About this title: "There are no definitive histories," writes Elijah Wald, in this provocative reassessment of American popular music, "because the past keeps looking different as the present changes." Earlier musical styles sound different to us today because we hear them through the musical filter of other styles that came after them, all the way through funk and ...
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780195341546ISBN:0195341546
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Binding: Hardback
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780195341546ISBN:0195341546
Description: BRAND NEW HARDBACK. 240x165 mm. (336) how the beatles destroyed rock 'n' roll is an alternative history of american music that, instead of recycling the familiar clich‚s of jazz and rock, looks at what people were playing, hearing and dancing to throughout the course of the 20th century, using a wealth of original research, curious quotations, and an irreverent fascination with the oft-despised commercial mainstream. (Hardback) read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr
Date Published: 2009-06-01
ISBN-13:9780195341546ISBN:0195341546
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780195341546. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780195341546ISBN:0195341546
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
"Very detailed history of American popular music - from Ragtime to Jazz to Swing to Ballads to sixties to the Beatles, with an emphasis on how technology and cultured forced changes in popular music. For example, the record player changed people - before they bought sheet music and played music themselves, after they bought records and were passive listeners.
His basic premise is that popular music has been a melding of black & white cultures, and that dancing has been a big part of the music. But the Beatles (and other artists) created rock (as opposed to rock n roll) - which is (a) the first popular music where dancing isn't a major factor, and (b) is overwhelmingly white."
"Just finished the book today. It was provocative, and I learned from it - I liked Wald's focus on the difference between music's critical acceptance and its popularity. But there wasn't enough bite - and partly the blame is the over-the-top title, and all the expectations it brought. University presses might feel you need a sexy title to sell a non-fic book; sometimes it works (Steven Johnson's Everything Bad is Good For You, though not a scholarly imprint), but in this case it falls flat. Wald could have written a book demystifying the Beatles, and truly explored an alternative universe of the early/mid 60s (that he gets into in the final 20 or so pages). But that's not this book.
In HTBDRAR Wald's scope is too vast; he tries to get a critical handle on ALL of American popular music between the the turn of the 20th century and the end of the 60s. He entertains, he provokes, but quickly moves on from genre to genre just as the going gets good."
"Sure, the title is deliberately outrageous, something abrasive to catch the book-buyer's attention, but I hope the strategy works because this history of popular music in the United States deserves a wide readership. Wald begins with the self-evident assumption that such a history should consist of what is popular, not just what music buffs decide is artistically worthy and representative. He argues that it is women who drive popular taste in music because women fill clubs in order to dance, while music historians (almost exclusively men) prefer to listen to records and argue about the merits of particular guitar or horn solos. Wald attempts to correct this imbalance by paying serious attention to many influential figures neglected in the typical history: John Philip Sousa, the dancers Vernon and Irene Castle, Paul Whiteman, Mitch Miller, Harry Belafonte, Ricky Nelson--to name just a few. He also pays attention to important events in the music business and the effects of technology--the the movement from sheet music to recording, the ASCAP ban and AFM boycott, the different audiences for LP's and 45's--and comes to many interesting and surprising conclusions. In addition, he is not at all concerned with artificial "music wars"--white music versus black music, jazz vs. rock, etc.--and this enables him to establish many unusual and illuminating connections. This is a wonderful book. I learned something new on almost every page, and I would heartily recommend it.
Now--for those who have read this far--I will summarize the argument behind this book's provocative title. The Beatles transformed rock and roll from a business of hit singles designed for dancing to a business of artistically planned albums designed primarily for listening. In the process, they increased the gap between white music and its poor cousin black music (which, being less prosperous, was by necessity still yoked to the demands of dance) and the decrease of interaction between the two forms of music which resulted deprived both rock and roll and r & b of the racial cross-pollination that had been the hallmark of American popular music for the 50 plus years preceding "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
"In a good way this book was kind of what I expected and kind of not what I expected. I wouldn't hesitate to read something else this author has written, because it was fairly enjoyable and held my interest. I enjoyed the A&R stories about Mitch Miller the most."
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