Stephen A. King

Memory, Mythmaking, and Museums: Constructive Authenticity and the Primitive Blues Subject

This essay explores how museums, public memory, and authenticity intersect to privilege an understanding of the past. Reflecting White control over the promotion of blues music, the curators at the Delta Blues Museum, located in Clarksdale, Mississippi, employ two rhetorical strategies to satisfy the expectations of (White) tourists who share culturally specific memories of the blues. First, the museums rhetorical depiction of blues artists reflects White fascination with the mythic image of the primitive blues subject. Second, the exhibit recreates an early 20th century Delta society to complement tourism goals to market the Mississippi Delta as Americas last remaining “pure” blues culture. In the conclusion, implications for rhetorical scholars interested in studying the symbolic dimensions of authenticity are discussed.

International reggae, democratic socialism, and the secularization of the Rastafarian movement, 1972–1980

(1998). International reggae, democratic socialism, and the secularization of the Rastafarian movement, 1972–1980. Popular Music and Society: Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 39-60.

No Problem, Mon: Strategies Used to Promote Reggae Music as Jamaica's Cultural Heritage

ABSTRACT This paper examines efforts by the Jamaican government and its surrogates to control the Rastafarian movement and reggae music. Since the 1970s, the Jamaican establishment has employed an adjustment tactic, co-optation, to transform reggae music and Rastafari into a cultural attraction. In recent years, however, Rastafarian images and reggae have become increasingly important in the promotion of Jamaicas tourist industry. The Jamaican government and its supporters have marketed the Rastafarian movement and reggae music as part of Jamaicas “cultural heritage.” As a result, the Rastafarian movement has declined as a political and social force in Jamaica. In sum, reggae and Rastafari have evolved from the category of internal identity marketing to place/tourism marketing.

“Between Jennings and Jones”: Jamey Johnson, Hard-Core Country Music, and Outlaw as Authenticating Strategy

In this essay, I examine how country artist Jamey Johnson rhetorically transformed himself from Nashville hopeful into a “hard-core,” “authentic” country outlaw. By associating himself with the original 1970s outlaw movement and including folklore elements of the American outlaw-hero in his songs, Johnson was successful in rhetorically crafting a “double outlaw” persona. This essay is the first scholarly examination of Jamey Johnson and his music. In addition, this essay provides an opportunity to study the rhetorical dimensions of the country outlaw as well as examine key rhetorical strategies employed to create an authentic, hard-core country artist.

“I call him father of us all”: vicarious transcendence at the B. B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center*

ABSTRACT This essay advocates closer attention to the relationship between transcendent rhetoric and public memory sites. Through an analysis of the B. B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola, Mississippi, the essay introduces the concept of vicarious transcendence, a powerful, yet underexplored mode of public discourse that highlights how visitors arrive at a transcendent state via the transcendent journey of another agent. As the state’s premier destination for blues tourists, the King Museum also becomes a vehicle for Mississippi’s vicarious transcendence of its own legacy of slavery and systemic racism.

Marking the Past: Civil Rights Tourism and the Mississippi Freedom Trail

ABSTRACT This essay explores the rhetorical framing of civil rights tourism in Mississippi, a state that has invested considerable resources towards developing an infrastructure for attracting heritage tourists. Focusing specifically on a series of historical markers known as the Mississippi Freedom Trail (MFT), the essay identifies three dominant narratives that shape visitors’ understanding of the state’s civil rights history: (1) representations of violence against Mississippi’s civil rights leaders, (2) the role of agitation and community organizing, and (3) the (dis)connections between the past and the present. Although the MFT increases public awareness of the Mississippi Movement, it under-emphasizes the role women played and privileges modes of activism that embraced the very system that disenfranchised Black Americans. For these reasons, we argue that the MFT is limited in its ability to speak to contemporary racial struggles even as it provides a platform for confronting racist symbols in public memory sites.