Chapter 3, Jewels Brought from Bondage, Black Music and the Politics of Authenticity Summary and Analysis

Debates over modernity and its end have largely ignored music, which is odd because the public use of culture has increasingly been comprised of musical expression. Music has helped to keep the terrors of slavery alive and cultivated in social forms. The terrors were unspeakable but not inexpressible and painful expression of such oppression still expresses the volatile core of Afro-Atlantic cultural creation. These forms are western and modern but are also something more because they contain a double quality and are unsteadily located inside and outside conventions and aesthetic rules. Music should enjoy a higher status due to its ability to express the idea of the will of the slave. Slaves often used music to express their pain...