THE HOLY PROFANE: Religion in Black Popular Music

From West African spirituality to the gangsta rap of Tupac Shakur, Reed, a music theorist, muses on the intersection of the sacred and the profane in the history of black music. She's particularly interested in how "secular" music—blues, ragtime, jazz, rock and rap, among other genres—reflects the same tension between worldliness and other-worldliness that characterizes more explicitly Christian musical forms, such as gospel. This study is, she writes, "a probe for the holy within the profane"; she devotes special attention to how a large portion of black secular music was forged in the holy fires of Pentecostalism. Black popular music, she claims, offers a window for understanding "the evolving religious consciousness" of African-Americans in the 20th century. Well told and full of strong anecdotes, Reed's book is a fine example of how the study of popular culture can be informed by the study of religion. (Jan.)