The Beatles and Black Music

This volume is a valuable addition to UK popular culture studies on The Beatles... Recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. * CHOICE *
After reading this book, you might wonder why it was not written before. The Beatles and Black Music fixes a hole in current Beatles scholarship. In this tour de force, Richard Mills situates the iconic Liverpool group in the aftermath of Empire, locating its relation to Black culture as a politically charged conversation. In a wide-ranging discussion, taking in the Liverpool calypso scene, DJ Danger Mouse’s famous Grey Album, and much more besides, he argues that the Beatles are an indisputably post-colonial phenomenon. Mills says the origin and impact of John, Paul, George and Ringo as a collective has to be understood in the context of Anglo-American individualism, Atlantic history and the musical concept of hybridity. The net result is a skillful deconstruction of the origin myth of the Fab Four’s music in relation to race written in a way that also recognizes its brilliance. * Mark Duffett, Associate Professor, University of Chester, UK *
Richard Mills’ The Beatles and Black Music: Post-Colonial Theory, Musicology, and Remix Culture is essential reading for Beatles fans, historians, and music lovers alike. Mills draws vital links between black music and the Beatles’ cultural emergence, tracing important threads of connection and, at times, opposition, as the Fab Four looses its enduring imprint upon the world. In so doing, Mills affords us with a powerful new understanding of the myriad ways in which the Beatles exist in perpetual conversation with black music. * Kenneth Womack, author of Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans *
Richard Mills makes the often commented upon but rarely deeply examined connection between early Black music history and The Beatles his primary focus. From the spirituals devised by African American slaves to the influence of calypso music brought in by Caribbean immigrants to the UK, The Beatles and Black Music is an in-depth reexamination of what was previously thought of as a sacrilegious period of rock and roll music history, recontextualizing Black artistry firmly back into rock narrative. Something the fab four would definitely approve of. * Stephanie Phillips, author of Why Solange Matters *