The Beatles and Black Music - by Richard Mills (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The Beatles and Black Musicdiscusses the influence that Black music and culture has had over the Beatles throughout their collective and solo careers.

Richard Mills adopts a musicological and historiographic account to demonstrate the extent to which Liverpool's colonial history influenced the Beatles' music. Beginning with the grand narrative of British colonial history pre-Beatles, it covers the influence of Black music and culture on the Beatles' teenage years in the 1950s, their association with Lord Woodbine, their love of American Rhythm and Blues in the mid-1960s, and extends to a discussion of post-colonial British identity and the lasting effect Black music has had on the Beatles' legacy and continues to have on the solo careers of Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney.

Tracing the history of Black musical and cultural influence on popular music from the Transatlantic Slave Trade in 1795 to the nascent Mersey Beat scene in the early 1960s, this book is the first to explore the Beatles from this important cultural lens.

Review Quotes

After reading this book, you might wonder why it was not written before. The Beatles and Black Music fixes a hole in current Beatles scholarship. In this tour de force, Richard Mills situates the iconic Liverpool group in the aftermath of Empire, locating its relation to Black culture as a politically charged conversation. In a wide-ranging discussion, taking in the Liverpool calypso scene, DJ Danger Mouse's famous Grey Album, and much more besides, he argues that the Beatles are an indisputably post-colonial phenomenon. Mills says the origin and impact of John, Paul, George and Ringo as a collective has to be understood in the context of Anglo-American individualism, Atlantic history and the musical concept of hybridity. The net result is a skillful deconstruction of the origin myth of the Fab Four's music in relation to race written in a way that also recognizes its brilliance.
Mark Duffett, Associate Professor, University of Chester, UK

Richard Mills makes the often commented upon but rarely deeply examined connection between early Black music history and The Beatles his primary focus. From the spirituals devised by African American slaves to the influence of calypso music brought in by Caribbean immigrants to the UK, The Beatles and Black Music is an in-depth reexamination of what was previously thought of as a sacrilegious period of rock and roll music history, recontextualizing Black artistry firmly back into rock narrative. Something the fab four would definitely approve of.
Stephanie Phillips, author of Why Solange Matters

Richard Mills' The Beatles and Black Music: Post-Colonial Theory, Musicology, and Remix Culture is essential reading for Beatles fans, historians, and music lovers alike. Mills draws vital links between black music and the Beatles' cultural emergence, tracing important threads of connection and, at times, opposition, as the Fab Four looses its enduring imprint upon the world. In so doing, Mills affords us with a powerful new understanding of the myriad ways in which the Beatles exist in perpetual conversation with black music.
Kenneth Womack, author of Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans

About the Author

Richard Mills is Programme Director and Associate Professor in English Literature and Popular Culture at St Mary's University, Twickenham, UK. He is the author of The Beatles and Fandom (Bloomsbury, 2019) and co-editor, with Lee Brooks and Mark Donnelly, of Mad Dogs and Englishness (Bloomsbury, 2017) and, with Katie Kapurch and Matthias Heyman, The Beatles and Humour (Bloomsbury, 2023).