Mama, he treats your daughter mean
Reassessing the narrative of British R&B with Ottilie Patterson
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4305147 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sean Lorre (Rutgers Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 3-4 |
| Pages | 482-503 |
| Publication date | 2020-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Popular Music (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0261-1430 • E-ISSN: 1474-0095 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0261143020000574 |
| OpenAlex | W3139533905 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 6 |
The phenomenon of British R&B is most often understood in terms of young, white, middle-class British men turning to the 'down-home' sounds of black American men for musical motivation. This article offers a revision to this dominant narrative by reinserting 'slim, lively Irish girl' Ottilie Patterson, the UK's most popular blues singer before 1963. I analyse the content and context of Patterson's 1961 album, Rhythm and Blues with Ottilie Patterson, drawing from contemporaneous mass-media discourse as well as Patterson's own notebooks held at Britain's National Jazz Archive. Patterson's performances captured on this record demonstrate how R&B was first publicly (re-)presented and understood in the UK. I argue that Patterson's work challenges the assumptions that (a) British R&B began with the formation of Alexis Korner's Blue Incorporated and (b) the R&B revival was predominately motivated by the appropriation and vicarious expression of African-American hypermasculinity
Appropriation · Art · Art history · Blues · Context (archaeology · Humanities · Irish · Jazz · Linguistics · Literature · Musical · Narrative · Performance art · Sociology · White (mutation · Gender Studies · History · Music History and Culture · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Philosophy · Theater, Performance, and Music History
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |