How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.96 (704 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 019975697X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 336 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-07-24 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
But look past the title, and readers will discover that even when he's not being provocative, Wald can be thought-provoking, as in his profiles of lesser-known musicians and their influence on subsequent generations of musicians. From Bookmarks Magazine Revisiting original sources to understand how music has been received over the past century, Wald neatly traces the evolution of popular music. Those pieces complement more mainstream -- and, in Wald's hands, refreshingly honest -- discussions of superstars and issues of race and gender. As with many books that set out to prove sensational claims in the title (the Christian Science Monitor calls the book's tag "blatantly disingenuous"), Wald's work doesn't really deliver on its claim (or, in fact, pay it a great deal of attention). . The result, despite the Los Angele
Connecting a Lot Of Dots Wald's book does an admirable job of weaving together a tapestry of factors that influenced the course and development of popular music through the 20th century. He touches on evolving recording and listening technology , the influence of television, social conventions , and dance styles , music economics and how all of these various elements fed into choices that musicians and people in the music business made over time.I found many interesting threads in the book that made me think about these things in a new way. Some of the history is familiar to anyone with a background in popular culture or music but r. Screw Art, Let's Dance! This book explores popular music history from the perspective of the times in which the music was made. The history of jazz is found to be largely analogous to that of rock'n'roll and from this analogy The Beatles & the rock movement, for better or worse & unintentionally, serve as the breaking point from which white and black musical paths take very different routes.This book is densely packed and full of information & insight that may serve jazz fans as well as it does rock'n'roll fans. Some of Wald's insights are interesting and may change how one views the past. But the idea of the 60s' splitting black a. The Beatles? Who were they? Lee Hartsfeld I figure I'll get my complaints out of the way first, starting with the terrible title. Yes, the media has pretty much reduced popular music history to (pick one) The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Frank Sinatra, so it may be that, to get readers, an author has to name-drop one of those three. Imagine if the title had mentioned Earl Fuller, Paul Whiteman, Billy Murray, or Lawrence Welk--the volume might be gathering dust in a Big Lots bin as we speak. Still, "How the Beatles." is so very misleading as to be a shame. Then again, if it succeeds in grabbing attention, more power to it.My second major gripe--Wald's
Elijah Wald is a musician, writer and historian, whose books include Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues; Narcocorrido, about the modern Mexican ballads of drug trafficking; The Mayor of MacDougal Street (with Dave Van Ronk), and Global Minstrels: Voices of World Music. He is currentl
Rather than concentrating on those traditionally favored styles, the book traces the evolution of popular music through developing tastes, trends and technologies--including the role of records, radio, jukeboxes and television --to give a fuller, more balanced account of the broad variety of music that captivated listeners over the course of the twentieth century. Wald revisits original sources--recordings, period articles, memoirs, and interviews--to highlight how music was actually heard and experienced over the years. "There are no definitive histories," writes Elijah Wald, in this provocative reassessment of American popular music, "because the past keeps looking different as the present changes." Earlier musical styles sound different to us today because we hear them through the musical filter of other styles that came after them, all the way through funk and hip hop. And in a refreshing departure from more typical histories, he focuses on the world of working musicians and ordinary listeners rather than