Black Grooves celebrates 6 years of music reviews

Six years after its inception, Blackgrooves.org, an African American music review website run by IU’s Archives of African American Music and Culture, recently celebrated the publication of its 1,000th review.

Founding editor Brenda Nelson-Strauss said she began Black Grooves to promote black artists.  

“I think that right now we are featuring perhaps 20 reviews a month, and we pull together a wide variety of music that is exclusively focused on black artists,” Nelson-Strauss said. “And I don’t think that you find that on too many other sites.”

Nelson-Strauss said another goal of the website is to educate about music.

“I like for our reviewers to be educational in their reviews, as well, and provide information about the artists and why the artist is important and why the music is important, if it is relevant,” Nelson-Strauss said.

Nelson-Strauss discussed the effects music downloading programs such as iTunes have on review sites.

“In some ways it denigrates the music because you have usually no minor notes that go along with it,” Nelson-Strauss said. “A lot of times, you don’t even have specific info on the artist or the title to the composers of the music.”

Reviewers of Black Grooves have analyzed songs from many different  music legends such as Nina Simone and the Supremes, according to a press release.
Reviewer and graduate student Betsy Shepherd started reviewing music before she joined Black Grooves in fall 2010.

“On campus, there are so many organizations that prepare students for their upcoming professional life,” Shepherd said. “Black Grooves is one of the few outlets and forums for people that are interested in music writing and music analysis.”

Shepherd also said music writing grabs people’s attention.

“We try not to only describe what the music sounds like but also to contextualize it in ... the larger scheme of popular culture and also to frame it in terms of what the artist is trying to do,” Shepherd said.

The website publishes reviews around the first of each month. They are currently looking for IU students to become reviewers, Nelson-Strauss said.

“Black Grooves is a great resource for students who are interested in music, whether they want to get involved as a music writer themselves or if they are just interested in learning about music history and different styles of music,” Shepherd said.

Nelson-Strauss said students interested in becoming reviewers should contact her at bnelsons@indiana.edu.

“It’s a great experience for IU students,” Nelson-Strauss said. “They can come over here and check out the review copies and often times have access to the music before it’s officially been released, and I think it’s a great way to build up your résumé.”