Description
Book SynopsisExplaining the bias of union members - most of whom were classical or jazz music performers - against rock music and musicians, this book addresses issues of race and class; questions of what qualified someone as a "skilled" or professional musician.
Trade Review"Both a compelling labor history . . . and a music history . . . Roberts supplies fascinating views into struggles within the AFM over a developing music industry and about a music revolution." -- R.A. Batch * Choice *
"Michael James Roberts outlines the American Federation of Musicians’ systematic marginalization of rock and roll musicians in the 1950s and 1960s largely due to advancing recording technologies, shifting recording industries, morphing U.S. labor laws, and an idiomatic elitism." -- Kathryn Metz * ARSC Journal *
"A good look at rock music’s impact and power in its earliest phases." -- Kenneth Bindas * Journal of American History *
“Roberts … has produced a work that offers many insights. … [I]t provides an excellent interdisciplinary approach to the subject at hand and comes with a comprehensive bibliography that a wide array of readers will relish.” -- Michael T. Bertrand * Register of the Kentucky Historical Society *
“Music history buffs this book, by Michael James Roberts, is for you. … Roberts has written an interesting, well researched work that in retrospect is quite surprising to the average music listener.” -- Leanne Weymans * M/C Reviews *
“Surpassing a simple account of class domination, working class resistance, or binary conflict, Tell Tchaikovsky the News weaves a historically rich tale of contradiction, cultural and economic intersection, and unexpected turns.”
-- William G. Roy * American Journal of Sociology *
"Michael James Roberts has written a superlative book that places class and work squarely in the center of our understanding of rock music." -- Alex Sayf Cummings * Journal of Popular Music Studies *
Table of ContentsPreface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction. Union Man Blues 1
1. Solidarity Forever? The Musicians' Union Responds to Radio and Records 19
2. Have You Heard the News? There's Good Rockin' Tonight: Hepcats, Wildcats, and the Emergence of Rock 'n 'Roll 41
3. If I Had a Hammer: Union Musicians "Bop" Rock 'n ' Roll 113
4. A Working-Class Hero Is Something to Be: The Musicians' Union Attempt to Block the British Invasion 167
Epilogue. Tuned In, Turned On, and Dropped Out: Rock 'n' Roll Music Production Restructures the Music Industry along Non-Union Lines 201
Notes 209
Bibliography 233
Index 243
Photo gallery follows page 112
