How do you make a 700-plus-page scholarly book be anything but intimidating? Two professors of ethnomusicology and African-American studies, Mellonee Burnim and Portia Maultsby, put a lot of thought into making African American Music: An Introduction (Routledge, $35) user-friendly.

Maultsby says the book took five years to complete. "We concluded that no single person, or even two people, could do justice to such a comprehensive project. Therefore, we sought out established scholars with expertise on the various genres and those who were researching topics that had been excluded from scholarly inquiry—i.e., techno, women-identified music, women in rock and gospel music and the gospel-music industry."

Maultsby's essay on funk is particularly appealing. She says, "My work on funk was inspired by my performing experience with popular bands. I loved the style and I began to examine it more closely [for a special Billboard issue on black music, 1979]. Because no scholarly works existed on the tradition, I began interviewing artists—and locating other interviews—and formulating my perspectives on it in the 1980s."

Looking to inspire your teens? Bring them to see Maultsby—she can chat with equal ease about hip-hop and many other styles. She can encourage them to try for their own academic career. Here's how she did it: "I followed my heart and my interest in my own cultural heritage. I wanted to expand my musical understanding beyond the Western classical tradition. My brother encouraged me to pursue my intellectual interests in this area and not be afraid to push boundaries beyond tradition. He said, 'If everybody is doing it, it's not worth doing.'"