4:00 PM
Harkness Chapel, Classroom
Sponsored by the Center for Popular Music Studies
Music colloquia provide a weekly forum for presentation and discussion of recent research by distinguished visitors and CWRU faculty and graduate students in musicology, historical performance practice, and music education.
All talks happen on Fridays at 4:00 PM (Eastern) and are open to the public unless noted otherwise.
About the Talk
“Tina Turner in St. Louis: Becoming the Queen of Rock and Roll”
How did Tina Turner become the Queen of Rock and Roll? My presentation will respond to this question by examining archival materials related to Turner’s formative years as a vocalist in the vibrant St. Louis music scene of the 1950s and engaging with recordings of her live performances from the mid-1960s. My goal is to demonstrate how her collaborations with musician and bandleader Ike Turner, undertaken in the particular social and racial context of post-World War II St. Louis, laid the foundation for her to become a global rock and roll star.
About the Speaker
Maureen Mahon is professor and chair of the Department of Music at New York University. She is the author of Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll (2020) and Right to Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Cultural Politics of Race (2004). Her articles on African-American music have appeared in academic journals, Oxford American, EbonyJet.com, and on the websites of National Public Radio and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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