Abstract:
The individual's proper experience of blues music and other 'African American' music according to his or her race has been the subject of a controversial 20th century debate. The black arts movement of the 1960s gave impetus to the popular black nationalistic notion that blues music belongs exclusively to African Americans. Subsequent anti-essentialist and pluralistic theories have problematized the black essentialist notion of racial ownership of music. The work presented below, an ethnographic study of Warmdaddy's in Philadelphia examines two evenings of blues culture at that blues club. My findings indicate that neither of the traditional poles of the black music debate, essentialism and anti-essentialism, adequately describes the experience of blues music for Blacks and Whites who participate in it.
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