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Portraying Performer Image in Record Album Cover Art
In this work, Ken Bielen explains how album cover art authenticates recording artists in a particular genre. He considers albums issued from the 1950s to the 1980s, the golden era of record album cover art. The whole album package is studied, including the front and back covers, the inside cover, the inner sleeve, and the liner notes. Performers in rock and roll, folk and folk rock, soul and disco, psychedelic, Americana nostalgia, and singer-songwriter genres are included in this study of hundreds of record album covers.
The Lyrics of Civility
This book is the first comprehensive scholarly study of religious images in popular music. Examining bestsellers from 1906 to 1971, the work explores the role religious images have in the secularization of American culture. Popular music lyrics that express an adherence to a sacred order are couched in inoffensive, content-less language. These lyrics of civility reflect and shape the increasing secularization of American culture in the twentieth century. The analysis focuses primarily on the way these lyrics reduce the meaning of the terms and theology of the Biblical faith. The aesthetic of civility carries over into theology, the narratives, and the accompanying instrumental arrangements o...
The Words and Music of John Lennon
Despite John Lennon's immense popularity, little attention has been paid to his work apart from the Beatles. Yet his solo artistry not only illuminates what he gave to the Beatles, but also constitutes a significant contribution to popular music in general. Lennon was able to fuse experiments in technology, instrumentation, lyrics, and musical form into recordings that were both artistically and commercially successful. Few singer-songwriters have been his equal. In this long overdue investigation, authors Ben Urish and Ken Bielen give Lennon's artistry the opportunity to speak for itself. After a brief biographical introduction, chronologically arranged chapters discuss his incredible body ...
The Lyrics of Civility
This book is the first comprehensive scholarly study of religious images in popular music. Examining bestsellers from 1906 to 1971, the work explores the role religious images have in the secularization of American culture. Popular music lyrics that express an adherence to a sacred order are couched in inoffensive, content-less language. These lyrics of civility reflect and shape the increasing secularization of American culture in the twentieth century. The analysis focuses primarily on the way these lyrics reduce the meaning of the terms and theology of the Biblical faith. The aesthetic of civility carries over into theology, the narratives, and the accompanying instrumental arrangements o...
Deconstructing Post-WWII New York City
Situating post-WWII New York literature within the material context of American urban history, this work analyzes how literary movements such as the Beat Generation, the New York poets and Black Arts Moment criticized the spatial restructuring of post-WWII New York City.
Writing Jazz
This study examines how early writers of jazz criticism (such as Gilbert Seldes and Carl Van Vechten) and literature (F. Scott Fitzgerald and Langston Hughes)--as well as jazz performers and composers (such as Al Jolson, Sophie Tucker, and George Gershwin)--associated the music directly with questions about identity (racial, ethnic, national, gendered, and sexual) and with historical developments like industrialization. Going beyond the study of melody, harmony, and rhythm, this book's interdisciplinary approach takes seriously the cultural beliefs about jazz that inspired interracial contact, moralistic panic, bohemian slumming, visions of American democracy, and much more. Detailed textual...
That Was Me
Paul McCartney has lived an extraordinary life in popular music and popular culture. His careers as a Beatle, as a solo musician and band leader in Wings, and in areas outside music have varied tremendously and are well-documented. That Was Me explores the impact of Paul McCartney as a musician outside the Beatles, identifying the continued excitement in generations of fans and listeners, and his perennial efforts to perform and record music. Richard Driver argues that his solo career is multi-faceted and extremely diverse, ranging from breaking sharply with the style and output of the Beatles to experimenting in orchestral and operatic music and returning to music designed to emulate and reproduce the style, success, and popularity of the Beatles. Through McCartney we can literally and symbolically view and revisit the popular music phenomenon that was the Beatles, and popular music from the 1950s to today.
Singer-Songwriters of the 1970s
The 1970s saw a wave of singer-songwriters flood the airwaves and concert halls across the United States. This book organizes the stories of approximately 150 artists whose songs created the soundtrack to people's lives during the decade that forever shaped musical composition. Some well-known, others less known, these artists were the song-poets and storytellers who wrote their own music and lyrics. Featuring biographical information and discography overviews for each artist, this is the only one-volume encyclopedic overview of this topic. Featured artists include Carole King and James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Gordon Lightfoot, Elvis Costello and dozens of other song-poets of the seventies.
Rock Concert Performance from ABBA to ZZ Top
This book presents an analysis of 100 rock concert performances and attempts to answer the question "What makes a truly great rock performance?" Author Peter Smith, an experienced concert goer, delves into his own recollections of experiencing rock performances over the last 50+ years and, with the support of his daughter, Laura Smith, analyzes 100 selected performances covering the themes of icons, persona, energy, fandom, venues, communities, politics, art-rock, authenticity and maturity. The approach taken is based upon qualitative analysis, reflection, and autoethnography. The selected performances cover a range of diverse acts such as the Rolling Stones, ABBA, Sex Pistols, Barbara Streisand, David Bowie, and the like.
The Words and Music of Billy Joel
This detailed exploration looks at the musical works of recording artist Billy Joel and his impact on popular culture. Billy Joel skyrocketed to popularity in 1977 with his fifth album, The Stranger, and he has been a major American artist ever since. His songs are timeless and appreciated by generations of fans. The Words and Music of Billy Joel examines this influential musician's songs in detail, exploring the meaning of the lyrics and placing Joel's artistry in a regional and cultural context. Covering work that ranges from Joel's recordings with the Lost Souls to his classical compositions, the book focuses on the dozen studio albums of popular music released between 1971 and 1993. A bibliographic essay is included, as are both a discography and a filmography. There is also a special focus on the interpretation of Joel's songs by other recording artists.
