Aretha Franklin ‘Most Important American Vocalist of the 20th Century,’ Expert Says

Noted soul singer Aretha Franklin died Thursday. Duke University professor Mark Anthony Neal has written extensively on soul music on his NewBlackMan blog, and specifically about the Franklin’s influence on black culture. He is available to respond to reporter questions and can discuss the context of Franklin’s career.

Mark Anthony Neal

• Quote:
  “At the peak of her artistic prowess in the late 1960s and 1970s, Aretha Franklin was, arguably, the most well-known black woman in the world," says Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of African and African American Studies at Duke University.

  “Closer to home, her style, which combined gospel, jazz, blues and of course soul, made her singularly responsible for bringing black spirituality into the mainstream of American life. In retrospect, it is not too bold of a claim to state that Aretha Franklin was the most important American vocalist of the 20th century.”
   

• Bio:
  Mark Anthony Neal is the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African American Studies at Duke University, where he chairs the Department of African and African American Studies. He also hosts the weekly webcast, Left of Black, which is produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke.

  Neal has written several books, including “What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture” (1999), “Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic” (2002) and “Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities” (2013).  https://aaas.duke.edu/people/mark-anthony-neal 
   

• Archive video interview (different subject):
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzAeSVHJE6s
   
• For additional comment, contact Neal at:
  dr-yogi@att.net 
  Twitter: @NewBlackMan