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Here is an accessible book containing strategies to help librarians expand their popular culture collections in an organized manner. Many publications explain why libraries should collect popular culture materials; this one explains how. Packed full of useful information, Popular Culture and Acquisitions provides numerous practical approaches to collecting this ever-expanding, often unwieldy mass of information. It aids both beginning and experienced librarians as they sort through the vast array of materials available to them. Discussions ranging from what to collect and how to collect it to what to do with the material once it’s obtained give librarians solid information on how to establ...
This fascinating book tells the story of how television became popular in the United States following the medium's debut at the 1939 New York World's Fair. You'll learn about the people, events, and performances that were televised—or influenced what was being televised—from 1939 to 1953. In addition to the entertainment and cultural aspects of this newborn medium, it also explores the business, politics, and technology of early television.
Popular American Recording Pioneers (winner of the 2001 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award of Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research) covers important musicians who made popular records from 1895 until 1925. You will explore a compilation of facts on these musicians and their records that were scattered in hundreds of record catalogs, trade journals, newspaper clippings, hobbyist magazines, and other sources. Many of the sources used are so rare that only one known copy even exists. An ideal music history reference, Popular American Recording Pioneers is also for collectors of old phonographs, 78s, and cylinders. Some of the artists you will learn about include Billy Murray, Collins & Harlan, and Ada Jones.
The Classic Rock and Roll Reader: Rock Music from Its Beginnings to the Mid-1970s is chock full of entertaining essays to inform and delight you about an era that shaped our culture and future musical trends. This unique book will surprise and enchant even the most zealous music buff with facts and information on the songs that reflected America’s spirit and captured a nation’s attention. The Classic Rock and Roll Reader is offbeat, somewhat irreverent, ironic, and ancedotal as it discusses hundreds of rock and non-rock compositions included in rock history era. The songs offer you information on: Rock’s Not So Dull Predecessors (for example, “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” a...
Go behind the scenes with an insightful look at horror films--and the directors who create them The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films: Dark Parades examines the work of several of the genre's most influential directors and investigates how traditional themes of isolation, alienation, death, and transformation have helped build the foundation of horror cinema. Authors Carl and Diana Royer examine the techniques used by Alfred Hitchcock that place his work squarely in the horror (rather than suspense) genre, discuss avant-garde cinema's contributions to mainstream horror, explore films that use the apartment setting as the "cell of horror," and analyze how angels and aliens function as th...
Covering—the musical practice of one artist recording or performing another composer's song—has always been an attribute of popular music. In 2009, the internet database Second Hand Songs estimated that there are 40,000 songs with at least one cover version. Some of the more common variations of this "appropriationist" method of musical quotation include traditional forms such as patriotic anthems, religious hymns such as Amazing Grace, Muzak's instrumental interpretations, Christmas classics, and children's songs. Novelty and comedy collections from parodists such as Weird Al Yankovic also align in the cover category, as does the "larcenous art" of sampling, and technological variations...
Debut albums are among the cultural artefacts that capture the popular imagination especially well. As a first impression, the debut album may take on a mythical status, whether the artist or group achieves enduring success or in rare cases when an initial record turns out to be an apogee for an artist. Whatever the subsequent career trajectory, the debut album is a meaningful text that can be scrutinized for its revelatory signs and the expectations that follow. Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself: Essays on Debut Albums tells the stories of 23 debut albums over a nearly fifty year span, ranging from Buddy Holly and the Crickets in 1957 to The Go! Team in 2004. In addition to biographical background and a wealth of historical information about the genesis of the album, each essay looks back at the album and places it within multiple contexts, particularly the artist’s career development. In this way, the book will be of as much interest to sociologists and historians as to culture critics and musicologists.
Essays on the 50-year career of American songwriter and composer, John Fogarty, which argue for hus musical and cultural significance.
Examines how the past is portrayed in later popular culture now that the cyclical rhythm of folk culture has been replaced by the linear acceleration of mass society. The 16 essays discuss such topics as the American theme park, popular music, Noah Webster, girl scouts, wars from 1914 to 1991, and shamanic elements in biker culture. No index. Paper edition (unseen), $14.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR