From Blues to Beyoncé

Alexis McGee is Assistant Professor of Research in the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media at the University of British Columbia.

"Alexis McGee insightfully employs a Black feminist and decolonial framework to examine both the music industry's long history of exploiting Black women's sonic labor and the ways Black women music artists combat these modes of exploitation and erasure. Her rich textual and historical analysis reveals how Black women use music and vocals to forward a liberatory pedagogy that educates and instructs their audiences in how to navigate and thrive in the midst of America's antiblack ways." — Ersula J. Ore, author of Lynching: Violence, Rhetoric and American Identity"With its creativity, scope, and clear investment in care, From Blues to Beyoncé illustrates why and how music continues to operate as a life-giving medium and resource for Black women. This book will inspire important conversations." — Tamika L. Carey, author of Rhetorical Healing: The Reeducation of Contemporary Black Womanhood

• Acknowledgments Preface: A Tale of Two Stories: Listening to Liminal Spaces to Listen to Myself Introduction1. Sonic Sharecropping2. "Strange Fruit" Sonic Rhetorics3. Queer(ing) Sound, Time, and Grammar: Black Women's Methods for Generative Prosodic Rhetoric4. Audible Advice, or Mentorship in Sound: A Black (Feminist) Practice of Care through Sonic Rhetorics 5. Reverb: A Coda for a Quiet, Undisputed Dignity in Sound Notes ReferencesIndex