Stairway to Paradise : : Jews, Blacks, and the American Music Revolution / / Ari Katorza.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Ebook Package English 2021
• VerfasserIn: Katorza, Ari,
• Place / Publishing House: München ;, Wien : : De Gruyter Oldenbourg, , [2021]; Resling, , [2021]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (VI, 273 p.)

Stairway to Paradise reveals how American Jewish entrepreneurs, musicians, and performers influenced American popular music from the late nineteenth century till the mid-1960s. From blackface minstrelsy, ragtime, blues, jazz, and Broadway musicals, ending with folk and rock 'n' roll. The book follows the writers and artists' real and imaginative relationship with African-American culture's charisma. Stairway to Paradise discusses the artistic and occasionally ideological dialogue that these artists, writers, and entrepreneurs had with African-American artists and culture. Tracing Jewish immigration to the United States and the entry of Jews into the entertainment and cultural industry, the book allocates extensive space to the charged connection between music and politics as reflected in the Jewish-Black Alliance - both in the struggle for social justice and in the music field. It reveals Jewish success in the music industry and the unique and sometimes problematic relationships that characterized this process, as their dominance in this field became a source of blame for exploiting African-American artistic and human capital. Alongside this, the book shows how black-Jewish cooperation, and its fragile alliance, played a role in the hegemonic conflicts involving American culture during the 20th century. Unintentionally, it influenced the process of decline of the influence of the WASP elite during the 1960s. Stairway to Paradise fuses American history and musicology with cultural studies theories. This inter-disciplinary approach regarding race, class, and ethnicity offers an alternative view of more traditional notions regarding understanding American music's evolution.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Prologue -- Chapter 1: Jokerman – The Black Mask of Al Jolson -- Chapter 2: Somewhere over the Rainbow – Jewish Immigration to America and the Struggle for Popular Culture -- Chapter 3: I Used to Be Color-Blind – Irving Berlin, the Ragtime Riot and the Jewish Network in Tin Pan Alley -- Chapter 4: Someone to Watch Over Me – Jerome Kern, George Gershwin and the Jazz Journey in the Musical Comedy -- Chapter 5: It Don’t Mean a Thing If you Ain’t Got That Swing – Duke Ellington and Irving Mills’ Fantasy -- Chapter 6: Heaven With You – Jews, The Record Industry and Rock ‘n’ Roll -- Chapter 7: Stand By Me – The Black-Jewish Political Alliance and the Decline of the WASP -- Chapter 8: That is Rock ‘n Roll! Leiber and Stoller, the White Negro and the Enlargement of America -- Chapter 9: Will You Love Me Tomorrow? Carole King, Black Lolitas and the Brill Building’s hit factories -- Chapter 10: River Deep – Mountain High: Phil Spector, Burt Bacharach and the Ghost on the Second Floor of the Bus -- Chapter 11: The Sounds of Silence – Folk, the Blues and the Spirit of Capitalism Between Grossman, Bloomfield and Zimmerman -- Chapter 12: Walk On the Wild Side – Jews, Gangsters, and Rock ‘n’ Roll -- Chapter 13: Hard Rain Is Gonna Fall – Popular Music, Hegemonic Rifts, and New American Culture -- Epilogue -- Bibliography -- Index -- Author information