Cajun and zydeco dance music in Northern California
Subtitle: modern pleasures in a postmodern world
By: Mark F. DeWitt.
Series: American made music series
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Jackson
Language: eng
Number of pages: 282
ISBN-13: 9781604730906
Subjects: Cajun music -- California, Northern -- History and criticism; Zydeco music -- California, Northern -- History and criticism; Folk dance music -- California, Northern -- History and criticism
Description: "Cajun and Zydeco Dance Music in Northern California traces how this region of California has been able to develop and sustain dances several times a week with more than a dozen bands. Description of this active regional scene opens into a discussion of several historical trends that have affected life and music in Louisiana and the nation. The book portrays the diversity of people who have adopted Cajun and Creole dance music as a way to cope with a globalized, media-saturated world." "Ethnomusicologist Mark F. DeWitt innovatively weaves together interviews with musicians and dancers (some from Louisiana, some not), analysis of popular media, participant observation as a musician and dancer, and historical perspectives from wartime black migration patterns, the civil rights movement, American folk and blues revivals, California counterculture, and the rise of cultural tourism in "Cajun Country." In so doing, he reveals the multifaceted appeal of celebrating life on the dance floor, Louisiana-French style."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references, discography, filmography, and index.
Table of contents: title: Down at the twist and shout; title: Identity issues, research methods, and ethnography; title: Music, dance, and social capital; title: Wartime and postwar Creole migration to California; title: Further Creole migration and bridging to other social networks; title: Folk revival connection : the musicians; title: Folk revival connection : the dancers; title: Later Gulf Coast arrivals.