Giving Compass' Take:

· Futurity talks with Charles Kronengold about his upcoming book discussing music and the lasting impact Aretha Franklin had on American music and society. 

· How has Aretha Franklin impacted American music and culture?

· Learn about Aretha Franklin's philanthropic legacy.


Franklin, who died August 16 at age 76, figures extensively in Charles Kronengold's upcoming book, Crediting Thinking in Soul and Dance Music. Kronengold shows how the “Queen of Soul” changed the way people listen to music, to African American culture and, he says, to each other.

Here Kronengold, who is an assistant professor in the music department in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, speaks on Franklin’s influence on pop culture and how she will be remembered by generations to come.

Q: You write about Aretha Franklin in your forthcoming book Crediting Thinking in Soul and Dance Music. Are you trying to help the reader get inside Franklin’s head in terms of what she is hearing, feeling, and thinking?

A: I was actually motivated more by how Franklin projects her thinking outward, verbally and nonverbally. That is, I was looking at how 1960s and ’70s listeners tried to “get inside her head.”

People paid careful attention to what Aretha sang and played, what she said in interviews and onstage monologues, what they could read into her movements, facial expressions, clothes, hair, and so on. Critics, fans, family members, and fellow musicians invested a lot in her interiority: Her contemporary Roberta Flack said Aretha’s performances embodied “truth and sincerity.”

Aretha’s father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, said she had “the ability to hear each note perfectly in her head. More important, she feels what is in the music. Her soul is being black and liking it.” There are many instances of this.

But I too have gotten obsessed with what’s inside Aretha’s head.

Read the full article about American music by Stanford University at Futurity.