Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black & White, Body and Soul in American Music

Ann Powers's Good Booty is a historical survey of American popular music and specifically its impact on our conceptions of sex, race and gender. Powers covers not just the expected artists — Elvis Presley, Madonna, Britney Spears, Beyonce, etc. — but also the earlier influences of 1800s Congo Square performers, 1920s jazz artists, and 1930s gospel singers. Some of these lesser-known periods are interesting, but overall Powers tries to cover too much ground and a lot of her insights are vague to the point of near-meaninglessness (e.g., “America’s erotic drive emerged as inseparable from the fact of its troubled multiculturalism.").