Dissertation (Ph.D.) Florida State University, 2007. / Advisor: André J. Thomas, Florida State University, College of Music. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed 3-26-2008). Document formatted into pages; contains 200 pages. Includes biographical sketch. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1952. / Typescript. Sponsor: N. L. Church. Dissertation Committee: J. L. Mursell, L. T. Hopkins. Type C project. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 195-199). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 195-199). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (D.M.A.)--Memphis State University, 1989. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaf 50).

Thesis (M. A.)--Buffalo, SUNYAB, 1993. / Includes indexes. Bibliography: ℓℓ. 400-402. Also available in print.

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This dissertation develops the concept of generic mobility—which I will tentatively define as the capacity of a music maker to make music that falls into various generic categories. I am trying to understand the practicalities around making music that fits such a description, in the process asking what this says about genre and what it says about the nature of making music in the first place. To do so, I examine the compositional process of the renowned hip-hop producer, Otis Jackson Jr.—African American, male, born in 1973 in Oxnard, CA, known professionally as Madlib—during the years around the turn of the millennium when he becomes preoccupied with making music that fits such a criterion. Crucial to the understanding of generic mobility developed in this dissertation is that it is an ability. So, at its core, this project is about the means by a musician might develop such an ability; across the following pages, we see an evolution from a musician whose music and methods are unproblematically legible as “hip-hop” to one whose music and methods activate ambivalent zones across generic space. Each chapter looks at a different dimension along which the ability to do so is developed, and unpacks the generic, aesthetic, music-technical, economic, and political implications of that method. These range from an overview of what Jackson is doing while he is making music, to detailed examinations of his incorporation of magic mushrooms into his compositional process to his turn towards live instruments to his appropriations of Brazilian materials. So, the primary question this dissertation asks is: how might one go about making music that moves about genre? The primary argument this dissertation makes is that—in the case of Otis Jackson Jr. at least—one gains this capacity by altering the processes by which one makes music.

This dissertation explores the intersection between formal music education—within both academic institutions and Black American church settings—and entrepreneurial success. Through a qualitative analysis of six musicians’ career trajectories and the development of the social entrepreneurial venture, Gayle Mail, this study examines how the skills and executive functions nurtured through music education can be effectively translated into entrepreneurial capabilities. The research employs an autoethnographic case study methodology to delve into the lived experiences of individuals who have transitioned from music-focused backgrounds to entrepreneurial endeavors. The study addresses several research questions, focusing on the contribution of formal music training to the development of executive functions, the role of music education in enhancing entrepreneurial skills, and the socio-economic implications of such transitions. Findings from the qualitative portraits and the Gayle Mail case study reveal that adaptability, resilience, creative problem-solving, and disciplined work ethic—skills honed through rigorous music education and performance—are directly transferable and beneficial in entrepreneurial ventures. Furthermore, the study highlights how the unique socio-cultural environment of Black American church music education contributes significantly to the development of these executive functions, supporting individuals in overcoming socio-economic challenges on their entrepreneurial journey. This dissertation contributes to the fields of music education, entrepreneurship, and social entrepreneurship by providing empirical evidence on thetransferability of music-education-developed skills to entrepreneurial success. It also offers practical insights for educators, policymakers, and entrepreneurs on leveraging formal music education as a tool for enhancing entrepreneurial capabilities. The findings suggest avenues for future research, particularly in exploring the specific mechanisms through which music education impacts executive function development and identifying strategies to integrate these findings into music education and entrepreneurship education practices.

In the U.S., Black childhood has been underimagined. The representational vocabulary of Black childhood is fraught with dehumanizing and adultifying imagery and sounds—from representations of “Topsy” and “Black Sambo” to caricatures of pickaninnies and their many (re)iterations in U.S. popular culture. Popular music is one expressive domain wherein artists and audiences alike have contested and reinforced the peculiar adultification and infantilization that have long haunted Black American life. In the years surrounding the Trump presidency, numerous Black popular music artists made childhood a primary feature of their artistic output through vocal technique, lyrical content, merchandise, music videos, social media, and more. At the precise moment when white innocence was wielded most violently and obviously on the national stage, these artists challenged the assumed goodness and whiteness of innocence and its relation to childhood, performing capacious versions of free Black childhoods to various ends. This dissertation turns to the performance of childhood as a productive domain of inquiry and focuses on four artists/groups—Tank and the Bangas, Chance the Rapper, Jamila Woods, and Noname—all of whom chart a liberatory politics of Black childhood through sound. Through the poetics and aesthetics of their work, I theorize and historicize four interrelated, childhood-adjacent concepts: nostalgia, vulnerability, innocence, and freedom. Methodologically, I attempt to turn the tables on how vulnerability has normally been rendered in ethnographies. I blend (auto)ethnography about my own experiences as a white father of a multi-racial child with critical theory to analyze live and mediated performances of popular music. I look to music as a poetic and aesthetic space with which to not only grapple with the realities faced by Black children in the United States, but also to affirm Black childhood as a space of freedom, play, possibility, and joy. Ultimately, I make two interrelated assertions: (1) foregrounding Black childhood in our social analysis urges the necessity of abolition and (2) popular music is a primary conduit through which we can imagine an abolitionist future free of police, prisons, and the carceral logics that undergird their imagined necessity.