you do.

Here's another example: if we saw a person who had an arm amputated, we could pretend not to notice it or we could acknowledge it (with due respect of course) and provide accomodations for this person in order for them to gain equitable access to the resources of our society (i.e., providing ramps for people with wheelchairs).

Hope this makes sense,

Jay

http://www.soundcloud.com/jaydeep-bhadra

Nah.

Some of us judge by actions, not color.

Nevermind

EyeHatechu said:

10000Degrees said:

Here's the danger of your original comment - by avoiding the lack of cultural diversity that often exists in various parts of the world, you avoid seeing the areas of strength and the areas of need of these cultures as they exist within the larger dominant society.

To pretend to not see colour, you handicap both yourself and the person/people you are with. Fact is, we all see colour - we are all evaluating and compartmentalizing each other based on our prior experience sometimes incorrectly and sometimes correctly. We all want to give people a fair shot and that's what your comment suggests you do.

Here's another example: if we saw a person who had an arm amputated, we could pretend not to notice it or we could acknowledge it (with due respect of course) and provide accomodations for this person in order for them to gain equitable access to the resources of our society (i.e., providing ramps for people with wheelchairs).

Hope this makes sense,

Jay

http://www.soundcloud.com/jaydeep-bhadra

WTF...didnt I say I understood?..letitgo

I'm gathering that you may not but you're right, this isn't my problem.