Improvising a Musical Metropolis: Detroit, 1940s-1960s

Ethnomusicologist Mark Slobin surveys his research on the musical life of his hometown, Detroit, Michigan, during "my day," the 1940s-60s. He positions his personal experience in the wider panorama of a musically dynamic city of recent immigrants from Europe and migrants from the American South, and addresses the role of the schools and subcultures in shaping Detroit's complex cultural landscape.