2 replies to this topic

[joliet_jane]

While searching a database of for interesting stuff, I found an article that analyzes the Blues Brothers and the House of Blues! By a Harvard guy, no less! It's called "Million-Dollar Juke Joint: Commodifying Blues Culture" by Daniel Lieberfeld. The title is the subject, and it's quite interesting. I recommend it highly.

You can view it best from here:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1062-4783%28199522%2929%3A2%3C217%3AMJJCBC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X

Or if that doesn't work, try some .gifs I made here:
http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/k/e/ken131/bluesgifs.zip

Please note that this is an academic journal article (The African-American Review) , so this is heavy stuff and the reading may be difficult for some of you, but I swear it's worth it. [No offense meant; I barely passed Algebra II, so I'm good at English and bad at other things-- And I can't play Blues, either :-( ]

[bbcentral]

Thanks for posting that. The first link isn't accessible to the public, but the scans loaded fine. I took a quick look and realised it's way over my head (well probably not, but I can't really be bothered reading it!). I'm sure it's interesting reading though.
As far as I can tell it's about House of Blues trying to commercialise blues music. I guess some people think that the HOB chain is only there to try and make money off the blues, but I would say that it's been a success in providing a place for the blues. Somewhere people can go to see these great artists, instead of some street corner in a bad neighborhood. It's also a great way to teach people about the blues.

[joliet_jane]

Well, yeah, everything in pop culture is a commodity (and I love capitalism). What's interesting is *how* the Blues is commodified in terms of race, gender, and social strata. Some points the author brings up:

--The Blues Brothers are white guys representing African-American music
--The BB movie has a theme of white people helping less-forutnate African-Americans
--The BB appeal almost exclusively to males, for a reason

Do keep in mind that academics write stuff like this just for the sake of doing it. It doesn't appear he has any animosity for the BB, but it's jsut something worth thinking about.