Stairway to Paradise reveals how American Jewish entrepreneurs musicians and performers
influenced American popular music from the late nineteenth century till the mid-1960s. From
blackface minstrelsy ragtime blues jazz and Broadway musicals ending with folk and rock
'n' roll. The book follows the writers and artists' real and imaginative relationship with
African-American culture's charisma. Stairway to Paradise discusses the artistic and
occasionally ideological dialogue that these artists writers and entrepreneurs had with
African-American artists and culture. Tracing Jewish immigration to the United States and the
entry of Jews into the entertainment and cultural industry the book allocates extensive space
to the charged connection between music and politics as reflected in the Jewish-Black Alliance
- both in the struggle for social justice and in the music field. It reveals Jewish success in
the music industry and the unique and sometimes problematic relationships that characterized
this process as their dominance in this field became a source of blame for exploiting
African-American artistic and human capital. Alongside this the book shows how black-Jewish
cooperation and its fragile alliance played a role in the hegemonic conflicts involving
American culture during the 20th century. Unintentionally it influenced the process of decline
of the influence of the WASP elite during the 1960s. Stairway to Paradise fuses American
history and musicology with cultural studies theories. This inter-disciplinary approach
regarding race class and ethnicity offers an alternative view of more traditional notions
regarding understanding American music's evolution.
