Description
Book SynopsisGeek Rock: An Exploration of Music and Subculture examines the relationship between geek culture and popular music, tracing a history from the late 1960s to the present day. The term geek rock refers to forms of popular music that celebrate all things campy, kitschy, and quirky. In this collection of essays, contributors explore the evolution of this music genre, from writing songs about poodles, girls, monster movies, and outer space to just what it means to be white and nerdy.Editors Alex DiBlasi and Victoria Willis have gathered eleven essays from across the world, covering every facet of geek culture from its earliest influences, includingFrank ZappaCaptain BeefheartDevoThey Might Be GiantsWeird Al YankovicPresent-day advocates of NerdcoreGeek Rock offers a working history of this subgenre, which has finally begun to come under academic study. The essays take a variety of scholarly approaches, encompassing musicology, race, gender studies, sociology, and Lacanian psychoanalysis.Gee
Trade ReviewGeek Rock, a series of essays edited by Alex DiBlasi and Victoria Willis, places key figures and trends in the burgeoning geek rock subculture under the lens of critical theory. The inspiration for the book came out of a panel at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association’s annual meeting in Boston in April 2012. . . .As a study of geek subculture, Geek Rock suggests possibilities for future scholarly exploration. * American Reference Books Annual *
DiBlasi and Willis collected eleven essays from around the world, trying to cover the how, when, where, and whys of geek culture’s music from its earliest preferences, which include (as said previously) Zappa and Beefheart, Devo, They Might Be Giants and on to what has now become known as 'nerdcore.' These various essays aren’t simply a fan’s point of view; rather these are serious cultural and musical looks, evaluations and dissections. . . .As a fan of Beefheart and an appreciator of Zappa, I would say, yes, do check this book out. And extra applause for compiling a serious book on a musical subculture; this is not a predictable tome of fan fluff. These are smart music people. * Popdose *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: “Q: Are We Not Geeks? A: We Are Geek Rock!” Chapter 1 “Frank Zappa: Godfather of Geek Rock” Alex DiBlasi, independent scholar Chapter 2 “Taste, Kitsch, and Geek Rock: A Multiple Modernities View” Martina Topić, University of Zagreb Chapter 3 “Futurists and New Traditionalists: The Antagonistic Critique of Devo and Italian Futurism” Ian Steinberg, Wilfrid Laurier University Chapter 4 “Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Geek Rock: Haustor and Darko Rundek” Julijana Zhabeva-Papazova, DMBUC Ilija Nikolovski-Luj Chapter 5 “They Might Be Lacanian: They Might Be Giants, Jacques Lacan, and the Rhetoric of Geek Rock” Victoria Willis, Georgia State University Chapter 6 “‘A Very Subtle Joke’: T.S. Eliot, J. D. Salinger, and the Puer Aeternus in God Shuffled His Feet” Paul Alexander Cantrell, independent scholar Chapter 7 “‘Fuck Me, I’m Twee’: Performing Gender and Age in Twee Pop Caroline Gates-Shannon, independent scholar Chapter 8 “Man [Seeking] Asto-man?: Nouveau Surf Rock and the Futuristic-Past Nostalgic” Shannon Finck, Georgia State University Chapter 9 “The Geek’s Guide to Love: Knowledge and Failure in the Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs” Nadav Appel, Bar-Ilan University Chapter 10 “‘My God, What an Infantile Gesture’: The Mountain Goats as Emblematic of Geek Rock’s Relationship with the Authentic” Taylor Peters, independent scholar Chapter 11 “‘Now It’s Time for a Little Braggadocio’: Nerdcore Rap, Race, and the Politics of Appropriation” Christopher Russell, Northwestern University Appendix 1: Contributor Biographies Appendix 2: Suggested Listening
