{"product_id":"rocking-the-closet-9780252042805","title":"Rocking the Closet","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe all-embracing, whaddya got? nature of rebellion in Fifties America included pop music's unlikely challenge to entrenched notions of masculinity. Within that upheaval, four prominent artists dared to behave in ways that let the public assumebut not seetheir queerness. That these artists cultivated ambiguous sexual personas often reflected an understandable fear, but also a struggle to fulfill personal and professional expectations. Vincent L. Stephens confronts notions of the closetboth coming out and staying inby analyzing the careers of Liberace, Johnny Mathis, Johnnie Ray, and Little Richard. Appealing to audiences hungry for novelty and exoticism, the four pop icons used performance and queering techniques that ran the gamut. Liberace's flamboyance shared a spectrum with Mathis's intimate sensitivity while Ray's overwrought displays as Mr. Emotion seemed worlds apart from Little Richard's raise-the-roof joyousness. As Stephens shows, the quartet not only thrived in an era of gra\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Scholars interested in queer history, music history, race, and American popular culture generally will therefore learn much from this excellent book.\" --\u003ci\u003eJournal of the History of Sexuality\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn \u003ci\u003eAdvocate\u003c\/i\u003e Best Queer Non-Fiction Book of 2019\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \"Stephen's \u003ci\u003eRocking the Closet\u003c\/i\u003e investigates how contemporary queer stars such as Little Richard navigated the mid-twentieth-century popular music landscape and, as important, how observers reacted to their unconventional gender presentation. . . . Stephens should be commended for the diverse range of primary sources marshalled in his study. . . . \u003ci\u003eRocking the Closet\u003c\/i\u003e presents students and practitioners of queer cultural history, as well as those studying post-war cultural history, with fresher methods of examining popular culture and its legacies.\" --\u003ci\u003eCultural History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Distinguished by excellent writing \u003ci\u003eRocking the Closet\u003c\/i\u003e achieves the admirable goal of being both a sound scholarly work and accessible to readers from all walks of life. It raises provocative ideas and arguments, challenging entrenched ways of thinking about the history of queerness in postwar America.\" --\u003ci\u003eNotes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\"Well-argued and thoughtful.\" --\u003ci\u003eArts Fuse\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eRocking the Closet\u003c\/i\u003e is a worthy contribution to better understanding the queering of postwar masculine identities and popular music. . . . As the barriers between folk and popular cultures continue to be dismantled, scholarship such as \u003ci\u003eRocking the Closet\u003c\/i\u003e follows an interdisciplinary trajectory that will satisfy scholars across disciplines.\" --\u003ci\u003eWestern Folklore\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\"The spirit of \u003ci\u003eRocking the Closet\u003c\/i\u003e is enjoyed in how deftly Stephens illuminates those nuances. He is as lucid about the music as about the cultural moment, the entertainment business, and the lives of the musicians.\" --\u003ci\u003eOn the Seawall\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\"The contemporary mainstream LGBT narrative claims that artists should out themselves for the greater good. But \u003ci\u003eRocking the Closet\u003c\/i\u003e makes a persuasive case that 'open secrecy' helped make stars of Little Richard, Liberace, Johnny Mathis, and Johnny Ray in the decades prior to and after Stonewall. These (until now) academically under-examined, yet enormously successful and influential musicians used the surprising leeway of the glass closet to develop artistic personae that were both appealing and ambiguous, leading to commercial success that rivals that of our current musicians. Stephens' insightful intersectional book will liven the debate in identity and popular culture scholarship!\"--Shana Goldin-Perschbacher, Temple University\u003cbr\u003e  ","brand":"University of Illinois Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48733439590743,"sku":"9780252042805","price":77.35,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780252042805.jpg?v=1720000085","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/rocking-the-closet-9780252042805","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}