Tempo: A Scarecrow Press Music Series on Rock, Pop, and Culture offers titles that explore rock and popular music through the lens of social and cultural history, revealing the dynamic relationship between musicians, music, and their milieu. Like other major art forms, rock and pop music comment on their cultural, political, and even economic situation, reflecting technological advances, psychological concerns, religious feelings, and artistic trends of the times. Like other major musical artists, Bruce Springsteen's work has reflected, revealed, and reacted to modern American realities over the course of his forty-year career. Since releasing his first record in 1973, Springsteen has sold more than a hundred million albums worldwide, played thousands of concerts, and won Grammy, Golden Globe, Emmy, and Academy awards. More importantly, however, he is one of the few twentieth-century singer-songwriters to serve as the voice of his generation, a defining artist whose works reflect the values, dreams, and concerns of many Americans. In Bruce Springsteen: American Poet and Prophet, Donald L. Deardorff II explores the works of "The Boss," defining the exact nature of Springsteen's cultural influence. With the release of seventeen studio albums, Springsteen's influence and popularity spans multiple generations. Deardorff classifies and explains Springsteen's remarkable reception as it evolved from small beginnings in the Jersey shore bars of the 1970s to worldwide fame today. This book thoughtfully considers the trenchant commentary Springsteen's albums make on the mythology of the American Dream, working-class concerns, the changing character of American masculinity, the relationship between Americans and their government, the importance of social justice, and the evocation of an American spirit. Bruce Springsteen: American Poet and Prophet will appeal to more than just Springsteen fans. It describes Springsteen as an apt critic of his own culture, whose music paints literary portraits that uncover the realities of an American society constantly evolving, while striving toward its own betterment.

Punk Rock Warlord explores the relevance of Joe Strummer within the continuing legacies of both punk rock and progressive politics. It is aimed at scholars and general readers interested in The Clash, punk culture, and the intersections between pop music and politics, on both sides of the Atlantic. Contributors to the collection represent a wide range of disciplines, including history, sociology, musicology, and literature; their work examines all phases of Strummer's career, from his early days as 'Woody' the busker to the whirlwind years as front man for The Clash, to the 'wilderness years' and Strummer's final days with the Mescaleros. Punk Rock Warlord offers an engaging survey of its subject, while at the same time challenging some of the historical narratives that have been constructed around Strummer the Punk Icon. The essays in Punk Rock Warlord address issues including John Graham Mellor's self-fashioning as 'Joe Strummer, rock revolutionary'; critical and media constructions of punk; and the singer's complicated and changing relationship to feminism and anti-racist politics. These diverse essays nevertheless cohere around the claim that Strummer's look, style, and musical repertoire are so rooted in both English and American cultures that he cannot finally be extricated from either.

Punk culture is currently having a revival worldwide and is poised to extend and mutate even more as youth unemployment and youth alienation increase in many countries of the world. In Russia, its power to have an impact and to shock is well illustrated by the state response to activist collective and punk band Pussy Riot. This book, based on extensive original research, examines the nature of punk culture in contemporary Russia. Drawing on interviews and observation, it explores the vibrant punk music scenes and the social relations underpinning them in three contrasting Russian cities. It relates punk to wider contemporary culture and uses the Russian example to discuss more generally what constitutes 'punk' today.

Almost 20 years ago Michael Brocken created from his doctoral research, what became both a seminal and contested volume concerning the social mores surrounding the British Folk Revival up to that point in time: The British Folk Revival 1944-2002. In this long-overdue second edition he revisits not only his own research, but also that of others from the 1990s and early 21st century. He then considers how a discourse of folkloric authenticity emerged in the closing years of the 19th century and how a worrying nationalistic immanence came to surround folk music and dance during the inter-war years. Brocken also proposes that the media: records, radio and TV in post-WWII folk revivalism can offer us important insights into how self-directed learning of the folk guitar emerged. Brocken moves on to consider the business structures of the contemporary folk scene and how relationships are formed between contemporary folk business and the digital and social media spheres. In his penultimate chapter he discusses the masculinisation of folk traditions and asks important questions about how our folk traditions are carried and are authorised. In the final chapter he also considers the rise of an exciting new folk live music built environment.

How the British rock band Radiohead subverts the idea of the concept album in order to articulate themes of alienation and anti-capitalism is the focus of Marianne Tatom Letts s analysis of Kid A and Amnesiac. These experimental albums marked a departure from the band s standard guitar-driven base layered with complex production effects. Considering the albums in the context of the band s earlier releases, Letts explores the motivations behind this change. She places the two albums within the concept-album/progressive-rock tradition and shows how both resist that tradition. Unlike most critics of Radiohead, who focus on the band s lyrics, videos, sociological importance, or audience reception, Letts focuses on the music itself. She investigates Radiohead s ambivalence toward its own success, as manifested in the vanishing subject of Kid A on these two albums."

West Germany after the Second World War was a country in shock: estranged from its recent history, and adrift from the rest of Europe. This proved to be fertile ground for a generation of musicians who, from the 1960s onwards, would develop the experimental sounds that became known as Krautrock.

Faust, Neu!, Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Düül II, Can, Kraftwerk - the influence of these groups upon popular music is incalculable. Future Days is an in-depth study of the music and the groups who made it.

In a piano factory tucked away in Richmond, Indiana, Gennett Records produced thousands of records featuring obscure musicians from hotel orchestras and backwoods fiddlers to the future icons of jazz, blues, country music, and rock 'n' roll. From 1916 to 1934, the company debuted such future stars as Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke, and Hoagy Carmichael, while also capturing classic performances by Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, Uncle Dave Macon, and Gene Autry. While Gennett Records was overshadowed by competitors such as Victor and Columbia, few record companies documented the birth of America's grassroots music as thoroughly as this small-town label. In this newly revised and expanded edition of Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy, Rick Kennedy shares anecdotes from musicians, employees, and family members to trace the colorful history of one of America's most innovative record companies.

This is the first full-length biography of Keith Relf, frontman for the Yardbirds and one of the great tragic characters in rock history. Keith's moody vocals and harmonica helped to define the Yardbirds' sound on a string of innovative hit records in the 1960s that influenced garage rock, psychedelia, blues rock, hard rock and heavy metal. Numerous books have been written about the Yardbirds' famous guitarists-Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page-yet Keith has remained a mysterious and elusive figure since his death by electrocution at age 33. A deeply private person, prone to depression and poor health, Keith was ill-suited to the life of a rock star. In the years following the Yardbirds' breakup, as the band's guitarists became household names playing blues-based rock, Keith insisted on pursuing new musical paths, always searching for something new and trying to extend the Yardbirds' spirit of curiosity and innovation. By the time of his death in 1976, Keith was nearly forgotten and struggling physically, emotionally and financially. More than forty years after his tragic death, this important artist's story has finally been written and his contributions celebrated as more than just a footnote to the careers of his better-known bandmates.

Seditious Theology explores the much analysed British punk movement of the 1970s from a theological perspective. Imaginatively engaging with subjects such as subversion, deconstruction, confrontation and sedition, this book highlights the stark contrasts between the punk genre and the ministry of Jesus while revealing surprising similarities and, in so doing, demonstrates how we may look at both subjects in fresh and unusual ways. Johnson looks at both punk and Jesus and their challenges to symbols, gestures of revolt, constructive use of conflict and the shattering of relational norms. He then points to the seditious pattern in Jesus' life and the way it can be discerned in some recent trends in theology. The imaginative images that he creates provide a challenging image of Jesus and of those who have relooked radically in recent years at what being a 'seditious' follower of Christ means for the church. Introducing both a new partner for theological conversation and a fresh way of how to go about the task, this book presents a powerful approach to exploring the life of Christ and a new way of engaging with both recent theological trends and the more challenging expressions of popular culture.

The musical genre of taarab is played for entertainment at weddings and other festive occasions all along the Swahili Coast in East Africa. Taarab contains all the features of a typical 'Indian Ocean' music, combining influences from Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, India and the West with local musical practices. In Taarab, Music in Zanzibar, Janet Topp Fargion traces the development of the genre in Zanzibar, from the late nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth. Of special interest is the role of women. Although men play the main role in the composition and performance of the genre, Topp Fargion argues that the modernization of the genre owes a debt to the participation of women - as audiences and primary consumers, but also as poets and innovators of musical concepts. The book weaves together the historical, social, economic, religious and political dynamics involved in the development of the genre, and investigates how these are played out in the performance of taarab music on Zanzibar.

Hit the lights and jump in the fire, you're about to enter the School of Rock! Today's lecture will be a crash course in brain surgery. This hard and fast lesson is taught by instructors who graduated from the old school--they actually paid $5.98 for The $5.98 EP. But back before these philosophy professors cut their hair, they were lieutenants in the Metal Militia.
Metallica is the "thinking man's" metal band and the headbanger's CNN. Snobs and music critics have often dismissed Metallica as mindless noise; we're here to set the record straight. "In pursuit of truth no matter where it lies," this book considers questions that philosophers have been pondering for ages, including: Does Metallica's music provide an Aristotelian catharsis or does it just make kids go postal? Can "Fade to Black" save you from suicide? Are we all in the "Sanitarium"? How can we "Escape" to be free? What can Nietzsche tell us about the God That Failed? What can Descartes and "One" tell us about the relationship between the mind and the body? Did Lars make a sound argument against Napster?
Metallica is more than just a band, and this book is much more than just a ticket to ride down memory lane. This is an in-depth analysis of the soundtrack to your life. So start your CD player, fire up your iPod, or, better yet, break out the old vinyl. We're going' for a ride with the four horsemen, and a few philosophers too.

Urban God Talk: Constructing a Hip Hop Spirituality, edited by Andre Johnson, is a collection of essays that examine the religious and spiritual in hip hop. The contributors argue that the prevailing narrative that hip hop offers nothing in the way of religion and spirituality is false. From its beginning, hip hop has had a profound spirituality and advocates religious views-and while not orthodox or systemic, nevertheless, many in traditional orthodox religions would find the theological and spiritual underpinnings in hip hop comforting, empowering, and liberating. In addition, this volume demonstrates how scholars in different disciplines approach the study of hip hop, religion, and spirituality. Whether it is a close reading of a hip hop text, ethnography, a critical studies approach or even a mixed method approach, this study is a pedagogical tool for students and scholars in various disciplines to use and appropriate for their own research and understanding. Urban God Talk will inspire not only scholars to further their research, but will also encourage publishers to print more in this field. The contributors to this in-depth study show how this subject is an underrepresented area within hip hop studies, and that the field is broad enough for numerous monographs, edited works, and journal publications in the future.

A new edition as part of the Faber Greatest Hits - books that have taken writing about music in new and exciting directions for the twenty-first century. Re-make/Re-model tells the little known and fascinating story of the individuals and circumstances which combined to form the groundbreaking band Roxy Music -- how the art school avant-garde of the 1960s met the sweat, luck and attitude of chart-topping pop. Written with the co-operation of all of those involved, including Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, Andy Mackay and Phil Manzanera, this is also the definitive account of a new pop vision that would dominate the 1970s. From student digs and provincial nightclubs to emerald-green eyeshadow and fake leopard skin, Re-make/Re-model is about a band which invented an era.

Since the early 2000s New Zealand has undergone a pop renaissance. Domestic artists' sales, airplay and concert attendance have all grown dramatically while new avenues for 'kiwi' pop exports emerged. Concurrent with these trends was a new collective sentiment that embraced and celebrated domestic musicians. In Making New Zealand's Pop Renaissance, Michael Scott argues that this revival arose from state policies and shows how the state built market opportunities for popular musicians through public-private partnerships and organizational affinity with existing music industry institutions. New Zealand offers an instructive case for the ways in which 'after neo-liberal' states steer and co-ordinate popular culture into market exchange by incentivizing cultural production. Scott highlights how these music policies were intended to address various economic and social problems. Arriving with the creative industries' discourse and policy making, politicians claimed these expanded popular music supports would facilitate sustainable employment and a sense of national identity. Yet popular music as economic and social policy presents a paradox: the music industry generates commercial failure and thus requires a large unattached pool of potential talent. Considering this feature, Scott analyses how state programs induced an informal economy of proto-pop production aimed at accessing competitive state funding while simultaneously encouraging musicians to adopt entrepreneurial subjectivities. In doing so he argues New Zealand's music policies are a form of social policy that unintentionally deploy hierarchical structures to foster social inclusion amongst growing numbers of creative workers.

Listen to Rap! Exploring a Musical Genre provides an overview of this kinetic and poetic musical genre for scholars of rap and curious novices alike. Listen to Rap! Exploring a Musical Genre discusses the 50 most influential, commercially successful, and important rappers, rap crews (bands), rap albums, and rap singles. Rap began as an American phenomenon, so the book's emphasis is on Americans, although it also includes information on Canadian, British, Indian, and African rappers and crews. Its organization makes information easily accessible for readers, and the emphasis on the sound of the music gives readers a new angle from which to appreciate the music. Unlike other titles in the series, this volume concentrates solely on rap music. Included in the book are rappers who range from the earliest practitioners of the genre to rappers who are redefining the genre today. A background section introduces the genre, while a legacy section shows how rap has cemented its place in the world. Additionally, another section shows the tremendous impact rap has had on popular culture. Provides readers with a ready list of the 50 most important people and events in rap Discusses vocal styles and musical production in depth Quickly and efficiently characterizes rappers, crews, albums, and singles Provides pertinent information that links rappers, producers, DJs (turntablists), and record labels Discusses the history of rap as a series of local phenomena in the introduction

Religion and Hip Hop brings together the category of religion, Hip Hop cultural modalities and the demographic of youth. Bringing postmodern theory and critical approaches in the study of religion to bear on Hip Hop cultural practices, this book examines how scholars in religious and theological studies have deployed and approached religion when analyzing Hip Hop data. Using existing empirical studies on youth and religion to the cultural criticism of the Humanities, Religion and Hip Hop argues that common among existing scholarship is a thin interrogation of the category of religion. As such, Miller calls for a redescription of religion in popular cultural analysis - a challenge she further explores and advances through various materialist engagements. Going beyond the traditional and more common approach of analyzing rap lyrics, from film, dance, to virtual reality, Religion and Hip Hop takes a fresh approach to exploring the paranoid posture of the religious in popular cultural forms, by going beyond what "is" religious about Hip Hop culture. Rather, Miller explores what rhetorical uses of religion in Hip Hop culture accomplish for various and often competing social and cultural interests.

Lady Gaga represents both the height of celebrity and a disruption of the norms surrounding the social position. This book charts the way the pop star manages the celebrity persona in her relationships with her fans, the development of her gender identity, her parodying of other celebrities, and her navigation of the legal and economic system that make up the music industry. Much of Gaga's ability to maintain ownership of her identity comes from her early decisions to characterise herself as a performance artist. For Gaga, treating celebrity as performance art means living the persona 24 hours a day. That includes sleeping in wigs and making a commitment to never letting anyone see her in sweatpants. Lady Gaga mimicks celebrity life in a self-conscious way that makes the mimicry apparent. Her performance of celebrity is an on-going project - despite what she may claim, she was not born this way. The excess of her celebrity is magnified by her title: Mother Monster. Historically, media narratives of celebrities, monsters, and mothers have centered around uncontrolled excesses that must be contained. Lady Gaga adopts these personas, but refuses to submit to the containment that comes with each of these social positions.

The hit television program American Idol provides a stage where the politics of national, regional, ethnic, and religious identity are performed for millions of viewers. Diversity is carefully highlighted and coached into a viable commodity by judges, argues Katherine Meizel, with contestants packaged into familiar portraits of American identities. Consumer choice, as expressed by audience voting, also shapes the course of the show negotiating ideas of democracy and opportunity closely associated with the American Dream. Through interviews with audience members and participants, and careful analyses of television broadcasts, commercial recordings, and print and online media, Meizel demonstrates that commercial music and the music industry are not simply forces to be criticized or resisted, but critical sites for redefining American culture."

This book traces the particularities of music migration and tourism in different global settings, and provides current, even new perspectives for ethnomusicological research on globalizing musics in transit. The dual focus on tourism and migration is central to debates on globalization, and their examination-separately or combined-offers a useful lens on many key questions about where globalization is taking us: questions about identity and heritage, commoditization, historical and cultural representation, hybridity, authenticity and ownership, neoliberalism, inequality, diasporization, the relocation of allegiances, and more. Moreover, for the first time, these two key phenomena-tourism and migration-are studied conjointly, as well as interdisciplinary, in order to derive both parallels and contrasts. While taking diverse perspectives in embracing the contemporary musical landscape, the collection offers a range of research methods and theoretical approaches from ethnomusicology, anthropology, cultural geography, sociology, popular music studies, and media and communication. In so doing, Musics in Transit provides a rich exemplification of the ways that all forms of musical culture are becoming transnational under post-global conditions, sustained by both global markets and musics in transit, and to which both tourists and diasporic cosmopolitans make an important contribution.

213 performances, 58 countries, 15 months. James Blunt's 'All the Lost Souls' international tour was one of the greatest pop marathons of all time. Journalist and family friend Peter Hardy joined James and his band on their exhilarating and exhausting journey around the world, hoping to discover the man behind the music. From the tour bus to the dressing rooms, from the stage to the after-show parties, travelling with James gave 'Weird Uncle Peter' an access-all-areas pass to his life on tour. A warts-and-all account of lost guitars, adoring fans, ludicrous bar bills and very, very late nights, this is an honest, amusing and insightful look at the mad world of celebrity and the inside story of James himself, both in front of the crowds and behind closed doors. DIFFERENT COUNTRY, SAME STATE is a frank exploration of one man's journey, his passion for music and his passion for life.

This is the first full-length study of British women's instrumental chamber music in the early twentieth century. Laura Seddon argues that the Cobbett competitions, instigated by Walter Willson Cobbett in 1905, and the formation of the Society of Women Musicians in 1911 contributed to the explosion of instrumental music written by women in this period and highlighted women's place in British musical society in the years leading up to and during the First World War. Seddon investigates the relationship between Cobbett, the Society of Women Musicians and women composers themselves. The book's six case studies - of Adela Maddison (1866-1929), Ethel Smyth (1858-1944), Morfydd Owen (1891-1918), Ethel Barns (1880-1948), Alice Verne-Bredt (1868-1958) and Susan Spain-Dunk (1880-1962) - offer valuable insight into the women's musical education and compositional careers. Seddon's discussion of their chamber works for differing instrumental combinations includes an exploration of formal procedures, an issue much discussed by contemporary sources. The individual composers' reactions to the debate instigated by the Society of Women Musicians, on the future of women's music, is considered in relation to their lives, careers and the chamber music itself. As the composers in this study were not a cohesive group, creatively or ideologically, the book draws on primary sources, as well as the writings of contemporary commentators, to assess the legacy of the chamber works produced.

The emergence of Thatcherism around 1980, which ushered in a period of neo-liberalism in British politics that still resonates today, led musicians, like other artists, to respond to their context of production. This book uses the early work of one of these musicians, Elvis Costello, to explore the relationship between popular music and politics in one historical period. It is not a biography but an exploration of the interaction between a creative musician's works and their context of constraint and opportunity. Pilgrim and Ormrod unpack the political meaning of Thatcherism and deal with matters arising in that political context about Costello's life but which had resonance for many others at the time (and still do). These topics include the politics of race, class, gender and ageing, emphasising the recurring theme of nostalgia in modern and post-modern life. Throughout the book examples are provided of Costello's songs and how they work musically to illustrate or stimulate the contextual discussion. The book will be of significant interest to musicologists, sociologists and social psychologists.

Political Rock features luminary figures in rock music that have stood out not only for their performances, but also for their politics. The book opens with a comparative, cultural history of artists who have played important roles in social movements. Individual chapters are devoted to The Clash and Fugazi, Billy Bragg, Bob Dylan, Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam, Sinead O'Connor, Peter Gabriel, Ani DiFranco, Bruce Cockburn, Steve Earle and Kim Gordon. These artists have been chosen for their status as rock musicians and connections to political moments, movements, and art. The artists and authors show that rock retains a critical strain, continuing a tradition of rock politics that matters to fans, activists, and movements alike.

The Presley Family & Friends Cookbook is a special blend of recipes, memories and photographs compiled by the people who knew Elvis best: his personal cook, family, friends and fellow performers. Simmering with nearly 300 recipes, it contains an amazing variety of foods, from Elvis's All Shook Up Milkshake to his You Ain't Nothin' but a Hot Dog to the family's King Creole Lobster and Clam Bake, plus his favourite banana pudding and hamburger recipes. Also included are recipes from his favourite restaurants and Memphis juke joints. The Presley Family & Friends Cookbook contains more than 100 personal family photos - many of which have not been published - and provides personal reminiscences from Elvis's family and friends. Also included are dozens of fan-friendly sidebars and useful information about Elvis movies available on video, plus lists of his many hits and albums and when they appeared on the pop charts. Come and enjoy platter after platter of some the King's favourite foods, straight from the kitchens of some of his most beloved cooks.

John Bonham is one of the legends of rock 'n' roll, and his drumming style helped to elevate Led Zeppelin to greatness. This revised edition contains 23 of Bonham's most famous drum transcriptions from his work with the legendary Led Zeppelin. Also included are editor's notes from each record and note-for-note transcriptions. Titles include: Good Times, Bad Times * Babe I'm Gonna Leave You * Dazed and Confused * Communication Breakdown * Whole Lotta Love * Heartbreaker * Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman) * Immigrant Song * Black Dog * Stairway to Heaven * Misty Mountain Hop * The Song Remains the Same * Over the Hills and Far Away * The Crunge * D'yer Mak'er * No Quarter * Achilles Last Stand * Nobody's Fault but Mine * Fool in the Rain.
"Thanks to Joe Bergamini's usual perfectionism, we have an accurate historical record of one of the greatest rock drummers of all time for the enjoyment and education of today's drummers and all future generations to come. Highly recommended not just for Bonham fans or Rock 'n' Rollers but for all drummers, regardless of style."
-Tiger Bill's DrumBeat