Dance Music As a Diasporic Musical Innovation

Co-written with Mathys Rennela

(Kassav’ is a French Caribbean band formed in Guadeloupe in 1979 still in activity.)

As Black intellectuals rarely live in a vacuum, it’s no surprise that there is a thread connecting Black art and Black critical theory throughout the years. The aim of this article is to clarify some of those intellectual connections in the context of dance music, and perceived influences of Afro-Pessimism (and affiliated theories) in dance music…