Carnegie Hall Digital Timeline of African American Music
Encompassing the earliest folk traditions to present-day popular music, the Carnegie Hall Timeline of African American Music offers a detailed view of the evolution of African American musical genres that span the past 400 years. This exploration of African American musical traditions reveals the unique characteristics of each genre and style, while offering in-depth studies of pioneering musicians who created some of America’s most timeless artistic expressions. Maureen Mahon was a member of the Advisory Team organized by Dr. Portia K. Maultsby, the lead scholar for the project, and contributed essays on Rock and Roll and Rock (written with cultural critic Greg Tate) to the Timeline.
Soundtrack of America
Maureen Mahon served as the Chief Academic Advisor to “Soundtrack of America,” a five-night concert series celebrating the impact of African American music on contemporary culture that was one of the inaugural commissions for the April 2019 opening of The Shed. Conceived by Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen, “Soundtrack of America” was developed with the input of a creative team that included Grammy Award-winning veteran music composer and producer Quincy Jones.
Photo Adam Hart / New York Times
The concert featured 25 emerging artists as well as special guests. Mahon researched and developed a family tree of African American music that mapped the history and development of multiple musical genres from 1619 to the present. The artists performed 20-minute sets of songs that traced their lineage through the family tree, playing covers of songs that were meaningful to them as well as their own original material.
Soundtrack of America Family tree poster
The Shed’s 1st Season Welcomes a Concert Series From Steve McQueen and Quincy Jones
Tank & the Bangas+ Soundtrack academic team From left: Joshua Johnson, Matthew Morrison, Tarriona "Tank" Ball, MM, Alisha Lola Jones
MM and SoA artist Braxton Cook
MM and SoA Chief Music Director Greg Phillinganes
DOCUMENTARY
Rose Marie McCoy
Mahon is a consulting scholar to the documentary film project Rose Marie McCoy: It’s Gonna Work Out Fine.
Fishbone
Mahon was advisor to Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone (91 min), directed by Lev Anderson and Chris Metzler, Pale Griot Films, 2010.
ARTICLES ON AFRICAN AMERICANS AND POPULAR MUSIC
The Songwriting Career of Rose Marie McCoy
Mahon’s article “The Rock and Roll Blues: Gender, Race, and Genre in the Songwriting Career of Rose Marie McCoy,” discusses the remarkable career of the pioneering professional African American songwriter
Betty Davis Interview
Mahon interviewed Betty Davis about the reissue of her path breaking albums from 1970s for EbonyJet.com
Stew Interview
Mahon interviewed Stew about his Broadway musical Passing Strange for EbonyJet.com
Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton
"Listening for Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton's Voice: The Sound of Race and Gender Transgressions in Rock and Roll," Women and Music. A Journal of Gender and Culture 15:1-17, (2011)
The Liberated Black Femininity of Betty Davis
"They Say She's Different: Race, Gender, and Genre and the Liberated Black Femininity of Betty Davis," Journal of Popular Music Studies, 23(2): 146-165, June 2011.
The Daughters of Soul Tour
Mahon discusses concert featuring Sandra St. Victor, Joyce Kennedy, Nona Hendryx, Lalah Hathaway, Lisa Simone, and Indira Khan that toured Europe in 2004. "The 'Daughters of Soul' Tour and the Politics and Possibilities of Black Music," Ethnographies of Neoliberalism, Carol J. Greenhouse, ed., pp. 207-220. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010.
Mahon traces this history of African Americans in rock and roll.
"African Americans and Rock ‘n’ Roll," in African Americans and Popular Culture: Volume III, Music and Popular Art, Todd, ed., pp. 31-60. Praeger Publishers, 2008.