How Black Music Took Over the World

Name: How Black Music Took Over the World
Brand: Allen & Unwin Aotearoa New Zealand
SKU: 9781399433280
Price: 49.99 NZD
Availability: InStock

By Melvin Gibbs

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Brief Description

Why do Bob Marley, John Coltrane, Aretha Franklin, and Nina Simone move us the way they do? What drives the soulful notes of the Delta blues? What makes Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter inescapably great? How Black Music Took Over the World takes readers inside the vibrant world... Read More

Format: Hardback

$49⁹⁹

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How Black Music Took Over the World

$49⁹⁹

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An exploration of the vibrant world that underlies Black musical creation, blending memoir, cultural history and musical analysis.

An exploration of the vibrant world that underlies Black musical creation, blending memoir, cultural history and musical analysis.

Description

Why do Bob Marley, John Coltrane, Aretha Franklin, and Nina Simone move us the way they do? What drives the soulful notes of the Delta blues? What makes Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter inescapably great?

How Black Music Took Over the World takes readers inside the vibrant world that underlies Black musical creation, demonstrating the impact that the musical inheritance of Africa has had on music today. Beginning with two rhythmic building blocks he calls the cell and the frame, musician, composer, and cultural theorist Melvin Gibbs reveals Black music as an organised system of knowledge.

Blending cultural history and musical analysis, he explores how Black music has shaped nearly every music genre on the planet, from carnival music in Brazil to rap ciphers in New York and global pop. How Black Music Took Over the World explores rhythm, vibration, and movement to challenge Western musical hierarchies and offer new tools for understanding our musical heritage.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781399433280

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 04 June 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Bloomsbury Sigma

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 34.0mm

Width: 154.0mm

Height: 238.0mm

Weight: 500g

Pages: 304

Collections

Arts & Culture Melvin Gibbs Music & Musicians Non-Fiction

About the Author

Melvin Gibbs is a Grammy-nominated songwriter, composer, and musician. He is the 2019 winner of the JazzTimes Critics’ Poll for electric bass. His cross-disciplinary work encompasses an ongoing collaboration with the theoretical cosmologist Stephon Alexander and a long-term working relationship with filmmaker and conceptual artist Arthur Jafa. He splits his time between Brooklyn and Minneapolis.

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