2007 Alan Merriam Prize presented by the Society for Ethnomusicology. 2007 PEN/Beyond Margins Book Award Finalist. When we think of African American popular music, our first thought is probably not of double-dutch: girls bouncing between two twirling ropes, keeping time to the tick-tat under their toes. But this book argues that the games black girls play -handclapping songs, cheers, and double-dutch jump rope-both reflect and inspire the principles of black popular musicmaking. The Games Black Girls Play illustrates how black musical styles are incorporated into the earliest games African Ame