The untimely deaths of Amy Winehouse (2011) and Whitney Houston
(2012), and the 'resurrection' of Tupac Shakur for a performance at
the Coachella music festival in April 2012, have focused the media
spotlight on the relationship between popular music, fame and
death. If the phrase 'sex, drugs and rock'n'roll' ever qualified a
lifestyle, it has left many casualties in its wake, and with the
ranks of dead musicians growing over time, so the types of death
involved and the reactions to them have diversified. Conversely, as
many artists who fronted the rock'n'roll revolution of the 1950s
and 1960s continue to age, the idea of dying young and leaving a
beautiful corpse (which gave rise, for instance, to the myth of the
'27 Club') no longer carries the same resonance that it once might
have done. This edited collection explores the reception of dead
rock stars, 'rock' being taken in the widest sense as the artists
discussed belong to the genres of rock'n'roll (Elvis Presley),
disco (Donna Summer), pop and pop-rock (Michael Jackson, Whitney
Houston, Amy Winehouse), punk and post-punk (GG Allin, Ian Curtis),
rap (Tupac Shakur), folk (the Dutchman Andre Hazes) and 'world'
music (Fela Kuti). When music artists die, their fellow musicians,
producers, fans and the media react differently, and this book
brings together their intertwining modalities of reception. The
commercial impact of death on record sales, copyrights, and print
media is considered, and the different justifications by living
artists for being involved with the dead, through covers, sampling
and tributes. The cultural representation of dead singers is
investigated through obituaries, biographies and biopics, observing
that posthumous fame provides coping mechanisms for fans, and
consumers of popular culture more generally, to deal with the
knowledge of their own mortality. Examining the contrasting ways in
which male and female dead singers are portrayed in the media, the
book
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
