An account of the Black Rock Coalition, which began in New York in 1985, and its relation to the results of civil rights era integration, and to the larger questions of racialization in the music industry, and American society.

"Maureen Mahon's "Right to Rock" presents a fascinating description of the meaning of rock music for black artists and audiences. Devoted to a form of commercialized leisure for which they are not the target demographic, these committed musicians and listeners write themselves into a story from which they have largely been excluded. Important as a study of a fascinating cultural practice, "Right to Rock" also makes indispensable contributions to our understanding of larger issues about both the fixity and the fluidity of market categories and social identities."--George Lipsitz, author of "American Studies in a Moment of Danger"