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Music Books

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Parent Issue
Month
January
Year
1996
Copyright
Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike)
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Agenda Publications
OCR Text

 

MUSIC BOOKS              January 1996--AGENDA--9

3 Keepers

by William Shea

The following are three of the best books I've read on popular music in 1995:

Popular Music and Society by Brian Longhurst, Polity Press, 277p   

   In 1969, Cari Belz' The Story of Rock started what could arguably be called the era of modem popular music criticism. While there were earlier books that looked at popular music, Belz was one of the first to take the emerging rock music seriously. Shortly after Belz' work came Charlie Gillett's landmark Sound of the City in the 1970s, followed by Simon Firth's Sound Effects in the 1980s, leading up to Philip Ennis' brilliant Seventh Stream in 1992. All these volumes are today considered essential in the study of rock music. There is now one more that should be added to this list: Brian Longhurst's Popular Music and Society.

   This book does a first-rate job at tracing the sociological roots of popular music. First Longhurst outlines the arguments put forth by Theodor Adorno in the 1930s. He then looks at the larger sociological debates on popular culture through the 1950s and 1960s and applies them to popular music. Next he contextualizes the ideas of Gillett, Frith and others through the 1970s and 1980s. Finally he brings us up to date on the latest arguments in sociology that have bearing on popular music. This overview is important in and of itself, but it's Longhurst's look at the production, text, and audience of popular music that makes this volume worth the buy.

   Avoiding the jargon of sociological debate, Longhurst explores the role of sexuality and politics in popular music, illustrating their significance to the artists and audience in the production of popular music. He offers a short but concise look at the sociology of black music, emphasizing the social context in which all contemporary black music, particulary rap music, develops.

   The strongest section of this work is the chapter on fandom. If you ever wondered why the Deadheads followed the course that they did, this explanatory chapter would be a good place to start the search. Longhurst does an excellent job of explaining Lawrence Grossberg's rather oblique theories on fandom by applying them to popular music. The result is clear, precise and important. Longhurst's work ís a very valuable addition to the criticism of popular music.

   Adolescente and Their Music: If it's Too Loud, You're Too Old edited by Jonathon Epstein, Garland Publishing, 401p

   This book also takes a sociological approach, but to a narrower field in popular music. Although all the articles deal with "youth music" - rap, heavy metal, and rock music - in most cases the perspectives taken by the authors in this compilation can be applied to other areas of popular music as well. For instance, Lawrence Grossberg's stance in his "The Political Status of Youth and Youth Culture" could be equally applied to other audiences, say in country and western. Similarly Jerry M. Lewis' view about concerts in "Crowd Crushes at Two Rock Concerts: A Value-Added Analysis" could be applied to other concerts equally.

    The strongest part of this compilation is the annotated bibiliography. Although highly sociological in orientation, it breaks down the literature into sections on methodology, historical analyses, performers and performances, and audiences.

 The Land Where the Blues Began by Alan Lomax, Dell Publishing, 539p

   This is a wonderful and important book. Lomax is a folklorist and son of the late John Lomax. Together during the 1920s through the 1960s, the Lomaxes travelled throughout the South recording largely rural black music. John Lomax also "discovered" the great folk musician Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter. In their travels they recorded the tales and lore of pre-integration southem black men and women. Aiming largely at the Mississippi delta region, one gets an honest feel for the hardships and pressures put on these people - the feelings that imbued their music with real soul- from the tales told to Lomax.

   One of the many strengths of this work is that Lomax does not use the strained relationship between whites and blacks as the sole agent for the blues aesthetic. He notes that the way blacks interacted with each other, both men and women - how they worked together on such mammoth projects as building river levees, clearing the delta region and building the railroads - had as much impact on the collective attitude of black people as did the apartheid social structure. And it is through the stories from the muleskinners, roustabouts, and field hands that we eventually see where the blues really carne from. Not merely from the South, but from the heart and soul of black folk.

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