"From Cakewalks to Concert Halls: An Illustrated History of African American Popular Music from 1895 to 1930" by Thomas L. Morgan and William Barlow explores the critical role African Americans played in the development of American popular music before the Great Depression. The first pictorial treatment of this fascinating chapter in the history of popular culture, it relates how black music gradually entered the mainstream, eventually on its own terms. "From Cakewalks to Concert Halls" reveals a now forgotten time when racial stereotypes were the common currency of both advertising and entertainment. From the days of blackface minstrelsy to the big-band era, it outlines the various ways African-American songwriters, musicians, and singers struggled to forever alter what cultural historian William Barlow calls "the soundscape of American music." -- From publisher's description.
來源: Google Book