A Book Review of Joe Jackson’s Kahlil Joseph and the Audiovisual Atlantic: Music, Modernity, and Transmedia Art (Bloomsbury Academic 2024)

Abstract

The first of its kind, this book offers unique and concentrated insight into Kahlil Joseph’s oeuvre. It takes seriously the role of black popular culture and the complex space that creators like Joseph occupy in the global capitalist imaginary. At the outset, Jackson opines that his assessment of Joseph is not merely a celebratory take, but one that immerses Joseph, and his work, in contemporary issues of class, capitalism, and race. What emerges is a careful exploration of the vibrant and productive contradictions that mobilise Joseph’s career. Jackson argues that Joseph’s success comes from navigating these tensions – as opposed to seeking to resolve them – which has made him a central figure of the Audiovisual Atlantic.