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arts, and the inevitable emergence of unheralded creator-warriors who arrive from unexpected places...and mount, astonishing, often frightening assaults on the traditional definitions of reality."

"In other words, a narrow 'civil rights' approach may have led many persons of every age group to miss the possibility that the study of artists and their work can be more enjoyable, exciting, and fundamental to the creation of a more just and democratic society."2

This is a history of the interplay of the musics of black and white Americans, mostly Southerners and mostly working class; the influence of these "outsiders" on American culture, and their ability to shape and alter it as America struggled to create a more just and democratic society.

Rock 'n' roll's history is American history - as in all American history, race is central, but many forces contribute to rock 'n' roll's birth. In The Seventh Stream; The Emergence of Rock 'n' Roll in American Popular Music, Philip H. Ennis argues that there were six commercial currents - three dominant, three smaller - in American music by the beginning of the 20th century. The larger streams were: "Pop, the commercial music of the nation;" "Black Pop", the popular music of black Americans;" and "Country Pop,...the popular music of the American white South and Southwest". The smaller streams were jazz, folk and gospel. He argues that these streams coincided to produce the seventh stream, rock 'n' roll.3