"Artistry Unbound: The Influence of African Americans on Popular Culture"

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Popular culture is all those elements of life which are not narrowly intellectual or creatively elitist and which are generally though not necessarily disseminated through the mass media. (1)--Ray B. Browne

Ray B. Browne (January 15, 1922--October 22, 2009), author and professor emeritus, was one of the harbingers in exploring popular culture. (2) For example, in the early 1970s, he contributed to the development of a department of popular culture at Bowling Green State University and as an editor for the Journal of Popular Culture he inspired ongoing dialogue about popular culture. (3)

Browne contributed to many conversations about how to define popular culture and …