ABSTRACT
From Elvis Presley's pink Cadillac to John Lennon's white Rolls Royce, from Brian Wilson's Little Deuce Coupe to Prince's Little Red Corvette the car keeps appearing in pop music. In fact what is arguably the first rock and roll record, Rockett 88 by Jackie Brenston and his Kings of Rhythm, is about a car. Most car songs, though not all, are written by male writers. As is often the case in pop music, the use of a metaphor or symbol, here the car, finds its first significant expression in Black Music. This article is first and foremost about gender, specifically masculinity, but it is also about the debt owed by pop music and culture to Black Music.
