![Real Love, No Drama: The Music of Mary J. Blige](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.9.4)
![Real Love, No Drama: The Music of Mary J. Blige](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.9.4)
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Overview
Real Love, No Drama: The Music of Mary J. Blige tells the story of one of the most important artists in pop music history. Danny Alexander follows the whole arc of Blige’s career, from her first album, which heralded the birth of “hip hop soul,” to her critically praised 2014 album, The London Sessions. He highlights the fact that Blige was part of the historically unprecedented movement of black women onto pop radio and explores how she and other women took control of their careers and used their music to give voice to women’s (and men’s) everyday struggles and dreams. This book adds immensely to the story of both black women artists and artists rooted in hip hop and pays tribute to a musician who, by expanding her reach and asking tough questions about how music can and should evolve, has proven herself an artistic visionary.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780292759435 |
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Publisher: | University of Texas Press |
Publication date: | 03/01/2016 |
Series: | American Music Series |
Pages: | 208 |
Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.10(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
- 1. The Artist of a Generation
- 2. The Slow Bomb
- 3. Ladies, Ladies, It Is Our Turn
- 4. Uptown
- 5. What’s the 411?
- 6. Changes I’ve Been Going Through
- 7. Hip Hop a Go-Go
- 8. My Life
- 9. Natural Woman
- 10. Share My World
- 11. On the Road with MJB: Alyson Williams
- 12. The Tour
- 13. Sisters in the Studio: Channette and Channoah Higgens
- 14. Mary, the Album
- 15. No More Drama
- 16. Love & Life
- 17. Live from Los Angeles
- 18. Message in Our Music
- 19. The Breakthrough
- 20. Growing Pains
- 21. Stronger with Each Tear
- 22. Hard Times Come Again No More
- 23. My Life II . . . The Journey Continues (Act 1)
- 24. A Mary Christmas
- 25. Think Like a Man Too
- 26. The London Sessions
- 27. Being with You
- Selected Discography
- Acknowledgments
What People are Saying About This
"I’ve been waiting for this book for a long time. Real Love, No Drama recognizes Mary J. Blige as one of this era’s crucial artists and places her at the center of a profound story about race, gender, class, and American life in recent decades. An expert listener and writer, Danny Alexander has written a sophisticated and deeply soulful book that takes the music, its makers, and its audiences seriously. This is essential reading."
"I’ve been waiting for this book for a long time. Real Love, No Drama recognizes Mary J. Blige as one of this era’s crucial artists and places her at the center of a profound story about race, gender, class, and American life in recent decades. An expert listener and writer, Danny Alexander has written a sophisticated and deeply soulful book that takes the music, its makers, and its audiences seriously. This is essential reading."
"Real Love, No Drama is a marvelous telling of Mary J. Blige’s story, as well as a reflection of the many years Danny Alexander has spent studying, analyzing, and, above all, enjoying pop music made by female performers. To trace its evolution through Salt’n’Pepa to Mary J. Blige is a journey not many have had the instinctor the acuity about race, in particularto take. This book shows us the glory and the problems associated with living, for the first time in memory, in a pop world where women are the dominant voices."
"Real Love, No Drama is a marvelous telling of Mary J. Blige’s story, as well as a reflection of the many years Danny Alexander has spent studying, analyzing, and, above all, enjoying pop music made by female performers. To trace its evolution through Salt’n’Pepa to Mary J. Blige is a journey not many have had the instinctor the acuity about race, in particularto take. This book shows us the glory and the problems associated with living, for the first time in memory, in a pop world where women are the dominant voices."
"Danny Alexander’s soulful, beautifully written book unravels the mystery of how a struggling young woman from Yonkers earned a place beside Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, and Aretha Franklin in the pantheon of African American song. Necessary reading for anyone interested in African American music, American culture, or the challenge of being human in a cold and heartless world."