Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness and Race Relations

In writing this study of the relationship between black protest and consciousness, race relations, and Rhythm and Blues music, I have clung to the belief that, even in this postmodern, thoroughly deconstructed world, it is still possible to write a sensible book about popular culture which is not so heavily freighted with jargon that it becomes impenetrable to all but a cabal of cultural theorists. As part of this concern for plain speaking, the major theoretical premisses which underpin the project will—mercifully—seldom intrude upon, let alone dominate, the pages which follow. It may, however, be useful to mention them briefly here.

Appraisal

“Brian Ward has written a highly original and imaginative history connecting African-American popular music with corresponding developments in the black freedom struggle. Provocative and balanced, sensitive and sensible, Just my soul responding is a stimulating piece of scholarship. It is a product of mature thinking, sophisticated judgement and sound research. It forces the reader to think about the civil rights and black power movements in new ways and offers keen insights for measuring the impact of the African-American freedom struggle on both black and white Americans.”
- Steven Lawson, University of North Carolina at Greensboro