Conference to highlight black influence in music

African-American influences had a huge impact on rock music during the early- to mid-20th century. But, after the Woodstock era, some scholars said black rock music faded into obscurity.

An IU conference hopes to bring black rockers’ contributions to light.  

Friday and Saturday, a, “Reclaiming the Right to Rock: Black Experiences in Rock Music,” will look at black rockers’ contributions. It will be at the Neal-Marshall Black Cultural Center and it will bring together musicians, writers and critics to discuss various topics of black rock.

The conference aims to discuss black rock in post-1960s culture – the conceptualization and origins of black rock, the politics of black rock and the face of black rock in the 21st century, according to its Web site.

“The conference results in my desire and goals in acquiring collections and materials in documenting musical traditions that have not been a part of scholarly study or part of archival library focus,” said Portia Maultsby, professor of folklore and ethnomusicology and director of the Archives of African American Music and Culture.

Maultsby is the brainchild behind this weekend’s conference. She said it has been in the works for the past three years. In 2006, she took part in a similar conference at IU,
“Roots of Techno: Black DJs and the Detroit Scene.”

Ronda Sewald is the administrator and project manager of the Archives of African American Music and Culture, which organized the event with help from a Lilly Endowment funded New Frontiers in Arts and Humanities grant, Sewald said. The grant will support two other events: a monthlong exhibit of black rock and a Nov. 13 screening of the film “Afro-Punk.”

The exhibit is a display of black rock-related materials in the Neal-Marshall Black Cultural Center. The free exhibit concludes Nov. 20.

“The point of the conference is to document the African-American participation in rock music and to position rock music within the broader African-American tradition,” Maultsby said.

The collection obtained as a result of the conference will be at the Archives of African American Music and Culture in the Smith Research Center on 10th Street.

Maureen Mahon is the author of the book “Right to Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Culture Politics of Race.” She will be moderating the last conference session, “Face of Rock in the 21st Century.”

“Subsequent to the 1970s, black bands incorporated a lot of heavy bass. This led to the categorization of funk. The genre was distinguished as separate from classic rock,” Mahon said.