Review

Reviewed Work(s): Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America by
Tricia Rose
Review by: Venise Berry
Source: American Music, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Summer, 1996), pp. 231-233
Published by: University of Illinois Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3052359
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 Book Reviews 231

id research, and elegant prose o

set a fine example.
Kenneth Kreitner
The University of Memphis

Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary Amer-

ica. By Tricia Rose. Music Culture series. Hanover, N.H.: Wesleyan
University Press, published by the University Press of New England,
1994. ISBN 0-8195-5271-2 (cloth), 0-8195-6275-0 (pbk.). Pp. xvi, 237.
$35 (cloth), $14.95 (pbk).
Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America is about rap
music's cultural potency in this country. It is a timely critique of the musi-
cal, social, and cultural relationships between rap music, black culture, and
American society. Tricia Rose examines four major arenas in the rap phenom-
enon: (1) the historical evolution of rap and hip-hop; (2) the musical and tech-
nological interventions; (3) the political terrain from institutional policing to
media discourse; and (4) the sexual terrain, particularly from the female rap-
per's perspective.
According to Rose, "Rap music brings together a tangle of some of the most
complex social, cultural and political issues in contemporary American soci-
ety. Rap's contradictory articulations are not signs of absent intellectual clar-
ity; they are a common feature of community and popular cultural dialogues
that always offer more than one cultural, social or political viewpoint" (p.
2). As the basic premise of her analysis, this is an important approach, one
that is desperately needed in the examination of rap music. Too often critics
offer limited perspectives followed by blanket assumptions, such as "rap is
sexist, racist, and violent." Rose not only offers a wide spectrum of ideas and
voices, she also challenges the issues of violence, racism, and sexism as all
encompassing.
Her book is part of the welcomed movement away from rap's nefarious
deconstruction. Given the continued progress and popularity of rap music,
Black Noise undoubtedly will find a receptive audience. The book analyzes
rap in its cultural context with clarity and passion. It is convincing in its ar-
guments, significant examples and explanations are included, and the writ-
ing style is powerfully expressive.
In chapter 1 Rose explores the debate between rap music, black culture,
and American society. She describes rap as cultural expression "imbedded
in powerful and dominant technological, industrial and ideological institu-
tions" (p. 2). She discusses the business of rap, including economic opportu-
nity, commercial marketing, technological advances, and cultural production.
The strength of this book is in the consistent contextual base from which Rose
works. When explaining rap as cultural production, for example, she writes,
"Rappers' emphasis on posses and neighborhoods has brought the ghetto
back into public consciousness. It satisfies poor young black people's pro-
found need to have their territories acknowledged, recognized and celebrat-
ed" (p. 11).
The three primary elements of hip-hop culture are presented in chapter 2:

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232 American Music, Summer 1996

rap music, graffiti, and breakdancing. Rose develops a histor

for each component, locating it within the context of postm
deindustrialization at the end of the twentieth century. She a
fact, the dynamic and often contentious relationship betwee
er social and political forces and black cultural priorities-that
and define hip hop" (p. 23).
Rose explains the development of one of New York's most
ban renewal projects, the Cross-Bronx Expressway. It forced t
170,000 people in working- and lower middle-class neighborh
ing the South Bronx, where rap music is said to have been c
ernization continued, the number of slumlords grew, red-lini
pervasive, and city services became increasingly inadequate-n
the only problems. In the midst of this turmoil an important
veloped: hip-hop culture.
Chapter 3 examines rap's musical and oral power. It explore
lation to Western classical and Afrodiasporic musics: harmony
polyrhythmic layering, repetition, sampling, and orality. Ros
the cultural priorities involved as rap music pushes a variety
boundaries. For example, a quotation from songwriter Prince
rap group P. M. Dawn brings sampling into perspective: "A l
think sampling is thievery, but it can take more time to find
than to make up a riff.... The decision to adopt samples of li
involves quality-of-sound issues and a desire to increase the
possibilities" (p. 79).
Rose also takes critics to task for Eurocentric notions and cu
For example, in a discussion of Andrew Goodwin's essay "Sam
Pop Music in the Age of Digital Reproduction" (in On Record: R
Written Word [New York: Pantheon, 1990]), she explains: "For
nology is made funky but not as a result of black appropriat
tion, which reflects an incapacity to imagine the popular terra
contestations over black cultural forms take place, contributes
co-optation of black contributions in popular cultural criticism
Black cultural expression and politics are the focus of chapte
explores oppositional rap transcripts and communal interpre
a concept she calls the "war of positions," she describes ra
holistic perspective. Not only does this musical form present
monic ideas and images, but it also supports social power and
inequalities. In this chapter Rose argues that an unfair climate
al policing surrounds rap music. She goes on to analyze a
songs that address the situation, such as KRS One's "Who Pro
people] from You [the police]," L. L. Cool J's "Illegal Search,"
- the Police." Her analysis also includes specific examples of i
have occurred in relation to rap music and institutional polic
ple, true reports of police arrests and harassment, the media
ing rap music within a racist discourse of violence and negat
concerts where fans are abused and antagonized by security
Finally, chapter 5 contains a lengthy analysis of female rap
ful challenging voices. Rose examines the sexist exclusion or

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 Book Reviews 233

izations of black women's participat

terfully interweaving essays from
Wallace with specific songs from Sa
fah, Rose presents a rigorous conte
and video images. The chapter goes
possessed identity, feminism versu
My major concern with Black Noise
Both create a dichotomy that in som
plishment. "Black noise" is a problem
many parents, adults, and authority
black and white, are being lost da
shadowy figure wearing a black hoo
and mouth are illuminated, so it loo
mouth, almost suggesting a fire-br
and cover are being used in oppos
ing rap music, especially since the in
cal style and people. My fear is tha
choir. Those who already recognize
those who need to understand bette
black male image, read a title that
ply walk away.
Black Noise is an excellent book for
ing of rap music in today's society.
sic is here to stay; its viability com
tion of social vulnerability and cult
Venise Berry
University of Iowa

Dissonant Identities: The Rock'n'Roll Scene in Austin, Texas. By

Barry Shank. Hanover, N.H.: Wesleyan University Press, distributed
by University Press of New England, 1994. ISBN 0-8195-6276-0 (cloth);
ISBN 0-8195-6276-9 (pbk.). Pp. xv, 294. $39.95 (cloth); $16.95 (pbk.).
The reader of Dissonant Identities gets an introductory feel for the city of Aus-
tin and the local music scene by way of an imaginary driving and walking
tour, with Shank as tour guide. Although not a standard practice in the so-
cial sciences, this opening device helps to condense a great deal of informa-
tion into a compact and easily digestible form, providing a context for the
music. The text thus conveys something of Austin's character while avoid-
ing heavily footnoted historiographical passages. As state capital and uni-
versity center, Austin is home to civil servants and their families. It is a bas-
tion of liberalism in an otherwise conservative state. Austin is nevertheless
an unmistakably Texan city, a city marked by racial and ethnic segregation.
Like other Texas cities, its fortunes are tied to economic developments in the
state as a whole, specifically in the oil and high-tech industries. But Austin
is also the center of the music industry in Texas. Its musical history rivals
that of Nashville or New Orleans, and in this respect its significance surpasses
that of larger Texas metropolises like Houston or Dallas.

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