Notebook
Racial and Musical History Exegesis of the USA in Documentaries: Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker.
Published 2012-07-01
Keywords
- Afro-American rock,
- documentary film,
- racial history,
- exegesis,
- authenticity
- authorship,
- dispossession,
- blaxploitation ...More
Abstract
The accusation against the appropriation of the Afro-American musical tendencies by cultural white supremacy is a subject which has been all but absent from North-American documentary movies until the 21st century. The aim of this article is to analyse all the narrative strategies used in the independent movie Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker (2005), in order to vindicate the silenced history of the origins and the evolution of rock, to trace the audiovisual devices of the documentary syntax that make this alternative exegesis viable. The concern of its director, Raymond Gayle, with regard to the legitimization of ethnical/racial authorship involves highlighting concept of authenticity. This authenticity should be measured in accordance with both the requirements of the genre of documentary film and the relationship between rock and contemporary Afro-American culture. Through the reconciliation of authenticity, authorship and history, the destiny of rock remains uncertain, and Electric Purgatory emerges as a web of testimonies of those who fight to bring back the music to its racial origins.References
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BARROSO, Jaime (2009). Realización de documentales y reportajes. Madrid. Síntesis.
BAYLES, Martha (1993). Hollow Rock & the Lost Blues Connection. The Wilson Quarterly (1976-), 17.3,10-29.
CASAS, Quim (2008). Teoría y práctica del rockumental. E. GUILLOT (ed.), ¡Rock, Acción! Ensayos sobre cine y música popular (53-75). Valencia: Avantpress.
CRIPPS, Thomas (1993). Making Movies Black. Nueva York. Oxford University Press.
GATES, Henry Louis, Jr. (1989). The Signifying Monkey. Nueva York. Oxford University Press.
GRACYK, Theodore (2002). Jazz after Jazz: Ken Burns and the Construction of Jazz History. Philosophy and Literature, 26, 173-187.
GROSSBERG, Lawrence (1983-1984). The Politics of Youth Culture: Some Observations of Rock and Roll in American Culture. Social Text, 8, 104-126.
KAMIN, Jonathan (1975). Parallels in the Social Reactions to Jazz and Rock. The Black Perspective in Music, 3.3, 278-298.
KNIGHT, Arthur (1995). Jammin’ the Blues, or the Sight of Jazz. K. GABBARD (ed.), Representing Jazz (11-53). Durham: Duke University Press.
KUN, Josh (2005). Audiotopia. Berkeley. University of California Press.
MAHON, Maureen (2004). Right to Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Cultural Politics of Race. Durham. Duke University Press.
MARCUS, Greil (2005). Mystery Train. Londres. Faber and Faber.
ORTEGA, María Luisa (2007). Espejos rotos. Aproximaciones al documental norteamericano contemporáneo. Madrid. Ocho y Medio.
REDD, Lawrence N. (1985). Rock! It’s Still Rhythm and Blues. The Black Perspective in Music, 13.1, 31-47.
TRILLING, Lionel (1982). Sincerity and Authenticity. Cambridge & Londres. Harvard University Press.
YOUNGER, Richard (2000). Get a Shot of Rhythm and Blues: The Arthur Alexander Story. Tuscaloosa. University of Alabama Press.