A01=Alex Werth
Author_Alex Werth
Bay Area music scenes
bbq becky
boogaloo dance
Category=AVM
Category=JBSD
Category=NHTP
Category=WQH
cultural displacement
E 40
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_music
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
funk
gentrification resistance
hip-hop policing
hyphy movement
Mac Dre
Mistah FAB
public space reclamation
racialized nuisance laws
rap history
sonic activism
urban redevelopment conflicts
Product details
- ISBN 9780520416062
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 21 Oct 2025
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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How struggles over Black sound have shaped Oakland’s culture, politics, and geography.
Chicago has house. Detroit has techno. But Oakland slaps.
On Loop explores the role of Black dance music and sonic politics in recurring struggles over race and space in Oakland, California. Insisting on the centrality of sound in everyday social movements—from the mobilization of funk music and boogaloo dance during Black Power to the policing of the Hyphy movement in the 2000s—Alex Werth argues that Black dance music is not merely a soundtrack to or record of urban resistance. Rather, its very sound waves have animated looping clashes over development, dispossession, and Black freedom. Through studies of downtown nightclubs, Lake Merritt, and the Eastmont Mall—geographies rarely considered, yet critical to Oakland’s culture and politics—Werth reveals how the liberatory sonic politics of funk, hip-hop, and hyphy rap have been met with a repetitive "war on nuisance."
As both a means of empowerment and a magnet for policing, Black dance music has transformed not only Oakland's nightlife, but also its streets, parks, and neighborhoods. On Loop is a rousing encounter with the sound that moves urban life.
Chicago has house. Detroit has techno. But Oakland slaps.
On Loop explores the role of Black dance music and sonic politics in recurring struggles over race and space in Oakland, California. Insisting on the centrality of sound in everyday social movements—from the mobilization of funk music and boogaloo dance during Black Power to the policing of the Hyphy movement in the 2000s—Alex Werth argues that Black dance music is not merely a soundtrack to or record of urban resistance. Rather, its very sound waves have animated looping clashes over development, dispossession, and Black freedom. Through studies of downtown nightclubs, Lake Merritt, and the Eastmont Mall—geographies rarely considered, yet critical to Oakland’s culture and politics—Werth reveals how the liberatory sonic politics of funk, hip-hop, and hyphy rap have been met with a repetitive "war on nuisance."
As both a means of empowerment and a magnet for policing, Black dance music has transformed not only Oakland's nightlife, but also its streets, parks, and neighborhoods. On Loop is a rousing encounter with the sound that moves urban life.
Alex Werth is a geographer, DJ, and housing justice advocate.
