ABSTRACT
This chapter is primarily concerned with an expressive male role within urban lower-class Negro culture— that of the contemporary bluesman. It attempts to answer the some questions: What does the Negro audience expect of a bluesman, and what does he express for them in his performance? The social definition of the Negro— the fact that he is colored and an outcast— has almost hidden the fact that Negroes have a culture. The unique and full status of Negro culture is only partly dependent on the basic institutional elements, such as Church and family that do not fit white American specifications. John H. Rohrer and Munro S. Edmonson make a sharp distinction between lower-class Negro culture and two shadow cultures: the entertainment world and the underworld. Regardless of the forces which have shaped Negro culture, it exists, and within this culture a number of individuals have already found viable identities as men and women.
