Black through white: Hoagy Carmichael and the cultural reproduction of racism*

The relationship between the black and white elements in the popular music of this century has been intimate and persistent. However, the nature of this relationship has varied from period to period and been mediated by the economic and institutional context in which it has occurred. The ‘free flow’ of musical ideas between black and white has been directed and regulated by numerous distinctly unmusical factors — principally the racist ideologies and practies within which musicians, despite their individual proclivities, have lived and worked.