Music reviews and criticism Books
University of North Carolina Press Princes Minneapolis
£71.10
University of North Carolina Press Princes Minneapolis
£18.04
University of Texas Press Why Mariah Carey Matters
Book SynopsisThe first book to critically examine the legacy of pop superstar Mariah Carey. When it comes to Mariah Carey, star power is never in doubt. She has sold hundreds of millions of albums and cut more chart-topping hits than any other solo artistever. And she has that extraordinary five-octave vocal range. But there is more to her legacy than eye-popping numbers. Why Mariah Carey Matters examines the creative evolution and complicated biography of a true diva, making the case that, despite her celebrity, Carey's musicianship and influence are insufficiently appreciated. A pioneering songwriter and producer, Carey pairs her vocal gifts with intimate lyrics and richly layered sonic details. In the mid-1990s, she perfected a blend of pop, hip-hop, and R&B with songs such as Fantasy and Honey and drew from her turbulent life to create the introspective masterpiece Butterfly. Andrew Chan looks beyond Carey's glamorous persona to explore her experience Trade ReviewIn expansive prose . . . , Chan proves that despite a smooth-edged commercial exterior, Carey’s style “foregrounds the ways singing can activate something irrational and untamed within us.” It’s a satisfying tribute to a dynamic and influential singer. * Publishers Weekly *Required reading for Lambs worldwide: In Why Mariah Matters, Andrew Chan looks beyond Mariah Carey’s undeniable glamour and incredible five-octave vocal range to examine the diva to explore her life as a mixed-race woman in music, her adventurous forays into gospel and house music, and her appeal to multiple generations of queer audiences. * NYLON *Why Mariah Carey Matters makes the case for Mariah Carey’s place in the pantheon of great musical artists and it’s hard to disagree with its central argument, that for all her accolades, mainstream success and her over-the-top camp persona, we have overlooked the nuance and artistry underneath. * The Queer Review *[Andrew Chan strikes] an elegant balance of tone and writing as a critic, a reporter, and a memoirist all at once . . . when Carey’s effect on audiences poses a phenomenological hurdle, he spins illuminating personal narratives only to then pivot towards rigorous close-readings of her lyrics, voice, and performances worthy of Barthes’s Mythologies. * The Millions *Chan's beautiful descriptions of Carey's songs, lyrics, and performances aid in the difficult task of bringing sound to life solely through words...An excellent look at a great artist. Readers will likely find themselves YouTubing the Carey performances described in this book. * Library Journal *Chan gives nuance in Carey’s work, persona, and legacy...Across 168 pages, Chan humanizes Carey’s world renowned impact in music, also connecting the artist’s poignant lyrics and five-octave singing delivery to his experiences as a queer Chinese-American. * NYLON *What stands out the most about this book is the intimacy of the author’s writing. . .Chan’s focus stays fixed on Carey’s extraordinary voice, her metamorphosis from ambitious ingenue into a showbiz heavyweight and the impact her music has on legions of loyal lambs, the latter of which is most poignantly displayed in the final passages of the book. * Xtra Magazine *Table of Contents 1. A Call to Worship 2. What a Voice Means 3. Other Sounds, Other Realms 4. Out of the Chrysalis 5. Between Laughter and Lament 6. Back at Number 1 7. A Timeless Diva Through Time Acknowledgments Notes
£17.09
University of Texas Press The Devil Is in It
Book Synopsis
£25.19
Duke University Press Is It Still Good to Ya
Book SynopsisEncompassing a career spanning six decades, Is It Still Good to Ya? sums up the career of legendary rock critic and longtime Village Voice stalwart Robert Christgau, whose album and concert reviews, essays, and reflections on his career tackle the whole of pop music, from Louis Armstrong to M.I.A..Trade Review "You either love Christgau or you don’t, but his cantankerous, affectionate, cut-to-the chase reviews and essays over the past 50 years have defined music journalism, and this collection offers an opportunity to re-read the best of the self-proclaimed Dean of American Rock Critics." -- Henry Carrigan * No Depression *"At a moment when music criticism seems less empowered for being more fragmented, Christgau still offers an informed, authoritative perspective, self-aware regarding cultural aging and mortality, not stodgy but wry. A vital chronicler of rock's story, several decades on." * Kirkus Reviews *"The self-proclaimed dean of rock criticism is now in his 70s, and his ongoing influence is felt wherever thoughtful music writing is valued. This collection of work spanning 1967–2017 highlights his omnivorous taste, showing Christgau to be just as comfortable reflecting on Woody Guthrie, Sam Cooke, and the Spice Girls as he is on Radiohead, Mary J. Blige, or Youssou N’Dour." -- Steve Futterman * Publishers Weekly *"These pieces from a preeminent critic will reward a wide swath of music fans who will perhaps be provoked to discuss the mosaic that is popular music in the 20th and early 21st centuries." -- James Collins * Library Journal *"Gleeful flurries of verbal shadow-boxing make this a book which can be enjoyed for the writing alone. . . . His curiosity and sass remain undiminished at the age of seventy-six and his own musical preferences acknowledge no frontiers." -- Lou Glandfield * TLS *"Though Christgau is best known for his pithy, graded Consumer Guide blurbs, this monumental tome collects his longer essays on both essential figures in popular music and his own pet favorites, at least a few of which he’ll convince you deserve to be considered essential themselves. Buy two copies—one to throw angrily across the room, one as a reference." -- Keith Harris * City Pages (Minneapolis) *"A treasure trove of the most incisive, witty pop music reviews and commentary ever committed to print." -- Ken Tucker * Fresh Air *"This is complicated work, but for a dean it’s plenty fun, and joy to dip into or explore in depth, both for full appreciations and single lines. Offering some tips for 'growing better ears' on the book’s first page, he suggests you 'spend a week listening to James Brown’s Star Time.' The ensuing pages will keep you listening and thinking for many, many more weeks besides." -- Mark Athitakis * Critical Mass blog *"If the New Journalism movement of the early '60s sought to remove the never-wholly-real concept of objectivity from news reporting, so too did Christgau and his Village voice colleagues remove it from music writing. In fact, that's why this collection is such a worthy read even for those who haven't read much Christgau over the years. You may or may not be compelled to seek out the music he writes about, or you may wholeheartedly disagree with his assessment of that music, but you will enjoy the way he writes about it. Music is personal for him—it's personal for all of us, really—and he writes like it is, only with way more erudition than a common Facebook post." -- Mark Reynolds * Popmatters *"Christgau is . . . one of America’s sharper public intellectuals of the past half century, and certainly one of its most influential—not to mention one of the better stylists in that cohort. Fun is a big part of why." -- David Cantwell * The New Yorker *"One of Christgau’s greatest strengths is that he relentlessly keeps up with the times. At least seven or eight presidents ago, Christgau was already the indispensable guide to the Ramones, Talking Heads, and Parliament Funkadelic. Now he’s even more necessary, the only critic who can sift through new pop from Africa and Egypt and nudge us in the right direction. To paraphrase Dylan, Christgau was older then, and he’s younger than that now." -- Allen Barra * National Book Review *“The reason I was attracted to Christgau in the first place was that his writing was better than that of any other music critic…. ‘A f***ing tour de force,’ Christgau concluded of a 1974 Earth, Wind and Fire album, and the same punchy summary could be applied to [this] absorbing collection.” -- Dai Griffiths * Popular Music *Table of ContentsIntroduction. Robert Christgau's Greatest Hits: Volume UUU 1 Prologue. Good to Ya, Not for Ya: Rock Criticism vs. the Guilty Pleasure 9 I. History in the Making Ten-Step Program for Growing Better Ears 19 Dionysus in Theory and Practice 19 B.E.: A Dozen Moments in the Prehistory of Rock and Roll 27 Let's Get Busy in Hawaiian: A Hundred Years of Ragged Beats and Cheap Tunes 34 Rock Lyrics Are Poetry (Maybe) 42 "We Have to Deal With It": Punk England Report 48 Rock 'n' Roller Coaster: The Music Biz on a Joyride 65 Not My Fault, Not My Problem: Classic Rock 76 A Weekend in Paradise: Woodstock '94 81 Staying Alive: Postclassic Disco 96 Harry Smith Makes History: Anthology of American Folk Music 103 Getting Their Hands Dirty: Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life 107 A Month on the Town 111 U.S. and Them: Are American Pop (and Semi-Pop) Still Exceptional? And by the Way, Does That Make Them Better? 120 What I Listen for in Music 130 II. A Great Tradition Pops as Pop: Louis Armstrong 135 Not So Misterioso: Thelonious Monk 140 First Lady of Song: Billie Holiday 149 Folksinger, Wordslinger, Start Me a Song: Woody Guthrie 154 Caring the Hard Way: Frank Sinatra: 1915-1998 159 Like Ringing a Bell: Chuck Berry: 1926-2017 161 Unnaturals: The Coasters with No Strings Attached 165 Black Elvis: Same Cooke 172 Tough Love: Etta James 176 The Excitement! The Terror!: Miles Davis's '70s 181 Sister, Oh Sister: Kate and Anna McGarrigle 185 Two Pieces About the Ramones: 1901. Ramone2. Road to Ruin Nevermore: Nirvana 196 A Long Short Story: The Go-Betweens 200 Generation Gaps: The Spice Girls 204 Ooh, That Sound: The Backstreet Boys 206 Tear the Sky Off the Mother: 'N Sync 207 The World Is His Boudoir: Prince 208 Two Pieces About Aretha Franklin: 2091. Queen of Pop2. Familiar and Fabulous Two Pieces About Bob Dylan: 2141. Dylan Back: World Goes On2. Secrets of the Sphinx Ain't Dead Yet: Holy Modal Rounders 220 How to Survive on an Apple Pie Diet: John Prine 221 The Unflashiest: Willie Nelson 225 III. Millennium Music from a Desert Storm 231 Ghost Dance 238 The Moldy Peaches Slip You a Roofie 241 Attack of the Chickenshits: Steve Earle 245 Facing Mecca: Youssou N'Dour 249 Three Pieces About M.I.A1. Burning Bright2. Quotations from Charmin M.I.A.3. Right, the Record IV. From Which All Blessings Flow Full Immersion with Suspect Tendencies: Paul Simon's Graceland 259 Fela and His Lessers 267 Vendant l'Afrique 270 Dakar in Gear 275 A God After Midnight: Youssou N'Dour 278 Franco d Mi Amor 279 Forty Years of History, Thirty Seconds of Joy 285 Tribulations of St. Joseph: Ladysmith Black Mambazo 289 Music from a Desert War 292 V. Postmodern Times Growing by Degrees: Kanye West 301 The Slim Shady Essay: Eminem 303 Career Opportunity: The Perceptionists 314 Good Morning Little School Girl: R. Kelly 316 Master and Sacrament: Buddy Guy 319 The Commoner Queen: Mary J. Blige 321 A Hot Little Weirdo: Shakira 323 What's Not to Like?: Norah Jones 326 No-Hope Radio: Radiohead 330 Rather Exhilarating: Sonic Youth 334 Adult Contemporary: Grant McLennan: 1958-2006 337 Titan. Polymath. Naturalist: Ray Charles: 1930-2004 338 He Got Us: James Brown: 1933-2006 339 Old Master: Bob Dylan 342 Estudando Tom Zé 343 Gypsy Is His Autopilot: Gogol Bordello 349 Triumph of the Id: Lil Wayne 353 Brag Like That: Jay-Z 357 Paisley's Progress: Brad Paisley 362 Smart and Smarter: Vampire Weekend 367 The Many Reasons to Love Wussy 372 Hearing Her Pain: Fiona Apple 377 Firestarter: Miranda Lambert 381 Monster Anthems: Lady Gaga 384 Dancing on Her Own: Robyn 388 Three More Pieces About M.I.A.: 393 1. Spread out, Reach High: M.I.A.'s Kala 2. Illygirl Steppin Up 3. Spelled Backwards It's "Aim" The Unassumingest: Lori McKenna 400 VI. Got to Be Driftin' Along Who Knows It Feels It: Bob Marley 407 Shape Shifter: David Bowie: 1947-2016 411 The Most Gifted Artist of the Rock Era: Prince: 1958-2016 414 Forever Old: Leonard Cohen: 1933-2016 416 Sticking It in Their Ear: Bob Dylan 419 Don't Worry About Nothing: Ornette Coleman 420 Sensualistic, Polytheistic: New York Dolls 421 Index 425
£80.75
Duke University Press Book Reports
Book SynopsisIn this generous collection of book reviews and literary essays, Robert Christgau shows readers a different side to his esteemed career with reviews of books ranging from musical autobiographies, criticism, and histories to novels, literary memoirs, and cultural theory.Trade Review"[A] substantial collection of nearly 100 eclectic, thought-provoking, and idea-laden book reviews. . . . [Christgau's] range of topics is impressive, and his references are prolific. These sprightly, highly opinionated 'adventures of an autodidact' reveal Christgau to be a highly literate, astute, and discerning book critic." * Kirkus Reviews *"Christgau mostly writes on books by or about notable musicians, though he hits other cultural touchstones too, such as George Orwell’s 1984. It’s in these nonmusic pieces that Christgau is most successful, shifting focus from his encyclopedic music-industry knowledge to the nuances of language. His essay on books about the 2008 financial crisis is a highlight." * Publishers Weekly *"There are few critics working today with the life-long commitment, focus, and curiosity of Robert Christgau. Book Reports doesn't scan the over half-century of the man's work, and that's what makes it all the more impressive. He's still searching, still pulling volumes from the shelves, looking at new or old ideas, cracking open the spines of preconceived notions all in the service of taking just one more look before walking away with the promise of yet another return." -- Christopher John Stephens * Popmatters *"For Christgau fans and anyone seeking thought-provoking musings on books and music." -- Melissa Engleman * Library Journal *"One reads Christgau for Christgau as much as for the subject of his work." -- Jeff Tamarkin * Mojo *"Though Christgau partisans have the most to gain from this collection, it’s also good for anyone looking for an accessible way into his extensive oeuvre." -- Chad Comello * Booklist *"Christgau is . . . one of America’s sharper public intellectuals of the past half century, and certainly one of its most influential—not to mention one of the better stylists in that cohort. Fun is a big part of why." -- David Cantwell * The New Yorker *"Though not everyone will agree with Christgau’s views (this reader certainly did not), all readers will likely appreciate his style and approach and the depth of his knowledge about a broad range of popular music. Those curious about popular music may find Christgau's style aggressive at times, but that is exactly the point; Christgau pushes the reader to think. Seasoned readers will discover that Christgau questions authors in a way that encourages one to evaluate a book at a deeper level. In short, this is a great read for fans, critics, and scholars alike." -- T. R. Harrison * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 I. Collectibles The Informer: John Leonard's When the Kissing Had to Stop 11 Advertisements for Everybody Else: Jonathan Lethem's The Ecstasy of Influence 14 Democratic Vistas: Dave Hickey's Air Guitar 17 II. From Blackface Minstrelsy to Track-and-Hook In Search of Jim Crow: Why Postmodern Minstrelsy Studies Matter 23 The Old Ethiopians at Home: Ken Emerson's Doo-Dah! 40 Before the Blues: David Wondrich's Stomp and Swerve 43 Rhythms of the Universe: Ned Sublette's Cuba and Its Music 46 Black Melting Pot: David B. Coplan's In Township Tonight! 49 Bwana-Acolyte in the Favor Bank: Banning Eyre's In Griot Time 56 In the Crucible of the Party: Charles and Angelilki Keil's Bright Balkan Morning 59 Defining the Folk: Benjamin Filene's Romancing the Folk 64 Folking Around: David Hajdu's Positively 4th Street 67 Punk Lives: Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain's Please Kill Me 70 Biography of a Corporation: Nelson George's Where Did Our Love Go? 72 Hip-Hop Faces the World: Steven Hager's Hip Hop; David Toop's The Rap Attack; and Nelson George, Sally Banes, Susan Flinker, and Patty Romanowski's Fresh 75 Making Out Like Gangsters: Preston Lauterbach's The Chitlin' Circuit, Dan Charnas's The Big Payback, Ice-T's Ice, and Tommy James's Me, the Mob, and Music 80 Money Isn't Everything: Fred Goodman's The Mansion on the Hill 86 Mapping the Earworm's Genome: John Seabrook's The Song Machine 89 III. Critical Practice Beyond the Symphonic Quest: Susan McClary's Feminine Endings 97 All the Tune Family: Peter van der Merwe's Origins of the Popular Style 100 Bel Cantos: Henry Pleasant's The Great American Popular Singers 102 The Country and the City: Charlie Gillett's The Sound of the City 109 Reflections of an Aging Rock Critic: Jon Landau's It's Too Late to Stop Now 115 Pioneer Days: Kevin Avery's Everything Is an Afterthought and Nona Willis Aronowitz's (ed.) Out of the Vinyl Deeps 117 Impolite Discourse: Jim Derogatis's Let It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer's A Whore Jus Like the Rest, and Nick Tosches's The Nick Torches Reader 123 Journalism and/or Criticism and/or Musicology and/or Sociology (and/or Writing): Simon Firth 129 Serious Music: Robert Walser's Running With the Devil 137 Fifteen Minutes of . . . : William York's Who's Who in Rock Music 139 The Fanzine Worldview, Alphabetized: Ira A. Robbins's (ed.) Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records 140 Awesome: Simon Reynolds's Blissed Out 143 Ingenuousness Lost: James Miller's Flowers in the Dustbin 147 Rock Criticism Lives: Jessica Hopper's The Fist Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic 151 Emo Meets Trayvon Martin: Hanif Abdurraquib's They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us 156 IV. Lives in Music Inside and Out Great Book of Fire: Nick Tosches's Hellfire and Robert Palmer's Jerry Lee Lewis Rocks! 163 That Bad Man, Tough Old Huddie Ledbetter: Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell's The Life and Legend of Leadbelly 169 The Impenetrable Heroism of Sam Cooke: Peter Guralnick's Dream Boogie 171 Bobby and Dave: Bob Dylan's Chronicles: Volume One and Dave Van Ronk's The Mayor of MacDougal Street 178 Tell All: Ed Sanders's Fug You and Samuel R. Delany's The Motion of Light in Water 180 King of the Thrillseekers: Richard Hell's I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp 185 Lives Saved, Lives Lost: Carrie Brownstein's Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl and Patti Smith's M Train 189 The Cynic and the Bloke: Rod Stewart's Rod: The Autobiography and Donald Fagen's Eminent Hipsters 194 His Own Shaman: RJ Smith's The One 199 Spotlight on the Queen: David Ritz's Respect 201 The Realist Thing You've Ever Seen: Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run 205 V. Fictions Writing for the People: George Orwell's 1984 213 A Classic Illustrated: R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis 217 The Hippie Grows Older: Richard Brautigan's Sombrero Fallout 222 Comic Gurdjieffianism You Can Masturbate To: Marco Vassis' Mind Blower 224 Porn Yesterday: Walter Kendrick's The Secret Museum 225 What Pretentious White Men Are Good For: Robert Coover's Gerald's Party 230 Impoverished How, Exactly? Roddy Doyle's The Woman Who Walked into Doors 236 Sustainable Romance: Norman Rush's Mortals 237 Derrnig-Do Scrapping By: Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue 240 Futures by the Dozen: Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire 245 YA Poet of the Massa Woods: Sandra Newman's The Country of Ice Cream Star 248 A Darker Shade of Noir: The Indefatigable Walter Mosley 252 VI. Bohemia Meets Hegemony Épatant le Bourgeoisie: Jerrold Seigel's Bohemian Paris and T. J. Clark's The Painting of Modern Life 263 The Village People: Christine Stansell's American Moderns 278 A Slender Hope for Salvation: Charles Reich's The Greening of America 280 The Lumpenhippie Guru: Ed Sanders's The Family 285 Strait Are the Gates: Morris Dickstein's Gates of Eden 289 The Little Counterculture That Could: Carol Brightman's Sweet Chaos 293 The Pop-Boho Connection, Narrativized: Bernard F. Gendron's Between Montmarte and the Mudd Club 297 Cursed and Sainted Seekers of the Sexual Century: John Heidenry's What Wild Ecstasy 301 Bohemias Lost and Found: Ross Wetzsteon's Republic of Dreams, Richard Kostelanetz's SoHo, and Richard Lloyd's Neo-Bohemia 304 Autobiography of a Pain in the Neck: Meredith Maran's What It's Like to Live Now 309 VII. Culture Meets Capital Twentieth Century Limited: Marshall Berman's All That Is Solid Melts into Air 315 Dialectical Cricket: C. L. R. James's Beyond a Boundary 320 Radical Pluralist: Andrew Ross's No Respect 323 Inside the Prosex Wars: Nadine Strossen's Defending Pornography, Joanna Frueh's Eroctic Faculties, and Lara Kipnis's Bound and Gagged 327 Growing Up Kept Down: William Finnegan's Cold New World 331 Jesus Plus the Capitalist Order: Jeff Sharlet's The Family 334 Dark Night of the Quants: Ten Books About the Financial Crisis 338 They Bet Your Life: Four Books About Hedge Funds 345 Living in a Material World: Raymond Williams's Long Revolution 350 With a God on His Side: Terry Eagleton's Culture and the Death of God, Culture, and Materialism 369 My Friend Marshall: Marshall Berman's Modernism in the Streets 374 Index 381
£112.20
Duke University Press Is It Still Good to Ya
Book SynopsisEncompassing a career spanning six decades, Is It Still Good to Ya? sums up the career of legendary rock critic and longtime Village Voice stalwart Robert Christgau, whose album and concert reviews, essays, and reflections on his career tackle the whole of pop music, from Louis Armstrong to M.I.A..Trade Review "You either love Christgau or you don’t, but his cantankerous, affectionate, cut-to-the chase reviews and essays over the past 50 years have defined music journalism, and this collection offers an opportunity to re-read the best of the self-proclaimed Dean of American Rock Critics." -- Henry Carrigan * No Depression *"At a moment when music criticism seems less empowered for being more fragmented, Christgau still offers an informed, authoritative perspective, self-aware regarding cultural aging and mortality, not stodgy but wry. A vital chronicler of rock's story, several decades on." * Kirkus Reviews *"The self-proclaimed dean of rock criticism is now in his 70s, and his ongoing influence is felt wherever thoughtful music writing is valued. This collection of work spanning 1967–2017 highlights his omnivorous taste, showing Christgau to be just as comfortable reflecting on Woody Guthrie, Sam Cooke, and the Spice Girls as he is on Radiohead, Mary J. Blige, or Youssou N’Dour." -- Steve Futterman * Publishers Weekly *"These pieces from a preeminent critic will reward a wide swath of music fans who will perhaps be provoked to discuss the mosaic that is popular music in the 20th and early 21st centuries." -- James Collins * Library Journal *"Gleeful flurries of verbal shadow-boxing make this a book which can be enjoyed for the writing alone. . . . His curiosity and sass remain undiminished at the age of seventy-six and his own musical preferences acknowledge no frontiers." -- Lou Glandfield * TLS *"Though Christgau is best known for his pithy, graded Consumer Guide blurbs, this monumental tome collects his longer essays on both essential figures in popular music and his own pet favorites, at least a few of which he’ll convince you deserve to be considered essential themselves. Buy two copies—one to throw angrily across the room, one as a reference." -- Keith Harris * City Pages (Minneapolis) *"A treasure trove of the most incisive, witty pop music reviews and commentary ever committed to print." -- Ken Tucker * Fresh Air *"This is complicated work, but for a dean it’s plenty fun, and joy to dip into or explore in depth, both for full appreciations and single lines. Offering some tips for 'growing better ears' on the book’s first page, he suggests you 'spend a week listening to James Brown’s Star Time.' The ensuing pages will keep you listening and thinking for many, many more weeks besides." -- Mark Athitakis * Critical Mass blog *"If the New Journalism movement of the early '60s sought to remove the never-wholly-real concept of objectivity from news reporting, so too did Christgau and his Village voice colleagues remove it from music writing. In fact, that's why this collection is such a worthy read even for those who haven't read much Christgau over the years. You may or may not be compelled to seek out the music he writes about, or you may wholeheartedly disagree with his assessment of that music, but you will enjoy the way he writes about it. Music is personal for him—it's personal for all of us, really—and he writes like it is, only with way more erudition than a common Facebook post." -- Mark Reynolds * Popmatters *"Christgau is . . . one of America’s sharper public intellectuals of the past half century, and certainly one of its most influential—not to mention one of the better stylists in that cohort. Fun is a big part of why." -- David Cantwell * The New Yorker *"One of Christgau’s greatest strengths is that he relentlessly keeps up with the times. At least seven or eight presidents ago, Christgau was already the indispensable guide to the Ramones, Talking Heads, and Parliament Funkadelic. Now he’s even more necessary, the only critic who can sift through new pop from Africa and Egypt and nudge us in the right direction. To paraphrase Dylan, Christgau was older then, and he’s younger than that now." -- Allen Barra * National Book Review *“The reason I was attracted to Christgau in the first place was that his writing was better than that of any other music critic…. ‘A f***ing tour de force,’ Christgau concluded of a 1974 Earth, Wind and Fire album, and the same punchy summary could be applied to [this] absorbing collection.” -- Dai Griffiths * Popular Music *Table of ContentsIntroduction. Robert Christgau's Greatest Hits: Volume UUU 1 Prologue. Good to Ya, Not for Ya: Rock Criticism vs. the Guilty Pleasure 9 I. History in the Making Ten-Step Program for Growing Better Ears 19 Dionysus in Theory and Practice 19 B.E.: A Dozen Moments in the Prehistory of Rock and Roll 27 Let's Get Busy in Hawaiian: A Hundred Years of Ragged Beats and Cheap Tunes 34 Rock Lyrics Are Poetry (Maybe) 42 "We Have to Deal With It": Punk England Report 48 Rock 'n' Roller Coaster: The Music Biz on a Joyride 65 Not My Fault, Not My Problem: Classic Rock 76 A Weekend in Paradise: Woodstock '94 81 Staying Alive: Postclassic Disco 96 Harry Smith Makes History: Anthology of American Folk Music 103 Getting Their Hands Dirty: Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life 107 A Month on the Town 111 U.S. and Them: Are American Pop (and Semi-Pop) Still Exceptional? And by the Way, Does That Make Them Better? 120 What I Listen for in Music 130 II. A Great Tradition Pops as Pop: Louis Armstrong 135 Not So Misterioso: Thelonious Monk 140 First Lady of Song: Billie Holiday 149 Folksinger, Wordslinger, Start Me a Song: Woody Guthrie 154 Caring the Hard Way: Frank Sinatra: 1915-1998 159 Like Ringing a Bell: Chuck Berry: 1926-2017 161 Unnaturals: The Coasters with No Strings Attached 165 Black Elvis: Same Cooke 172 Tough Love: Etta James 176 The Excitement! The Terror!: Miles Davis's '70s 181 Sister, Oh Sister: Kate and Anna McGarrigle 185 Two Pieces About the Ramones: 1901. Ramone2. Road to Ruin Nevermore: Nirvana 196 A Long Short Story: The Go-Betweens 200 Generation Gaps: The Spice Girls 204 Ooh, That Sound: The Backstreet Boys 206 Tear the Sky Off the Mother: 'N Sync 207 The World Is His Boudoir: Prince 208 Two Pieces About Aretha Franklin: 2091. Queen of Pop2. Familiar and Fabulous Two Pieces About Bob Dylan: 2141. Dylan Back: World Goes On2. Secrets of the Sphinx Ain't Dead Yet: Holy Modal Rounders 220 How to Survive on an Apple Pie Diet: John Prine 221 The Unflashiest: Willie Nelson 225 III. Millennium Music from a Desert Storm 231 Ghost Dance 238 The Moldy Peaches Slip You a Roofie 241 Attack of the Chickenshits: Steve Earle 245 Facing Mecca: Youssou N'Dour 249 Three Pieces About M.I.A1. Burning Bright2. Quotations from Charmin M.I.A.3. Right, the Record IV. From Which All Blessings Flow Full Immersion with Suspect Tendencies: Paul Simon's Graceland 259 Fela and His Lessers 267 Vendant l'Afrique 270 Dakar in Gear 275 A God After Midnight: Youssou N'Dour 278 Franco d Mi Amor 279 Forty Years of History, Thirty Seconds of Joy 285 Tribulations of St. Joseph: Ladysmith Black Mambazo 289 Music from a Desert War 292 V. Postmodern Times Growing by Degrees: Kanye West 301 The Slim Shady Essay: Eminem 303 Career Opportunity: The Perceptionists 314 Good Morning Little School Girl: R. Kelly 316 Master and Sacrament: Buddy Guy 319 The Commoner Queen: Mary J. Blige 321 A Hot Little Weirdo: Shakira 323 What's Not to Like?: Norah Jones 326 No-Hope Radio: Radiohead 330 Rather Exhilarating: Sonic Youth 334 Adult Contemporary: Grant McLennan: 1958-2006 337 Titan. Polymath. Naturalist: Ray Charles: 1930-2004 338 He Got Us: James Brown: 1933-2006 339 Old Master: Bob Dylan 342 Estudando Tom Zé 343 Gypsy Is His Autopilot: Gogol Bordello 349 Triumph of the Id: Lil Wayne 353 Brag Like That: Jay-Z 357 Paisley's Progress: Brad Paisley 362 Smart and Smarter: Vampire Weekend 367 The Many Reasons to Love Wussy 372 Hearing Her Pain: Fiona Apple 377 Firestarter: Miranda Lambert 381 Monster Anthems: Lady Gaga 384 Dancing on Her Own: Robyn 388 Three More Pieces About M.I.A.: 393 1. Spread out, Reach High: M.I.A.'s Kala 2. Illygirl Steppin Up 3. Spelled Backwards It's "Aim" The Unassumingest: Lori McKenna 400 VI. Got to Be Driftin' Along Who Knows It Feels It: Bob Marley 407 Shape Shifter: David Bowie: 1947-2016 411 The Most Gifted Artist of the Rock Era: Prince: 1958-2016 414 Forever Old: Leonard Cohen: 1933-2016 416 Sticking It in Their Ear: Bob Dylan 419 Don't Worry About Nothing: Ornette Coleman 420 Sensualistic, Polytheistic: New York Dolls 421 Index 425
£20.69
Duke University Press Book Reports
Book SynopsisIn this generous collection of book reviews and literary essays, Robert Christgau shows readers a different side to his esteemed career with reviews of books ranging from musical autobiographies, criticism, and histories to novels, literary memoirs, and cultural theory.Trade Review"[A] substantial collection of nearly 100 eclectic, thought-provoking, and idea-laden book reviews. . . . [Christgau's] range of topics is impressive, and his references are prolific. These sprightly, highly opinionated 'adventures of an autodidact' reveal Christgau to be a highly literate, astute, and discerning book critic." * Kirkus Reviews *"Christgau mostly writes on books by or about notable musicians, though he hits other cultural touchstones too, such as George Orwell’s 1984. It’s in these nonmusic pieces that Christgau is most successful, shifting focus from his encyclopedic music-industry knowledge to the nuances of language. His essay on books about the 2008 financial crisis is a highlight." * Publishers Weekly *"There are few critics working today with the life-long commitment, focus, and curiosity of Robert Christgau. Book Reports doesn't scan the over half-century of the man's work, and that's what makes it all the more impressive. He's still searching, still pulling volumes from the shelves, looking at new or old ideas, cracking open the spines of preconceived notions all in the service of taking just one more look before walking away with the promise of yet another return." -- Christopher John Stephens * Popmatters *"For Christgau fans and anyone seeking thought-provoking musings on books and music." -- Melissa Engleman * Library Journal *"One reads Christgau for Christgau as much as for the subject of his work." -- Jeff Tamarkin * Mojo *"Though Christgau partisans have the most to gain from this collection, it’s also good for anyone looking for an accessible way into his extensive oeuvre." -- Chad Comello * Booklist *"Christgau is . . . one of America’s sharper public intellectuals of the past half century, and certainly one of its most influential—not to mention one of the better stylists in that cohort. Fun is a big part of why." -- David Cantwell * The New Yorker *"Though not everyone will agree with Christgau’s views (this reader certainly did not), all readers will likely appreciate his style and approach and the depth of his knowledge about a broad range of popular music. Those curious about popular music may find Christgau's style aggressive at times, but that is exactly the point; Christgau pushes the reader to think. Seasoned readers will discover that Christgau questions authors in a way that encourages one to evaluate a book at a deeper level. In short, this is a great read for fans, critics, and scholars alike." -- T. R. Harrison * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 I. Collectibles The Informer: John Leonard's When the Kissing Had to Stop 11 Advertisements for Everybody Else: Jonathan Lethem's The Ecstasy of Influence 14 Democratic Vistas: Dave Hickey's Air Guitar 17 II. From Blackface Minstrelsy to Track-and-Hook In Search of Jim Crow: Why Postmodern Minstrelsy Studies Matter 23 The Old Ethiopians at Home: Ken Emerson's Doo-Dah! 40 Before the Blues: David Wondrich's Stomp and Swerve 43 Rhythms of the Universe: Ned Sublette's Cuba and Its Music 46 Black Melting Pot: David B. Coplan's In Township Tonight! 49 Bwana-Acolyte in the Favor Bank: Banning Eyre's In Griot Time 56 In the Crucible of the Party: Charles and Angelilki Keil's Bright Balkan Morning 59 Defining the Folk: Benjamin Filene's Romancing the Folk 64 Folking Around: David Hajdu's Positively 4th Street 67 Punk Lives: Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain's Please Kill Me 70 Biography of a Corporation: Nelson George's Where Did Our Love Go? 72 Hip-Hop Faces the World: Steven Hager's Hip Hop; David Toop's The Rap Attack; and Nelson George, Sally Banes, Susan Flinker, and Patty Romanowski's Fresh 75 Making Out Like Gangsters: Preston Lauterbach's The Chitlin' Circuit, Dan Charnas's The Big Payback, Ice-T's Ice, and Tommy James's Me, the Mob, and Music 80 Money Isn't Everything: Fred Goodman's The Mansion on the Hill 86 Mapping the Earworm's Genome: John Seabrook's The Song Machine 89 III. Critical Practice Beyond the Symphonic Quest: Susan McClary's Feminine Endings 97 All the Tune Family: Peter van der Merwe's Origins of the Popular Style 100 Bel Cantos: Henry Pleasant's The Great American Popular Singers 102 The Country and the City: Charlie Gillett's The Sound of the City 109 Reflections of an Aging Rock Critic: Jon Landau's It's Too Late to Stop Now 115 Pioneer Days: Kevin Avery's Everything Is an Afterthought and Nona Willis Aronowitz's (ed.) Out of the Vinyl Deeps 117 Impolite Discourse: Jim Derogatis's Let It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer's A Whore Jus Like the Rest, and Nick Tosches's The Nick Torches Reader 123 Journalism and/or Criticism and/or Musicology and/or Sociology (and/or Writing): Simon Firth 129 Serious Music: Robert Walser's Running With the Devil 137 Fifteen Minutes of . . . : William York's Who's Who in Rock Music 139 The Fanzine Worldview, Alphabetized: Ira A. Robbins's (ed.) Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records 140 Awesome: Simon Reynolds's Blissed Out 143 Ingenuousness Lost: James Miller's Flowers in the Dustbin 147 Rock Criticism Lives: Jessica Hopper's The Fist Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic 151 Emo Meets Trayvon Martin: Hanif Abdurraquib's They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us 156 IV. Lives in Music Inside and Out Great Book of Fire: Nick Tosches's Hellfire and Robert Palmer's Jerry Lee Lewis Rocks! 163 That Bad Man, Tough Old Huddie Ledbetter: Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell's The Life and Legend of Leadbelly 169 The Impenetrable Heroism of Sam Cooke: Peter Guralnick's Dream Boogie 171 Bobby and Dave: Bob Dylan's Chronicles: Volume One and Dave Van Ronk's The Mayor of MacDougal Street 178 Tell All: Ed Sanders's Fug You and Samuel R. Delany's The Motion of Light in Water 180 King of the Thrillseekers: Richard Hell's I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp 185 Lives Saved, Lives Lost: Carrie Brownstein's Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl and Patti Smith's M Train 189 The Cynic and the Bloke: Rod Stewart's Rod: The Autobiography and Donald Fagen's Eminent Hipsters 194 His Own Shaman: RJ Smith's The One 199 Spotlight on the Queen: David Ritz's Respect 201 The Realist Thing You've Ever Seen: Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run 205 V. Fictions Writing for the People: George Orwell's 1984 213 A Classic Illustrated: R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis 217 The Hippie Grows Older: Richard Brautigan's Sombrero Fallout 222 Comic Gurdjieffianism You Can Masturbate To: Marco Vassis' Mind Blower 224 Porn Yesterday: Walter Kendrick's The Secret Museum 225 What Pretentious White Men Are Good For: Robert Coover's Gerald's Party 230 Impoverished How, Exactly? Roddy Doyle's The Woman Who Walked into Doors 236 Sustainable Romance: Norman Rush's Mortals 237 Derrnig-Do Scrapping By: Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue 240 Futures by the Dozen: Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire 245 YA Poet of the Massa Woods: Sandra Newman's The Country of Ice Cream Star 248 A Darker Shade of Noir: The Indefatigable Walter Mosley 252 VI. Bohemia Meets Hegemony Épatant le Bourgeoisie: Jerrold Seigel's Bohemian Paris and T. J. Clark's The Painting of Modern Life 263 The Village People: Christine Stansell's American Moderns 278 A Slender Hope for Salvation: Charles Reich's The Greening of America 280 The Lumpenhippie Guru: Ed Sanders's The Family 285 Strait Are the Gates: Morris Dickstein's Gates of Eden 289 The Little Counterculture That Could: Carol Brightman's Sweet Chaos 293 The Pop-Boho Connection, Narrativized: Bernard F. Gendron's Between Montmarte and the Mudd Club 297 Cursed and Sainted Seekers of the Sexual Century: John Heidenry's What Wild Ecstasy 301 Bohemias Lost and Found: Ross Wetzsteon's Republic of Dreams, Richard Kostelanetz's SoHo, and Richard Lloyd's Neo-Bohemia 304 Autobiography of a Pain in the Neck: Meredith Maran's What It's Like to Live Now 309 VII. Culture Meets Capital Twentieth Century Limited: Marshall Berman's All That Is Solid Melts into Air 315 Dialectical Cricket: C. L. R. James's Beyond a Boundary 320 Radical Pluralist: Andrew Ross's No Respect 323 Inside the Prosex Wars: Nadine Strossen's Defending Pornography, Joanna Frueh's Eroctic Faculties, and Lara Kipnis's Bound and Gagged 327 Growing Up Kept Down: William Finnegan's Cold New World 331 Jesus Plus the Capitalist Order: Jeff Sharlet's The Family 334 Dark Night of the Quants: Ten Books About the Financial Crisis 338 They Bet Your Life: Four Books About Hedge Funds 345 Living in a Material World: Raymond Williams's Long Revolution 350 With a God on His Side: Terry Eagleton's Culture and the Death of God, Culture, and Materialism 369 My Friend Marshall: Marshall Berman's Modernism in the Streets 374 Index 381
£27.90
Duke University Press The Sonic Episteme
Book SynopsisRobin James examines how twenty-first-century conceptions of sound as acoustic resonance shape notions of the social world, personhood, and materiality in ways that support white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.Trade Review“Through skillful and perceptive negotiations among diverse theoretical paradigms and material practices, Robin James articulates a bold thesis about the shift from the visual character of modernity articulated by Foucault to the sonic episteme characteristic of twenty-first-century biopolitical neoliberalism. In James’s hands, the sonic episteme becomes a diagnostic tool as well as an all-embracing metaphor of the way the new regime of neoliberal biopower works, its modes of governmentality, and its production of excluded groups. An outstanding book.” -- Ewa Plonowska Ziarek, author of * Feminist Aesthetics and the Politics of Modernism *“The Sonic Episteme is a fascinating exploration of the problems of neoliberalism and the biopolitical that attends to the ways sound has come to be an object of study. Robin James asks readers to refuse the privileging of any one sense experience by examining the ways what she calls the sonic episteme is a part of neoliberal thought, not a break from it. The Sonic Episteme is about the practice of alternatives to the social order in thought and its epistemological possibilities rather than the search for alternatives emerging from the already given epistemological horizon and thrust of Western thought. As such, James offers a way to think sound studies, race, and material cultures together.” -- Ashon T. Crawley, author of * Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility *"James is an insightful philosopher and sharp cultural critic drawing comparisons between musical phenomena such as compression and the loudness wars, and the damages wreaked by neoliberal market economics." -- Karen D. Tregaskin * The Wire *"What makes The Sonic Episteme an impressive accomplishment is its academically acceptable reliance on Philosophy combined with a crucial gesture, beyond Philosophy’s purview, to commercially successful pop music, which has the potential to present a crucial something else." -- Jeff Heinzl * Spectrum Culture *"This extensive assemblage of source texts generates unexpected and often striking conclusions. Most valuably, James organises crucial texts at the intersection of sound studies and critical race studies, proffering their diverse methodologies as alternatives to the techniques of post-democratic perceptual coding. For those interested in the consequences of frequency modeling and the broader project of approaching philosophy through sound, The Sonic Episteme presents a bold . . . foray into the rich territory of neoliberal sonic representation." -- Madeline Collier * Sound Studies *“Robin James’s The Sonic Episteme is an incredibly provocative, well-argued, well-written, and necessary study of popular music and neoliberalism. It will surely be of interest to those in philosophy, popular music studies, sound studies, cultural studies, and Black studies.” -- Elliot H. Powell * Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism *“With The Sonic Episteme, James intervenes upon sound by asking us to think more critically, inclusively, and ethically with and about it.... [Its] topical and methodological breadth makes it a productive and useful addition to the field of popular music studies.” -- Kate Galloway * Journal of Popular Music Studies *“Robin James’ latest book is a compelling and rewarding showcase of her ability to use music and sound as a means to interrogate an array of contemporary philosophical, political, cultural and scientific perspectives.... By aggregating vernacular and non-elite ways of knowing, as expressed through a range of music and sound practices, she has succeeded in developing credible and coherent alternatives.” -- Matthew Lovett * Popular Music *"The Sonic Episteme promises to be an important addition to graduate syllabi and should push music scholars and practitioners to see how our ideas about the nature of sound might hamper our efforts to reshape the places, settings, and institutions where we make music." -- Alexandra M. Apolloni * Journal of the Society of American Music *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction 1 1. Neoliberal Noise and the Biopolitics of (Un)Cool: Acoustic Resonance as Political Economy 23 2. Universal Envoicement: Acoustic Resonance as Political Ontology 51 3. Vibration and Diffraction: Acoustic Resonance as Materialist Ontology 87 4. Neoliberal Sophrosyne: Acoustic Resonance as Subjectivity and Personhood 126 5. Social Physics and Quantum Physics: Acoustic Resonance as the Model for a "Harmonious" World 158 Conclusion 181 Notes 185 Bibliography 227 Index 239
£98.60
Duke University Press Playing for Keeps
Book SynopsisThe contributors to Playing for Keeps examine the ways in which musical improvisation can serve as a way to negotiate violence, trauma, systemic inequality, and the aftermaths of war and colonialism.Trade Review“Casting an eye on the world of improvisation, Playing for Keeps is a major corrective to the latent ethnocentrism of improvisation studies and shifts the field's focus in a revolutionary way. The volume challenges readers to think more carefully and critically about the status of improvisation in various traditional cultural contexts and the intersection of those contexts found in contemporary society. A smart, decisive statement on globalism and improvisation.” -- John Corbett, author of * Vinyl Freak: Love Letters to a Dying Medium *"This is a rewarding project that is already extended by a special edition of the Journal Critical Studies In Improvisation and is to be further extended in a companion book now in progress." -- Phil England * The Wire *"A major academic achievement, Playing for Keeps: Improvisation In The Aftermath is an enlightening examination of different manifestations of improvisation, their transforming possibilities, and of the ethics of listening." -- Ian Patterson * All About Jazz *"I was deeply touched by the description of your experience of our visit to Ramallah and the camps together. I would sincerely hope that your book will be read by more than the academics and intelligentsia, it’s very important." -- John McLaughlin"Playing for Keeps collects critical, thoughtfully selected on how musical improvisation can respond to and through trauma. . . . Case studies in this collection illustrate global improvisatory practices, framing them as solutions to encounters with difference that have failed in the past. These solutions seem especially timely for a world reckoning with dual crises: racism and disease. Each case study testifies to improvisation’s power to maintain and restore dignity through dialogic exchanges of creative response to horrific injustices, exchanges that facilitate co-creation of new community identities with an eye toward nurturing rather than perpetuating destruction. . . . Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals." -- S. Schmalenberger * Choice *“With beautifully written individual chapters on different musical events and communities, and each writer’s interpretation of improvisation in their research topic, [Playing for Keeps] is significant as a collection of essays, and builds upon the growing field of interdisciplinary critical research on improvisation.” -- Rebecca Zola * Jazz Perspectives *“[Playing for a Keeps] is a beacon of hope in times of crisis and will continue to be a reference point as the aftermaths of current crises persist in the years to come. The authors all outline ways in which improvisatory musics—and, more fundamentally, improvisation itself—can help those who suffer through and navigate crises and, afterward, salve the psychological wounds of the survivors.” -- Mike Ford * Current Musicology *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Playing for Keeps: An Introduction / Daniel Fischlin and Eric Porter 1 1. manifesto / Matana Roberts 25 2. The Exhibition of Vandalizim: Improvising Healing, Politics, and Film in South Africa / Stephanie Vos 29 3. The Rigors of Afro/Canarian Jazz: Sounding Peripheral Vision with Severed Tongues / Mark Lomanno 55 4. "Opening Up a Space That Maybe Wouldn't Exist Otherwise" / Holding It Down in the Aftermath / Vijay Iyer in conversation with Daniel Fischlin and Eric Porter 81 5. Experimental and Improvised Norths: The Sonic Geographies of Tanya Tagaq's Collaborations with Derek Charke and the Kronos Quartet / Kate Galloway 94 6. Nina Simone: CIVIL JAZZ! / Randy DuBurke 121 7. Free Improvised Music in Postwar Beirut: Differential Sounds, Intersectarian Collaborations, and Critical Collective Memory / Rana El Kadi 129 8. Street Concerts and Sexual Harassment in Post-Mubarak Egypt: Tarab as Affective Politics / Darci Sprengel 160 9. Improvisation, Grounded Humanity, and Witnessing in Palestine: An Interview with Al-Mada's Odeh Turjman and Reem Abdul Hadi / Daniel Fischlin 191 10. Silsulim (Improvised "Curls") in the Vocal Performance of Israeli Popular Music: Identity, Power, and Politics / Moshe Morad 250 11. Three Moments in Kī Hō`alu (Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar): Improvising as a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) Adaptive Strategy / Kevin Fellezs 275 12. From Prepeace to Postconflict: The Ethics of (Non) Listening and Cocreation in a Divided Society / Sara Ramshaw and Paul Stapleton 300 Contributors 325 Index 331
£112.20
Duke University Press Playing for Keeps
Book SynopsisThe contributors to Playing for Keeps examine the ways in which musical improvisation can serve as a way to negotiate violence, trauma, systemic inequality, and the aftermaths of war and colonialism.Trade Review“Casting an eye on the world of improvisation, Playing for Keeps is a major corrective to the latent ethnocentrism of improvisation studies and shifts the field's focus in a revolutionary way. The volume challenges readers to think more carefully and critically about the status of improvisation in various traditional cultural contexts and the intersection of those contexts found in contemporary society. A smart, decisive statement on globalism and improvisation.” -- John Corbett, author of * Vinyl Freak: Love Letters to a Dying Medium *"This is a rewarding project that is already extended by a special edition of the Journal Critical Studies In Improvisation and is to be further extended in a companion book now in progress." -- Phil England * The Wire *"A major academic achievement, Playing for Keeps: Improvisation In The Aftermath is an enlightening examination of different manifestations of improvisation, their transforming possibilities, and of the ethics of listening." -- Ian Patterson * All About Jazz *"I was deeply touched by the description of your experience of our visit to Ramallah and the camps together. I would sincerely hope that your book will be read by more than the academics and intelligentsia, it’s very important." -- John McLaughlin"Playing for Keeps collects critical, thoughtfully selected on how musical improvisation can respond to and through trauma. . . . Case studies in this collection illustrate global improvisatory practices, framing them as solutions to encounters with difference that have failed in the past. These solutions seem especially timely for a world reckoning with dual crises: racism and disease. Each case study testifies to improvisation’s power to maintain and restore dignity through dialogic exchanges of creative response to horrific injustices, exchanges that facilitate co-creation of new community identities with an eye toward nurturing rather than perpetuating destruction. . . . Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals." -- S. Schmalenberger * Choice *“With beautifully written individual chapters on different musical events and communities, and each writer’s interpretation of improvisation in their research topic, [Playing for Keeps] is significant as a collection of essays, and builds upon the growing field of interdisciplinary critical research on improvisation.” -- Rebecca Zola * Jazz Perspectives *“[Playing for a Keeps] is a beacon of hope in times of crisis and will continue to be a reference point as the aftermaths of current crises persist in the years to come. The authors all outline ways in which improvisatory musics—and, more fundamentally, improvisation itself—can help those who suffer through and navigate crises and, afterward, salve the psychological wounds of the survivors.” -- Mike Ford * Current Musicology *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Playing for Keeps: An Introduction / Daniel Fischlin and Eric Porter 1 1. manifesto / Matana Roberts 25 2. The Exhibition of Vandalizim: Improvising Healing, Politics, and Film in South Africa / Stephanie Vos 29 3. The Rigors of Afro/Canarian Jazz: Sounding Peripheral Vision with Severed Tongues / Mark Lomanno 55 4. "Opening Up a Space That Maybe Wouldn't Exist Otherwise" / Holding It Down in the Aftermath / Vijay Iyer in conversation with Daniel Fischlin and Eric Porter 81 5. Experimental and Improvised Norths: The Sonic Geographies of Tanya Tagaq's Collaborations with Derek Charke and the Kronos Quartet / Kate Galloway 94 6. Nina Simone: CIVIL JAZZ! / Randy DuBurke 121 7. Free Improvised Music in Postwar Beirut: Differential Sounds, Intersectarian Collaborations, and Critical Collective Memory / Rana El Kadi 129 8. Street Concerts and Sexual Harassment in Post-Mubarak Egypt: Tarab as Affective Politics / Darci Sprengel 160 9. Improvisation, Grounded Humanity, and Witnessing in Palestine: An Interview with Al-Mada's Odeh Turjman and Reem Abdul Hadi / Daniel Fischlin 191 10. Silsulim (Improvised "Curls") in the Vocal Performance of Israeli Popular Music: Identity, Power, and Politics / Moshe Morad 250 11. Three Moments in Kī Hō`alu (Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar): Improvising as a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) Adaptive Strategy / Kevin Fellezs 275 12. From Prepeace to Postconflict: The Ethics of (Non) Listening and Cocreation in a Divided Society / Sara Ramshaw and Paul Stapleton 300 Contributors 325 Index 331
£27.90
Duke University Press Songbooks
Book SynopsisIn Songbooks, critic and scholar Eric Weisbard offers a critical guide to books on American popular music from William Billings''s 1770 New-England Psalm-Singer to Jay-Z''s 2010 memoir Decoded. Drawing on his background editing the Village Voice music section, coediting the Journal of Popular Music Studies, and organizing the Pop Conference, Weisbard connects American music writing from memoirs, biographies, and song compilations to blues novels, magazine essays, and academic studies. The authors of these works are as diverse as the music itself: women, people of color, queer writers, self-educated scholars, poets, musicians, and elites discarding their social norms. Whether analyzing books on Louis Armstrong, the Beatles, and Madonna; the novels of Theodore Dreiser, Gayl Jones, and Jennifer Egan; or varying takes on blackface minstrelsy, Weisbard charts an alternative history of American music as told through its writing. As Weisbard demonstrates, thTrade Review“Entertaining scholarship! Entertaining criticism! What a revelation! Eric Weisbard is one of those rare writers who understands that in mirroring the music it addresses, literary analysis should provide pleasure as well as insights. With great verve, Songbooks provides both.” -- David Ritz, co-composer, “Sexual Healing”“Embracing the fact that there's no hearing any music without mediations of crosstalk, mythography, humbug, gatekeeping, and taste war, Eric Weisbard's exuberant and encyclopedic history of music writing delivers two and a half centuries of vernacular bounce—sheets of sound, if you will. Heroic, acutely discerning, compulsively readable, and bound to be enduringly useful.” -- Eric Lott, author of * Black Mirror: The Cultural Contradictions of American Racism *“Eric Weisbard is the rare critic who can pair a deep, intersectional, and breathtakingly intelligent survey of music writing with the nuance and joy of someone who has actually done the strange, difficult work of parsing sound on paper. Songbooks is an extraordinary look at how we try to make sense of the music that buoys and destroys us. It made me rethink what criticism can do, what music can do, and how both can change our lives.” -- Amanda Petrusich, author of * Do Not Sell at Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World’s Rarest 78 rpm Records *"Weisbard reshuffles the canon, paying close attention to Black, gay and other voices that have often been pushed to the margins. . . . He doesn’t penetrate his subjects so much as hurl himself at them and bounce off, like a bird smacking into a window. Weisbard falls to the ground, dusts himself off, then counts the intellectual change that’s fallen from his pockets." -- Dwight Garner * New York Times *"Weisbard’s comprehensiveness means he may introduce many music fans to works they might not know otherwise. . . . A valuable literature review of American pop. . . ." * Kirkus Reviews *"Weisbard’s book will be required reading for all music critics and journalists." -- Henry Carrigan * No Depression *"Could you perchance use an overview of everything that’s been thought in the 50-plus years since rock critics turned popular music journalism into an intellectually and for a while economically viable enterprise? Songbooks is it, only it goes back a lot further—two and a half centuries. . . . An inspiring, provocative vision of the many ways popular music matters." -- Robert Christgau"Songbooks is the kind of book you keep picking up and dipping into for the rest of your life." -- Michaelangelo Matos * Rock and Roll Globe *"Weisbard's book is a valuable resource for those who are interested in researching and learning more about the history of American popular music." -- Kristine Dizon * European Journal of American Studies *"In 500-some pages that read like 200 — the writing is fluid, playful, funny, tough, fast on the eye — Weisbard lightly packs more critical judgment and original phrase-making into each of his two- or three-page chapters than most scholars can manage in 50. This is a literary history of American popular music, but it’s also a map of the country so many other writers have marked out. . . . Songbooks is a great reference book, but before and after that it’s a funhouse." -- Greil Marcus * Chronicle of Higher Education *"Songbooks is a Herculean achievement of both research and tribute, a book that excavates and illuminates the intellectual history that it promises and so much more." -- Jack Hamilton * Journal of Popular Music Studies *"... Serious students of American popular music will find the book a strong introduction to the literature and scholarship that have defined American popular music. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." * Choice *"On more than one occasion, I was reminded of late-night conversations I have enjoyed at popular music conferences – witty, erudite, entertaining debates, in which a variety of connections and comparisons, explanations and opinions compete for attention, often straying from the original topic. . . . [T]he essays here illuminate the diverse histories and circumstances of popular song. In that regard, the essays here are not unlike the musics of the past two centuries to which they refer: revelatory, confusing, dynamic, irritating, rewarding, ephemeral, unexpected, disruptive and always provocative." -- Ian Inglis * Popular Music *"[Weisbard's] task, distilling the American music experience into under 600 pages, is ambitious, and his efforts to incorporate a broad range of titles are noteworthy and commendable. . . . Weisbard’s expertise, passion, and knowledge are undeniable." -- Gregory Stall * Library Journal *"As a valuable resource for scholars of popular music, Songbooks should encourage more writers to enter the discussion. Eric Weisbard has now provided a guidebook to the sometimes chaotic but always vital conversation in popular music studies." -- Leigh H. Edwards * American Literary History *"Songbooks takes us on a fascinating journey through an alternative American popular music history, written not just by experts, but by people usually at the fringes – women, people of color, practitioners, and non-academics. Reading this book from start to finish will give one the best overview of this journey, but the book is perhaps better enjoyed by just dipping in and skipping around as time or interest permits. This book is recommended for all readers interested in popular music and for library collections of popular music." -- Mary Huisman * Music Reference Services Quarterly *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Part I: Setting the Scene First Writer, of Music and on Music: William Billings: The New-England Psalm-Singer, 1770 20 Blackface Minstrelsy Extends Its Twisted Roots: T.D. Rice, "Jim Crow," c. 1832 22 Shape-Note Singing and Early Country: B.F. White and E.J. King, The Sacred Harp, 1944 25 Music in Captivity: Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave: 1853 26 Champion of the White Male Vernacular: Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 1855 28 Notating Spirituals: William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison, eds., Slave Songs of the United States, 1867 30 First Black Music Historian: James Trotter, Music and Some Highly Musical People: The Lives of Remarkable Musicians of the Colored Race, 1878 32 Child Ballads and Folklore: James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 5 vols., 1882-1898 33 Women Not Inventing Ethnomusicology: Alice Fletcher, A Study of Omaha Indian Music, 1893 35 First Hit Songwriter, from Pop to Folk and Back Again: Morrison Foster, Biography, Songs and Musical Compositions of Stephen C. Foster, 1896 39 Americana Emerges: Emma Bell Miles, The Spirit of the Mountains, 1905 44 Documenting the Story: O.G. Sonneck, Bibliography of Early Secular American Music, 1905 45 Tin Pan Alley's Sheet Music Biz: Charles K. Harris, How to Write a Popular Song, 1906 47 First Family of Folk Collecting: John A. Lomax, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, 1910 50 Proclaiming Black Modernity: James Weldon Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, 1912 52 Songcatching in the Mountains: Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, 1917 54 Part II: The Jazz Age Stories for the Slicks: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flappers and Philosophers, 1920 62 Remembering the First Black Star: Mabel Rowland, ed., Bert Williams, Son of Laughter, 1923 64 Magazine Criticism across Popular Genres: Gilbert Seldes, The Seven Lively Arts, 1924 67 Harlem Renaissance: Alain Locke, ed., The New Negro: An Interpretation, 1925 69 Tin Pan Alley's Standards Setter: Alexander Woollcott, The Story of Irving Berlin, 1925 71 Broadway Musical as Supertext: Edna Ferber, Show Boat, 1926 74 Father of the Blues in Print: W.C. Handy, ed., Blues: An Anthology, 1926 76 Poet of the Blare and Racial Mountain: Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues, 1926 78 Blessed Immortal, Forgotten Songwriter: Carrie Jacobs-Bond, The Roads of Melody, 1927 80 Tune Detective and Expert Explainer: Sigmund Spaeth, Read 'Em and Weep: The Songs Your Forgot to Remember, 1927 82 Pop's First History Lesson: Isaac Goldberg: Tin Pan Alley: A Chronicle of the American Popular Music Racket, 1930 84 Roots Intellectual: Constance Rourke, American Humor: A Study of the National Character, 1931 85 Jook Ethnography, Inventing Black Music Studies: Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men, 1935 87 What He Played Came First: Louis Armstrong, Swing That Music, 1936 90 Jazz's Original Novel: Dorothy Baker, Young Man with a Horn, 1938 94 Introducing Jazz Critics: Frederic Ramsey Jr. and Charles Edward Smith, eds., Jazzmen, 1939 95 Part III: Midcentury Icons Folk Embodiment: Woody Guthrie, Bound for Glory, 1943 104 A Hack Story Soldiers Took to War: David Ewen, Men of Popular Music, 1944 106 From Immigrant Jew to Red Hot Mama: Sophie Tucker, Some of These Days, 1945 108 White Negro Drug Dealer: Mezz Mezzrow and Bernard Wolfe, Really the Blues, 1946 110 Composer of Tone Parallels: Barry Ulanov, Duke Ellington, 1946 111 Jazz's Precursor as Pop and Art: Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis, They All Played Ragtime: The True Story of an American Music, 1950 114 Field Recording in the Library of Congress: Alan Lomax, Mister Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole and "Inventor of Jazz," 1950 118 Dramatizing Blackness from a Distance: Ethel Waters with Charles Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 1951 120 Centering Vernacular Song: Gilbert Chase, America's Music, 1955 122 Writing about Records: Roland Gelatt, The Fabulous Phonograph: From Tin Foil to High Fidelity, 1955 124 Collective Oral History of Document Scenes: Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff, eds., Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It, 1955 127 The Greatest Jazz Singer's Star Text: Billie Holiday with William Dufty, Lady Sings the Blues, 1956 129 Beat Generation: Jack Kerouac, On the Road, 1957 133 Borderlands Folklore and Transnational Imaginaries: Américo Paredes, "With His Pistol in His Hands": A Border Ballad and Its Hero, 1958 136New Yorker Critic of a Genre Becoming Middlebrow: Whitney Balliett, The Sound of Surprise: 46 Pieces on Jazz, 1959 141 Part IV. Vernacular Counterculture Blues Revivalists: Samuel Charters, The Country Blues, 1959; Paul Oliver, Blues Fell This Morning: The Meaning of the Blues, 1960 148 Britpop in Fiction: Colin MacInnes, Absolute Beginners, 1959 151 Form-Exploding Indeterminacy: John Cage, Silence, 1961 153 Science Fiction Writer Pens First Rock and Roll Novel: Harlan Ellison, Rockabilly [Spider Kiss], 1961 155 Pro-Jazz Scene Sociology: Howard Becker, Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance, 1963 159 Reclaiming Black Music: LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Blues People: Negro Music in White America, 1963 159 An Endless Lit, Limited Only in Scope: Michael Braun, "Love Me Do!": The Beatles Progress, 1964 162 Music as a Prose Master's Jagged Grain: Ralph Ellison, Shadow and Act, 1964 167 How to Succeed in . . .: M. William Krasilovsky and Sidney Schemel, This Business of Music, 1964 169 Schmaltz and Adversity: Sammy Davis Jr. and Burt Boyar, Yes I Can, 1965 171 New Journalism and Electrified Syntax: Tom Wolfe, Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, 1965 173 Defining a Genre: Bill C. Malone, Country Music, U.S.A.: A Fifty-Year History, 1968 175 Swing's Movers as an Alternate History of American Pop: Marshall and Jean Stearns, Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance, 1968 177 Rock and Roll's Greatest Hyper: Nik Cohn, Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom, 1969/1970 182Ebony's Pioneering Critic of Black Pop as Black Power: Phyl Garland, The Sound of Soul: The Story of Black Music, 1969 184 Entertainment Journalism and the Power of Knowing: Lillian Roxon, Rock Encyclopedia, 1969 185 An Over-the-Top Genre's First Reliable History: Charlie Gillett, The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1970 187 Rock Critic of the Trivially Awesome: Richard Meltzer, The Aesthetics of Rock, 1970 188 Black Religious Fervor as the Core of Rock and Soul: Anthony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times, 1971 190 Jazz Memoir of "Rotary Perception" Multiplicity: Charles Mingus, Beneath the Underdog, 1971 193 Composing a Formal History: Eileen Southern, The Music of Black Americans, 1971 194 Krazy Kat Fiction of Viral Vernaculars: Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo, 1972 196 Derrière Garde Prose and Residual Pop Styles: Alec Wilder, American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900–1950, 1972 198 Charts as a New Literature: Joel Whitburn, Top Pop Records, 1955–1972, 1973 201 Selling Platinum across Formats: Clive Davis with James Willwerth, Clive, Inside the Record Business, 1975 203 Blues Relationships and Black Women's Deep Songs: Gayl Jones, Corregidora, 1975 205 "Look a the World in a Rock 'n' Roll Sense . . . What Does That Even Mean?": Greil Marcus, Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music, 1975 207 Cultural Studies Brings Pop from the Hallway to the Classroom: Hall and Tony Jefferson, eds., Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain, 1976 211 Life in Country for an Era of Feminism and Counterculture: Loretta Lynn with George Vecsey, Coal Miner's Daughter, 1976 214 Introducing Rock Critics: Jim Miller, ed., The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, 1976 216 Patriarchal Exegete of Black Vernacular as "Equipment for Living": Albert Murray, Stomping the Blues, 1976 219 Reading Pop Culture as Intellectual Obligation: Roland Barthes, Image—Music—Text, 1977 221 Paging through Books to Make History: Dean Epstein, Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War, 1977 223 Historians Begin to Study Popular Music: Lawrence Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom, 1977 225 Musicking to Overturn Hierarchy: Christopher Small, Music, Society, Education, 1977 226 Drool Data and Stained Panties from a Critical Noise Boy: Nick Tosches, Country: The Biggest Music in America, 1977 229 Part V: After the Revolution Punk Negates Rock: Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons, The Boy Looked at Johnny: The Obituary of Rock and Roll, 1978 236 The Ghostwriter behind the Music Books: Ray Charles and David Ritz, Brother Ray: Ray Charles' Own Story, 1978 240 Disco Negates Rock: Andrew Holleran, Dancer from the Dance, 1978 242 Industry Schmoozer and Black Music Advocated Fills Public Libraries with Okay Overviews: Arnold Shaw, Honkers and Shouters: The Golden Years of Rhythm and Blues, 1978 245 Musicology's Greatest Tune Chronicler: Charles Hamm, Yesterdays: Popular Song in America, 1979 247 Criticism's Greatest Album Chronicler: Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the '70s, 1981 248 Rock's Frank Capra: Cameron Crowe: Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, 1981 251 Culture Studies/Rock Critic Twofer!: Simon Frith, Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure, and the Politics of Rock'n'Roll, 1981 252 A Magical Explainer of Impure Sounds: Robert Palmer, Deep Blues, 1981 255 Feminist Rock Critic, Pop-Savvy Social Critic: Ellen Willis, Beginning to See the Light: Pieces of a Decade, 1981 257 New Deal Swing Believer Revived: Otis Ferguson, In the Spirit of Jazz: The Otis Ferguson Reader, 1982 259 Ethnomusicology and Pop, Forever Fraught: Bruno Nettl, The Study of Ethnomusicology: Twenty-Nine Issues and Concepts, 1983 260 Autodidact Deviance, Modeling the Rock Generation to Come: V. Vale and Andrea Juno, eds., RE/Search #6/7: Industrial Culture Handbook, 1983 263 The Rolling Stones of Rolling Stones Books: Stanley Booth, The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones, 1984 266 Finding the Blackface in Bluegrass: Robert Cantwell, Bluegrass Breakdown: The Making of the Old Southern Sound, 1984 268 Cyberpunk Novels and Cultural Studies Futurism: William Gibson, Neuromancer, 1984 269 Glossary Magazine Features Writer Gets History's Second Draft: Gerri Hirshey, Nowhere to Run: The Story of Soul Music, 1984 272 Theorizing Sound as Dress Rehearsal for the Future: Jacques Attali, Noise: The Political Economy of Music, 1977; Translation 1985 274 Classic Rock, Mass Market Paperback Style: Stephen Davis, Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zepplin Saga, 1985 275Love and Rockets, Signature Comic of Punk Los Angeles as Borderland Imaginary: Los Bros Hernandez, Music for Mechanics, 1985 277 Plays about Black American Culture Surviving the Loss of Political Will: August Wilson, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, 1985 280 Putting Pop in the Big Books of Music: H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie, eds., The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, 1986 282 Popular Music's Defining Singer and Swinger: Kitty Kelley, His Way, The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra, 1986 284 Anti-Epic Lyricizing of Black Music after Black Power: Nathaniel Mackey, Bedouin Hornbook, 1986 288 Lost Icon of Rock Criticism: Lester Bangs, Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, 1987 290 Veiled Glimpses of the Songwriter Who Invented Rock and Roll as Literature: Chuck Berry, Chuck Berry: The Autobiography, 1987 292 Making "Wild-Eyed Girls" a More Complex Narrative: Pamela Des Barres, I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie, 1987 294 Reporting Black Music as Art Mixed with Business, Nelson George, The Death of Rhythm & Blues, 1988 295 Sessions with the Evil Genius of Jazz: Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe, Miles: The Autobiography, 1989 298 Part VI: New Voices, New Method Literature of New World Order Americanization: Jessica Hagedorn, Dogeaters, 1990 308 Ethnic Studies of Blended Musical Identities: George Lipsitz, Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture, 1990 310 Ballad Novels for a Baby Boomer Appalachia: Sharyn McCrumb, If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, 1990 312 Pimply, Prole, and Putrid, but with a Surprisingly Diverse Genre Literature: Chuck Eddy, Stairway to Hell: The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe, 1991 314 How Musicology Met Cultural Studies: Susan McClary, Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality, 1991 318 Idol for Academic Analysis and a Changing Public Sphere: Madonna, Sex, 1992 320 Black Bohemian Cultural Nationalism: Greg Tate, Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America, 1992 324 From Indie to Alternative Rock: Gina Arnold, Route 666: On the Road to Nirvana, 1993 326 Musicology on Popular Music—In Pragmatic Context: Richard Crawford, The American Musical Landscape, 1993 330 Listenign, Queerly, Wayne Koestenbaum, The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire, 1993 332 Blackface as Stolen Vernacular: Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class, 1993 334 Media Studies of Girls Listening to Top 40: Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media, 1994 338 Ironies of a Contested Identity: Peter Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, 1994 339 Two Generations of Leading Ethnomusicologists Debate the Popular: Charles Keil and Steven Feld: Music Grooves: Essays and Dialogues, 1944 344 Defining Hip-Hop as Flow, Layering, Rupture, and Postindustrial Resistance: Tricia Rose, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America, 1994 346 Regendering Music Writing, with the Deadly Art of Attitude: Evelyn McDonnell and Ann Powers, eds., Rock She Wrote: Women Write about Rock, Pop, and Rap, 1995 348 Soundscaping References, Immersing Trauma: David Toop, Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds, 1995 348 Sociologist Gives Country Studies a Soft-Shell Contrast to the Honky-Tonk: Richard Peterson, Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity, 1997 354 All That Not-Quite Jazz: Gary Giddins, Visions of Jazz: The First Century, 1998 355 Jazz Studies Conquers the Academy: Robert G. O'Meally, ed., The Jazz Cadence of American Culture, 1998 357 Part VII: Topics in Progress Paradigms of Club Culture, House and Techno to Rave and EDM: Simon Reynolds, Energy Flash: A Journey through Rave Music and Dance Culture, 1998 368 Performance Studies, Minoritarian Identity, and Academic Wildness: José Esteban Muñoz, Disidentification: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics, 1999 372 Left of Black: Networking a New Discourse: Mark Anthony Neal, What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture, 1999 375 Aerobics as Genre, Managing Emotions: Tia DeNora, Music in Everyday Life, 2000 377 Confronting Globalization: Thomas Turino, Nationalists, Cosmopolitans, and Popular Music in Zimbabwe, 2000 378 Evocations of Cultural Migration Centered on Race, Rhythm, and Eventually Sexuality: Alejo Carpentier, Music in Cuba, 2001 (1946) 382 Digging Up the Pre-Recordings Creation of a Black Pop Paradigm: Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff, Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music, 1889–1895, 2002 386 When Faith in Popular Sound Wavers, He's Waiting: Theodor Adorno, Essays on Music, ed. Richard Leppert, 2002 388 Codifying a Precarious but Global Academic Field: David Hesmondhalgh and Keith Negus, eds., Popular Music Studies, 2002 391 Salsa and the Mixings of Global Culture: Lise Waxer, City of Musical Memory: Salsa, Record Grooves, and Popular Culture in Cali, Colombia, 2002 393 Musicals as Pop, Nationalism, and Changing Identity: Stacy Wolf, A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical, 2002 396 Musical Fiction and Criticism by the Greatest Used Bookstore Clerk of All Time: Jonathan Lethem, Fortress of Solitude, 2003 399 Poetic Ontologies of Black Musical Style: Fred Moten, In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition, 2003 401 Rescuing the Afromodern Vernacular: Guthrie Ramsey Jr., Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop, 2003 402 Sound Studies and the Songs Question: Jonathan Sterne: The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction, 2003 404 Dylanologist Conventions: Bob Dylan, Chronicles: Volume One, 2004 405 Two Editions of a Field Evolving Faster Than a Collection Could Contain: Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal, eds., That's the Joint! The Hip-Hop Studies Reader, 2004, 2012 410 Revisionist Bluesology and Tangled Intellectual History: Elijah Wald, Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues, 2004 412 Trying to Tell the Story of a Dominant Genre: Jeff Chang, Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, 2005 415 Refiguring American Music—And Its Institutionalizations: Josh Kun, Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America, 2005 419 Country Music Scholars Pioneer Gender and Industry Analysis: Diane Pecknold, The Selling Sound: The Rise of the Country Music Industry, 2007 423 Where Does Classical Music Fit In?: Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, 2007 426 Poptimism, 33 1/3 Books, and the Struggles of Music Critics: Carl Wilson, Let's Talk about Love: A Journey to the End of Taste, 2007 429 Novelists Collegial with Indie Music: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad, 2010 432 YouTube, Streaming, and the Popular Music Performance Archive: Will Friedwald, A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, 2010 437 Idiosyncratic Musician Memoirs—Performer as Writer in the Era of the Artist as Brand: Jay-Z, Decoded, 2010 438 Acknowledgments 443 Works Cited 447 Index 513
£90.95
Duke University Press The Politics of Vibration
Book SynopsisMarcus Boon explores music as a material practice of vibration that emerges from a politics of vibration and which constructs a vibrational space of individual and collective transformation.Trade Review"The boldest aspect of Boon's argument . . . is his move to the level of ontology—to the nature of being or reality itself. For him music's social and racial significance operates not at the level of social codes or experience, but as an intervention in how reality itself is organised: 'music does tell us something about being.' His framework certainly allows a place for aspects of music-making that usually get screened out of modern criticism: its religious power, its role in many cultures' sense of the world's structure. . . ." -- Dan Barrow * The Wire *Table of ContentsIntroduction. Music as a Cosmopolitical Practice 1 1. Lord’s House, Nobody’s House: Pandit Pran Nath and Music as Sadhana 29 2. The Drone of the Real: The Sound-Works of Catherine Christer Hennix 75 3. Music and the Continuum 125 4. Slowed and Throwed: DJ Screw and the Decolonization of Time 179 Coda. July 2, 2020 227 Acknowledgments 231 Notes 235 Bibliography 255 Index 269
£70.55
New York University Press Black Ephemera
Book SynopsisPROSE Award- Music and Performing Arts Category WinnerA framework for understanding the deep archive of Black performance in the digital eraIn an era of Big Data and algorithms, our easy access to the archive of contemporary and historical Blackness is unprecedented. That iterations of Black visual art, such as Bert Williams's 1916 silent film short A Natural Born Gambler or the performances of Josephine Baker from the 1920s, are merely a quick YouTube search away has transformed how scholars teach and research Black performance. While Black Ephemera celebrates this new access, it also questions the crisis and the challenge of the Black musical archive in a moment when Black American culture has become a global export. Using music and sound as its primary texts, Black Ephemera argues that the cultural DNA of Black America has become obscured in the transformation from analog to digital. Through a cross-reading of the relationship between the digital era and culture produced in the prTrade ReviewCovers, citations, and samples spill over the boundaries of form and technology in order to differently reveal the irrepressible, transformative Black archive. Neal displays his archeological talents in demonstration of Black music's ability to return, to sustain, and to answer. Vibrating with relation, Black Ephemera reveals the fact of Black genius and the dense possibility of Black forever through those wise and committed enough to listen * Shana L. Redmond, author of Everything Man: The Form and Function of Paul Robeson *A majestic study of the idea and practice of Black archives. As Mark Anthony Neal analyzes the sonic, digital, literary, and visual, he unveils the power of Black maroon archives, which preserve the opacities, sonic disruptions, and glimpses of possibility that are not meant to be consumed. Black Studies needs this brilliant analysis of the uncontainable wind of Black culture, the wind that blows through open windows. * Margo Natalie Crawford, author of Black Post-Blackness: The Black Arts Movement and Twenty-First-Century Aesthetics *In Black Ephemera, Neal conducts an impressive symphony of memory work. The digital frontier transformed what an archive looks like, how it functions, where it lives, and who gets access to it … As chapters diverge in theme and latitude, the book assumes the feel of a mixtape. There’s one on the pioneering Memphis record label Stax. There’s another chapter on the distillation of Black women’s trauma through pop culture, and one about how collective Black mourning is produced, shared, and preserved digitally. The whole is an impressive totem, and guide, to the importance of holding on to things forgotten in our haste to the future. * Wired *Black music is part of the cultural fabric of society, and Neal offers critical insights into how one can think and learn about it. Valuable for artists, archivists, and historians as well as music students and enthusiasts. -- J. T. Pekarek, Indiana University Northwest * CHOICE *
£66.60
University of Toronto Press Leo Smith
Book SynopsisLEO SMITH—cellist, journalist, composer, and teacher—was one of the most picturesque and frequently idolized artists on the Canadian scene. His career spanned the years between the old music and the new, between the time when artistic education was private and the time when people fasten their cultural hopes on public education and government funds, between the last days when white gloves were worn to drawing room musicales and the days when men dash to recitals without ties. Throughout this period, Leo Smith not only composed and performed for the public, but carried his public with him into the new era. His history, then, provides a changing picture of the Canadian cultural scene through one of the most formative periods in the country's social history. To the crowds at large popular concerts such as the Toronto Proms, this elderly, contented musician represented the epitome of the music maker. In his music, Leo Smith bridged the gap between the old orthodoxies and
£18.04
University of Nebraska Press Maryland My Maryland
Book SynopsisMaryland, My Maryland was one of the most popular Confederate songs during the American Civil War, yet its story is full of ironies that draw attention to the often painful and contradictory actions and beliefs that were both cause and effect of the war. James A. Davis illuminates the incongruities underlying this Civil War anthem and what they reveal about patriotism during the war.Trade Review"Maryland, My Maryland is a strong and important contribution to the field of Civil War history and hopefully will inspire others to take up their own microhistory research to shed more light on the most divisive period in US history."—David K. Graham, H-CivWar"Davis gives us some useful and often insightful observations about life, society, and popular culture during the war, and is at times quite amusing. Maryland, My Maryland is a good read for anyone with an interest in the Home Front during the war, or in American musical history, and, of course, in the still unfinished issues that brought about the war."—A. A. Nofi, Strategy Page"Moving chronologically through the Civil War years, Davis's book meticulously explores the song's origins, reception, use, and reuse, detailing the tension between the nation's love of a good melody and its conflicting ideas of what constitutes a good cause."—Stephanie Dunson, Journal of Southern History“James Davis sheds light on a crucial but understudied dimension of the conflict: the role of music in inspiring devotion to the causes for which both sides fought. He demonstrates an impressive command of the historical and musicological sources necessary to make his analysis persuasive.”—Michael W. Schaefer, professor of English at the University of Central Arkansas and author of A Reader’s Guide to the Short Stories of Stephen Crane “Once again Davis has approached the familiar subject of music in the Civil War with a remarkably fresh take on one of the era’s most popular songs. His latest contribution raises the level of academic inquiry and will stimulate new investigations into broader contexts for music that has often been mentioned but seldom taken seriously.”—Candace Bailey, professor of musicology at North Carolina Central University and author of Music and the Southern Belle: From Accomplished Lady to Confederate Composer“Davis’s historical acumen is impressive, and, combined with his knowledge of musicology, style, phrasing, and other numerous features of song-making, the reader is treated to a multidimensional view of the song. Maryland, My Maryland is not only readable; it is very enjoyable, even a page-turner. Davis is able to write to both the layman and the scholar without making either of them feel that they are trespassing on foreign ground. Anyone interested in the Civil War—really anyone who cares about the subject—will find great treasures in it.”—Randal Allred, professor of English at Brigham Young University–HawaiiTable of Contents Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Patriotic Music and the Civil War 1. Maryland and the Coming of War: Bargain Patriotism and the Need for an Anthem 2. Spring 1861: The Pratt Street Riot and the Birth of a Song 3. “Maryland, My Maryland”: Lyrics, Music, and Publication 4. Fall 1861: The Cary Invincibles, Flags, and Symbolic Patriotism 5. Spring 1862: Marylanders, the Military, and Regionalism 6. Summer 1862: Tropes, Class, and the Rise of an Anthem 7. Fall 1862: Antietam and the Battle of Parodies 8. Spring 1863: pows, Civilians, and Military Patriotism 9. Summer 1863: Gettysburg, Slavery, and the Patriotism of Sacrifice 10. Fall 1863: Women, Hospitals, and Diverging Audiences 11. 1864: Monocacy and the Victory of Song over State 12. 1865: Performing Patriotism and Nostalgia after Appomattox Epilogue: “Maryland, My Maryland” after the War Notes Bibliography Index
£40.50
University Press of Mississippi Booms Blues
Book SynopsisStands as both a remarkable biography of J. Frank G.Boom (1920-1953) and a recovery of his incredible contribution to blues scholarship. Wim Verbei tells how and when the Netherlands was introduced to African American blues music and describes the equally dramatic and peculiar friendship that existed between Boom and jazz critic and musicologist Will Gilbert.
£59.21
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Tearing the World Apart Bob Dylan and the TwentyFirst Century
Book SynopsisParticipates in the creation of the postmillennial Bob Dylan by exploring three central records of the twenty-first century - ""Love and Theft"" (2001), Modern Times (2006), and Tempest (2012) - along with the 2003 film Masked and Anonymous, which Dylan helped write and in which he appears as an actor and musical performer.
£77.35
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Charley Patton Voice of the Mississippi Delta
Book Synopsis
£77.35
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Jazz in China From Dance Hall Music to
Book Synopsis“Is there jazz in China?” This is the question that sent author Eugene Marlow on his quest to uncover the history of jazz in China. Marlow traces China's introduction to jazz in the early 1920s, its interruption by Chinese leadership under Mao in 1949, and its rejuvenation in the early 1980s with the start of China's opening to the world under Premier Deng Xiaoping.
£26.06
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Creating the Jazz Solo
Book SynopsisThroughout his life, Louis Armstrong tried to explain how singing with a barbershop quartet on the streets of New Orleans was foundational to his musicianship. Creating the Jazz Solo shows that Armstrong understood exactly the relationship between what he sang and what he played, and that he he was singing through his horn.
£77.35
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Creating the Jazz Solo Louis Armstrong and
Book SynopsisThroughout his life, Louis Armstrong tried to explain how singing with a barbershop quartet on the streets of New Orleans was foundational to his musicianship. Creating the Jazz Solo shows that Armstrong understood exactly the relationship between what he sang and what he played, and that he he was singing through his horn.
£29.21
University Press of Mississippi Analysis of Jazz
Book SynopsisIn this groundbreaking volume, Laurent Cugny examines and connects the theoretical and methodological processes that underlie all of jazz. Jazz in all its forms is researched and analysed by performers, scholars, and critics. This book is required reading for any serious study of jazz.
£77.35
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Analysis of Jazz
Book SynopsisIn this groundbreaking volume, Laurent Cugny examines and connects the theoretical and methodological processes that underlie all of jazz. Jazz in all its forms is researched and analysed by performers, scholars, and critics. This book is required reading for any serious study of jazz.
£27.96
University Press of Mississippi Adrian Rollini
Book SynopsisAdrian Rollini, an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, played the bass saxophone, piano, vibraphone, and an array of other instruments. This book draws on oral history, vintage articles, and family archives to trace Rollini's life, from his family's arrival in the US to his development and career as a musician, to his retirement and death.
£77.35
University Press of Mississippi American Antebellum Fiddling
Book SynopsisA unique volume that is the only book solely about antebellum American fiddling. It includes more than 250 easy-to-read and clearly notated fiddle tunes alongside biographies of fiddlers and careful analysis of their personal tune collections.
£27.96
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Groove Theory The Blues Foundation of Funk
Book SynopsisPresents an innovative history of funk music focused on the performers, regarding them as intellectuals who fashioned a new aesthetic. Utilizing musicology, literary studies, performance studies, and African American intellectual history, Tony Bolden explores what it means for music, or any cultural artifact, to be funky.
£81.75
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi The Amazing Jimmi Mayes Sideman to the Stars
Book SynopsisFor more than fifty years, Chicago drummer Jimmi Mayes served as a sideman behind some of the greatest musicians and musical groups in history. This sideman to the stars witnessed music history from the best seat in the house - behind the drum set.
£23.96
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Damaged Musicality and Race in Early American
Book SynopsisOffers the first book-length portrait of punk as a musical style with an emphasis on how punk developed in relation to changing ideas of race in American society from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. The book provides fresh interpretations of race and American society during this period and illuminates the contemporary importance of that era.
£81.75
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Poetic Song Verse BluesBased Popular Music and
Book SynopsisInvokes and critiques the relationship between blues-based popular music and poetry in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The volume is anchored in music from the 1960s, when a concentration of artists transformed modes of popular music from entertainment to art-that-entertains.
£23.70
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi The Real Ambassadors Dave and Iola Brubeck and
Book SynopsisTells the story of Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, and Iola Brubeck and the stand they took against segregation by writing and performing a jazz musical titled The Real Ambassadors. First conceived in 1956, the musical's journey to the stage tracks extraordinary twists and turns across the backdrop of the civil rights movement.
£19.96
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Making Tracks A Record Producers Southern Roots
Book SynopsisProvides a widely accessible study in the craft of recording. Billington demonstrates varying ways of achieving the mutual goal of a great record. He also introduces the supporting cast of songwriters, musicians, and engineers crucial to the magic in each recording session.
£21.21
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Songs of Slavery and Emancipation
Book SynopsisFeatures the lyrics of fifteen slave songs and fifteen abolitionist songs, placing them in proper historical context and making them available again to the general public. These songs not only express outrage at slavery but call for militant resistance and destruction of the slave system.
£77.35
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Songs of Earth
Book SynopsisProvides a contemporary guide to understanding and exploring Cantometrics, the system developed by Lomax and Victor Grauer for analysing the formal elements of music related to human geography and sociocultural patterning.
£26.06
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Improvising the Score Rethinking Modern Film
Book SynopsisProvides an original, vivid investigation of innovative collaborations between renowned contemporary jazz artists and prominent independent filmmakers. The book explores how these integrative jazz-film productions challenge us to rethink the possibilities of cinematic music production.
£78.40
University Press of Mississippi All I Want Is Loving You
Book SynopsisFocuses on the white, female artists of the 1950s, a time that predated the chart-topping girl groups of the early 1960s. These popular performers, many of whom graduated out of the big bands of the 1940s, impacted popular music in a huge way.Trade ReviewAuthors have long neglected the fabulous females of the fifties, but Steve Bergsman makes up for that neglect with this fascinating, fact-filled book. All I Want Is Loving You fills a major gap in pop music history and Bergsman is the author who should fill it." - Peter Benjaminson, author of The Story of Motown, Mary Wells: The Tumultuous Life of Motown's First Superstar
£78.29
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Rags and Bones
Book SynopsisTake a broad, multidisciplinary approach to The Band and their music, allowing for examination through sociological, historical, political, religious, technological, cultural, and philosophical means. Each contributor approaches The Band from their field of interest, offering a wide range of investigations into The Band’s music and influence.
£999.99
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Learning Jazz Jazz Education History and Public
Book SynopsisStudies on jazz learning typically focus on one of two methods: institutional education or the kinds of informal mentoring relationships long associated with the tradition. Ken Prouty argues that this distinction works against a common identity for audiences and communities.Trade ReviewBringing together early jazz scholarship, archival materials, and Twitter feeds, this engaging book generates important new discussions about jazz education and advocacy in a historical and contemporary context." - David Borgo, professor of music at University of California San Diego
£81.75
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Roots Punk
Book SynopsisPunk rock evokes dissent and disruption, abrasive and anarchic musicality, and a host of countercultural aesthetics. Featuring interviews and over one hundred images, this volume focuses on how punk merged with roots music to create a rich style that incorporated honky-tonk, rockabilly, doo-wop, reggae, ska, jazz, folk, blues, and labour ballads.Trade Review[With] thorough, enticing interviews and incisive commentary, Roots Punk offers an important counternarrative to standard histories of punk." - David Pearson, author of Rebel Music in the Triumphant Empire: Punk Rock in the 1990s United States
£77.35
University Press of Mississippi Roots Punk
Book SynopsisPunk rock evokes dissent and disruption, abrasive and anarchic musicality, and a host of countercultural aesthetics. Featuring interviews and over one hundred images, this volume focuses on how punk merged with roots music to create a rich style that incorporated honky-tonk, rockabilly, doo-wop, reggae, ska, jazz, folk, blues, and labour ballads.Trade Review[With] thorough, enticing interviews and incisive commentary, Roots Punk offers an important counternarrative to standard histories of punk." - David Pearson, author of Rebel Music in the Triumphant Empire: Punk Rock in the 1990s United States
£26.06
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Poor Gal The Cultural History of Little Liza
Book SynopsisChronicles the origins and evolution of a folk tune beloved by millions worldwide. Dan Gutstein delves into the trajectory of the ‘Liza Jane’ family of songs, including the most popular variant ‘Li’l Liza Jane’. Likely originating among enslaved people on southern plantations, the songs are still performed and recorded centuries later.Trade ReviewAn insightful and informative study that traces the cultural history of the ‘Liza Jane’ family of songs." - Lauren Eldridge Stewart, assistant professor of ethnomusicology at Washington University in St. Louis
£81.75
University Press of Mississippi A Trumpet around the Corner
Book SynopsisThe first book to tell the full story of a century of jazz in New Orleans. Although there is still controversy over the racial origins and cultural sources of New Orleans jazz, Samuel Charters provides a balanced assessment of the role played by all of the city's musical lineages - African American, white and Creole - in jazz's formative years.Trade ReviewWhat Samuel Charters offers is a valentine to his first musical love and a fresh perspective on the pioneers and their progeny who helped define the Big Easy's signature music. As arguably the foremost and most prolific scholar of blues and African American vernacular music, with a career as an author and record producer spanning fifty years, Charters has undeniably brought an epic sweep and unique command to this narrative." - Joshua Berrett, Journal of Southern History"A lifetime of work, thought, and enjoyment goes into anything Samuel Charters write about jazz or New Orleans, and that personal history shines through A Trumpet around the Corner. . . . [B]oth specialists and general readers will find much of interest in Charters's story of New Orleans jazz." - Spencer Downing, Louisiana History"[Charters] skillfully traces the history of this music from its beginnings in the late nineteenth century. . . . A Trumpet around the Corner sheds new light on the development of New Orleans jazz and is a pleasure to read." - Charles Hersch, The Journal of American History"In A Trumpet around the Corner: The Story of New Orleans Jazz, Samuel Charters returns to his first musical love with an expanded perspective, offering valuable insights on the stylistic development of New Orleans jazz pioneers (white and black) by a close analysis of extant recordings, placed in historical context. This is one of the very few studies that treats New Orleans jazz in the 1920s, an often overlooked time when the music continued to grow in its home environment." - Bruce Boyd Raeburn, Curator, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University
£23.96
Cornell University Press Stolen Song
Book SynopsisStolen Song documents the act of cultural appropriation that created a founding moment for French literary history: the rescripting and domestication of troubadour song, a prestige corpus in the European sphere, as French. This book also documents the simultaneous creation of an alternative point of origin for French literary historya body of faux-archaic Occitanizing songs.Most scholars would find the claim that troubadour poetry is the origin of French literature uncomplicated and uncontroversial. However, Stolen Song shows that the Frenchness of this tradition was invented, constructed, and confected by francophone medieval poets and compilers keen to devise their own literary history.Stolen Song makes a major contribution to medieval studies both by exposing this act of cultural appropriation as the origin of the French canon and by elaborating a new approach to questions of political and cultural identity. Eliza Zingesser shows that these quesTrade ReviewDemonstrat[ing] a solid knowledge of her corpus and of the narratives she discusses... Eliza Zingesser offers readers a new way of reading Old French literature, looking at the adoption and conversion of materials to new purposes. She makes a strong case that medieval French authors subsumed Occitan. * SPECULUM *Zingesser approaches her carefully designed corpus through a persuasive combination of historical apprehension, manuscript expertise, close reading, and theory. She skillfully guides her readers through a vast amount of data with a clear, always elegant style. * H-France *Stolen Song is a testament to Zingesser's incisive powers of analysis. * Digital Philology *Thanks to Eliza Zingesser's carefully argued and painstakingly documented study, specialists of Old French and Old Occitan song may now better understand how Francophone authors and audiences sought to subsume Occitan literary prestige into their own cultural traditions. * Tenso *Stolen Song offers a welcome, fresh perspective on a medieval past. Zingesser's arguments are convincingly parsed out with great care and are solidly founded by primary source study alongside forerunning secondary scholarship, especially that of Sarah Kay—an obviously significant influence. * Comitatus *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Of Birds and Madmen: Occitan Songs in French Songbooks 2. Keeping Up with the French: Jean Renart's Francophile Empire in the Roman de la rose 3. Birdsong and the Edges of the Empire: Gerbert de Montreuil's Roman de la violette 4. From Beak to Quill: Troubadour Lyric in Richard de Fournival's Bestiaire d'amour 5. The Rustic Troubadours: Occitanizing Lyrics in France Epilogue
£28.49
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The New Music: Kranichstein Lectures
Book SynopsisA year after the end of the Second World War, the first International Summer Course for New Music took place in the Kranichstein Hunting Lodge, near the city of Darmstadt in Germany. The course, commonly referred to later as the Darmstadt course, was intended to familiarize young composers and musicians with the music that, only a few years earlier, had been denounced as degenerate by the Nazi regime, and it soon developed into one of the most important events in contemporary music. Having returned to Germany in 1949 from exile in the United States, Adorno was a regular participant at Darmstadt from 1950 on. In 1955 he gave a series of lectures on the young Schoenberg, using the latter’s work to illustrate the relation between tradition and the avant-garde. Adorno’s three double-length lectures on the young Schoenberg, in which he spoke as a passionate advocate for the composer whom Boulez had declared dead, were his first at Darmstadt to be recorded on tape. The relation between tradition and the avant-garde was the leitmotif of the lectures that followed, which continued over the next decade. Adorno also dealt in detail with problems of composition in contemporary music, and he often accompanied his lectures with off-the-cuff musical improvisations. The five lecture courses he gave at Darmstadt between 1955 and 1966 were all recorded and subsequently transcribed, and they are published here for the first time in English. This volume is a unique document on the theory and history of the New Music. It will be of great value to anyone interested in the work of Adorno and critical theory, in German intellectual and cultural history, and in the history of modern music.Trade Review“The lectures Adorno gave at Kranichstein between 1955 and 1966 provide an invaluable elaboration and clarification of his thinking on New Music, and in particular on his interpretation of Schoenberg’s early works. Wieland Hoban’s excellent translation does a great service to this magnificent scholarly edition edited by Klaus Reichert and Michael Schwartz of the T. W. Adorno Archive. Its publication in English is of great significance for our understanding of Adorno’s influential ideas at a key period in twentieth-century music.”Max Paddison, Durham University “This book demonstrates the contribution of one of the twentieth century’s most important thinkers to a pivotal moment in avant-garde composition.”Darmstädter Echo “With a high level of theoretical reflection and exceptional skills in technical composition, Adorno succeeded in mediating critical social theory and radical aesthetics.”Opernwelt “Adorno’s lectures show just how lucid and engaging a thinker he can be. These fluently translated lectures and discussions complement his published works on modern music. They offer accessible analysis of works by Schoenberg and others, as well as philosophically informed reflections on the challenges faced by composers, performers and listeners who take music seriously as a response to the modern world.”Andrew Bowie, Royal Holloway University of London, and author of Adorno and the Ends of PhilosophyTable of ContentsOverview Lecture Courses The Young Schoenberg (1955) Schoenberg’s Counterpoint (1956) Criteria of New Music (1957) Vers une musique informelle (1961) The Function of Colour in Music (1966) Notes for the Lectures Editors’ Notes Editors’ Afterword Index
£33.25
University of Pennsylvania Press Prousts Songbook
Book SynopsisIn Proust's Songbook, Jennifer Rushworth analyzes and theorizes the presence and role of songs in Marcel Proust's novel À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time). Instead of focusing on instrumental music and large-scale forms such as symphonies and opera, as is common in Proust musical studies, Rushworth argues for the centrality of songs and lyrics in Proust's opus. Her work analyzes the ways in which the author inserted songs at key turning points in his novel and how he drew inspiration from contemporary composers and theorists of song. Rushworth presents detailed readings of five moments of song in À la recherche du temps perdu, highlighting the songs' significance by paying close attention to their lyrics, music, composers, and histories.Rushworth interprets these episodes through theoretical reflections on song and voice, drawing particularly from the works of Reynaldo Hahn and Roland Barthes. She argues that songs in Proust's no
£49.30
University of Minnesota Press Bar Yarns and Manic-Depressive Mixtapes: Jim
Book SynopsisBar Yarns and Manic Depressive Mix Tapes distills thirty delirious, jam-packed years of some of the best music writing ever to come out of the Twin Cities. As a writer and musician, the ever-curious Jim Walsh has lived a life immersed in music, and it all makes its way into his columns and feature articles, interviews and reviews, including personal essays on life, love, music, family, death, and, yes, the manic-depressive highs and lows that come with being an obsessive music lover and listener. From Minneapolis’s own Prince to such far-flung acts as David Bowie, the Waterboys, Lucinda Williams, Parliament-Funkadelic, L7, the Rolling Stones, the Ramones, U2, Hank Williams, Britney Spears, Elvis Presley and Nirvana, Walsh’s work treats us to a chorus of the voices and sounds that have made the music scene over the past three decades. The big names are here, from Rosanne Cash to Bruce Springsteen to Bob Marley and Jackson Browne, but so are those a little shy of superstardom, like the Tin Star Sisters and Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, the Gear Daddies, Semisonic, and The Belfast Cowboys. The book is also a tour (de force) of the Twin Cities' most celebrated music venues past and present, from the Prom Ballroom to Paisley Park to Duffy's. When Walsh isn't celebrating the sheer magic of live music or dreaming to tunes blasting from the car console, he might be surveying the scene with the Hamm's Bear at Grumpy's or the Double Deuce or singing the last night at the Uptown Bar blues. Whether he's dishing dirt with Yoko Ono or digging the Replacements' roots, giving an old rocker a spin or offering a mic to the latest upstart, Jim Walsh reminds us that in the land of a thousand lakes there are a thousand dances, and the music never dies.Capturing the pure notes and character of the sound of the Twin Cities and beyond, with a keen eye for trends and the telling detail, his book truly is a mix tape of thirty years of unforgettable music.Trade Review"Jim Walsh has been the introspective and thoughtful voice of a generation that reenergized Minnesota music and gave it to the world. This is a book about a man in love with music."—Chris Osgood of The Suicide Commandos"Most mere mortals would have burned out after so many years and so many decibels and late nights, but Jim Walsh is the battery rabbit of the local music scene. For him it really is all about the passion: his contagious joy, awe, and fierce fidelity to the communal spirit are there in everything he writes, and his voice is unmistakable."—Brad Zellar, author of Suburban World: The Norling Photos, Conductors of the Moving World, and House of Coates"Jim Walsh's Bar Yarns and Manic-Depressive Mixtapes is as much a chronicle of the past few decades of the Minneapolis scene as it is a pitch-perfect memoir of what it means to live for music. A crucial read for anyone who has spent their days and nights tangled in the tether of a song."—Jessica Hopper, author of The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic"Jim Walsh’s Bar Yarns and Manic-Depressive Mixtapes is like a cicada come trilling out of the fertile past. Each chapter is a love song of old for the here and now, a desperate season in need of music elixir."—Nicole Helget, author of Summer of Ordinary Ways, The Turtle Catcher, and Stillwater"Walsh’s writing is musical, rhythmic and tuned, with a throughline of humanity."—MinnPost.com"Jim Walsh is a true believer: For him, rock ’n’ roll is more than music or culture and becomes religion. Published in Rolling Stone and The Village Voice, the Minnesota writer-musician is a good and heartfelt essayist and memoirist. "—Shepherd Express"Whether he’s discussing Prince, Springsteen or the Uptown Bar, Walsh is a man and a fan in touch with his feelings about songs, his own life and the communal spirit that music builds."—Star Tribune"There are a lot of rock critics who focus on the negative, or shrug off the humanity of music fandom in favor of cold logic and bloodless analysis. Walsh is not that kind of writer or critic: even when he struggles with what’s going on around him, even when life is unbearably shitty, his writing is usually positive and filled with hope."—PopMatters.com"Organized thematically, it demonstrates Walsh’s knack for using music as a springboard for writing about people’s lives and the communities they inhabit. Walsh’s intimate, nuanced prose makes you feel as if you’ve known him, and the people he writes about, for years."—Minnesota HistoryTable of ContentsContents Introduction Summerteeth Fly Me to the Moon Chickery Chick We Could Be Heroes Just For One Day Nye’s: The Long Goodbye 1. Spirit in the Night We’re Gonna Be Friends Baptism By Bruce Taken by a Photograph For a Dancer 2. On the Road to Find Out No Direction Home Side of the Road All Down the Line Legalize It Merry Christmas to the Thief Who Stole My CD Player 3. Showmen’s Rest Are You Lonesome Tonight? All Apologies Do You Remember Rock ’n’ Roll Radio? Meeting Across the River 4. Bar Yarns From the Land of Sky-Blue Waters Uptown Bar Blues Closing Time Ballad of the Tin Star Sisters Driftwood Nights 5. The Beautiful Ones The Gold Experience Salesmen and Racists Put a Little Love in It Magic 6. Manic-Depressive Mix #1 One Love Ooh La La This is the Sea All My Life Beautiful Day 7. Manic-Depressive Mix #2 Free Your Mind . . . Windfall Ballad of El Goodo Second to No One 8. Minneapolis Confidential Geese of Beverly Road Greetings from Lake We Be Gone Phantom of First Avenue Winter of Our Swedish Fiddler All These Weeks 9. Prince in the ’90s Emancipation Give Up the Funk Everyday People 10. Manic-Depressive Mix #3 I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For Peace on Earth The Ballad of Paul and Sheila Signed, Sealed, Delivered Love is the Law Toxic I Am the Cosmos Georgia On My Mind It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) 11. Manic-Depressive Mix #4 Singing in My Sleep Short Man’s Room After the Dance All About Chemistry I Saw the Light Times Like This Partners in Crime 12. Manic-Depressive Mix #5 Bittersweet Symphony Danny Boy How to Fight Loneliness She’s So Heavy Forever Young Looking for the Northern Lights Harriet If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out Acknowledgments Index
£17.99
University of Minnesota Press Circuit Listening: Chinese Popular Music in the
Book SynopsisHow the Chinese pop of the 1960s participated in a global musical revolution What did Mao’s China have to do with the music of youth revolt in the 1960s? And how did the mambo, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan sound on the front lines of the Cold War in Asia? In Circuit Listening, Andrew F. Jones listens in on the 1960s beyond the West, and suggests how transistor technology, decolonization, and the Green Revolution transformed the sound of music around the globe.Focusing on the introduction of the transistor in revolutionary China and its Cold War counterpart in Taiwan, Circuit Listening reveals the hidden parallels between music as seemingly disparate as rock and roll and Maoist anthems. It offers groundbreaking studies of Mandarin diva Grace Chang and the Taiwanese folk troubadour Chen Da, examines how revolutionary aphorisms from the Little Red Book parallel the Beatles’ “Revolution,” uncovers how U.S. military installations came to serve as a conduit for the dissemination of Anglophone pop music into East Asia, and shows how consumer electronics helped the pop idol Teresa Teng bring the Maoist era to a close, remaking the contemporary Chinese soundscape forever.Circuit Listening provides a multifaceted history of Chinese-language popular music and media at midcentury. It profiles a number of the most famous and best loved Chinese singers and cinematic icons, and places those figures in a larger geopolitical and technological context. Circuit Listening’s original research and far-reaching ideas make for an unprecedented look at the role Chinese music played in the ’60s pop musical revolution.Trade Review"Circuit Listening challenges our understanding of popular music as a Euro-American hegemony by demonstrating how the Sinophone music industries and markets partook of this global circuit through corporate expansion, as well as through local resistance and piracy. It is a long-awaited book on the way global popular music, in all its diversity, circularity, and promiscuity, should be re-historicized and reconceptualized."—Victor Fan, author of Cinema Approaching Reality: Locating Chinese Film Theory"Andrew F. Jones presents a complex transnational circuit with care and panache, explaining why mambo travels, how the Vietnam War created a demand for pirated recordings, and what Mao quotation songs had in common with British rock-and-roll hits. He guides the reader from transistor technology to rural electrification, from voice timbre to smuggling routes. Circuit Listening is cultural history at its richest."—Gail Hershatter, author of The Gender of Memory: Rural Women and China’s Collective Past"Listening is a feast for film buffs."—Shepherd Express"Jones's grasp and analysis of historical materials is impressive. This is an important source and research model for students of Chinese history."—CHOICE"The book is packed with exacting research and close textual decodings of music and films... for Chinese music nerds, Circuit Listening is an absolute must-have."—Taipei TimesTable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction. The East is Red: Towards a Sonic History of the 1960s1. Circuit Listening at the Dawn of the Chinese 1960s2. Quotation Songs: Media Infrastructure and Pop Song Form in Mao’s China3. Fugitive Sounds of the Taiwanese Musical Cinema4. Pirates of the China Seas: Vinyl Records and the Military Circuit5. Folk Circuits: Rediscovering Chen Da6. Teresa Teng and the Network TraceAppendix: “Listening to Songs in the Streets of Taipei” Hsu Tsang-HoueiNotesIndex
£80.00
University of Minnesota Press Gold Experience: Following Prince in the ’90s
Book SynopsisThroughout the 1990s, Prince feuded with his record label, Warner Bros., over his rights as an independent recording artist—and made some of the most brilliant music of his career. During that time, Jim Walsh covered Prince for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and wrote about him passionately, thoughtfully, exhaustively. Here, in real time, is that coverage: a clip-by-clip look back at Prince in the ‘90s. Walsh’s newly unearthed interviews, essays, columns, and reviews make Gold Experience an essential slice of history for fans, scholars, and latecomers to the Minneapolis-born musical genius Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958–April 21, 2016).Join Walsh at the 1994 NBA All-Star game after party and release bash for the single “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World.” Accompany him to the after-hours clubs Erotic City, Glam Slam, and, of course, Paisley Park. Meet Prince’s wife and bandmate Mayte (and while you’re at it, take in the wedding and reception). Enjoy a two-hour sit-down interview with Prince. Explore Prince’s veganism, talk to fans in line for a Target Center show, preview the “Jam of the Year” concert and check in at the after party. The passions and influences, from Mozart to funk godfather Larry Graham; the gigs and the Paisley Park garage sale; Walsh’s open letter to the artist and his reflections on religion and spirituality. This is Prince as few have seen him, reported as only Jim Walsh can: a portrait of the artist from a dizzying array of angles, captured in living color for all time. Trade Review"Jim Walsh was front and center for one of the most prolific and controversial eras in Prince’s career, and Gold Experience offers an intimate, real-time account of this critical chapter in the evolution of a generation's greatest musician."—Alan Light, music journalist and author of Let’s Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain"A revealing look at Prince and his relentless quest for self-realization and truth during his most fascinating and misunderstood era."—Kevin Cole, Chief Content Officer, Host of the Afternoon Show KEXP"During a controversial era of Prince’s career that left most in the industry cynically scratching their heads and rolling their eyes, Jim Walsh kept a steady hand and a wide-open heart, covering the purple beat with passion, curiosity, and something sorely lacking in most newspaper reports: love. Walsh’s words don’t just sing and dance, they do the splits. It’s easy to envision Prince himself cracking a smile and leaping up to sing along."—Andrea Swensson, host at 89.3 The Current and author of Got to Be Something Here: The Origins of Minneapolis Sound"There was a time when Prince asked Jim, ‘Why are you my only friend in the media?’ You can feel his answer in this collection: Here is the most important artist in Minnesota's history, regularly playing in the middle of the night for 300 people or less, and here's the only reporter open hearted enough—everybody else was referring to TAFKAP as ‘Symbolina’ or worse—to serve as the Boswell of Paisley Park."—Steve Marsh, senior writer, Mpls.St.Paul Magazine"[Gold Experience] is wonderful reading for Prince fans and for those who like solid non-fiction writing and who appreciate the music scene."—Looking for a Good Book"Walsh showcases Prince as a complex musician and individual. As with Prince’s music, this title commands multiple readings and analysis."—Library Journal"Vividly capturing the hope and heartbreak of this waning musical epoch, Walsh’s Gold Experience paints a poignant portrait of the artist formerly known as Prince."—Star Tribune"Gold Experience is full of fascinating details about life with Prince (or, rather, the Artist Then-Formerly Known as Prince) in the '90s."—The Current"Walsh covers the Artist (sometimes known only as a symbol) with a music critic’s expertise and a fan’s unbridled enthusiasm."—Crave Online"Gold Experience is presented in a real-time fashion, bringing the reader back to the ‘90s."—Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
£14.24
