O my Buffistas, does anyone (Hec?) have a recommendation for a good general (narrative) history of 20th-century pop and/or rock music? Everything I can find is either a textbook, an encyclopedia, or too focused on one genre or another. I'm surprised it's been this hard to find something, and I'm sure I must be overlooking an obvious title. Can anyone help?
Buffy: Dancing with you is way better than trying to hook up with some good-looking guy. Xander: I think I liked it more when you were kicking me in my puffy groin.
'Get It Done'
Buffista Music 4: Needs More Cowbell!
There's a lady plays her fav'rite records/On the jukebox ev'ry day/All day long she plays the same old songs/And she believes the things that they say/She sings along with all the saddest songs/And she believes the stories are real/She lets the music dictate the way that she feels.
Kate P. - Jan 23, 2014 1:09:05 pm PST #5783 of 6436
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love
DavidS - Jan 23, 2014 1:39:24 pm PST #5784 of 6436
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
O my Buffistas, does anyone (Hec?) have a recommendation for a good general (narrative) history of 20th-century pop and/or rock music? Everything I can find is either a textbook, an encyclopedia, or too focused on one genre or another. I'm surprised it's been this hard to find something, and I'm sure I must be overlooking an obvious title. Can anyone help?
I've seen some titles like this out of Britain. The trend has gone away from macro overviews to micro monographs.
I'm sure Faber has something. Maybe Penguin. Let me poke around.
DavidS - Jan 23, 2014 1:43:27 pm PST #5785 of 6436
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
DavidS - Jan 23, 2014 1:44:58 pm PST #5786 of 6436
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
A history of 20th Century Popular Music - an online resource.
DavidS - Jan 23, 2014 1:47:57 pm PST #5787 of 6436
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Jon B. - Jan 23, 2014 4:23:18 pm PST #5788 of 6436
A turkey in every toilet -- only in America!
Not pop/rock music, but Alex Ross's "The Rest is Noise" is a really great read. [link]
Kate P. - Jan 23, 2014 4:35:02 pm PST #5789 of 6436
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love
Jon, that was the first one I thought of (and my library even has a copy), but when I looked at it more closely I saw it was mostly focused on classical works. I definitely want to read it myself, though.
David, thank you for those! The Melody Maker one could work. What I'm looking for is a book to add to my library's collection. I had a student come to me today looking for a book on the British Invasion -- it's for a research project, and he specifically needs at least a couple of books -- and we really didn't have much of use to him. So that highlighted for me an area of our collection that needs work. I have a few ideas for how to fill the gaps, but have been stumped when it comes to a general narrative overview of rock history.
DavidS - Jan 23, 2014 5:18:40 pm PST #5790 of 6436
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
I have a few ideas for how to fill the gaps, but have been stumped when it comes to a general narrative overview of rock history.
I learned from the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll, but that's not been updated in a long time.
But that was a great collection of essays that covered the 50s through early 80s.
Cass - Jan 27, 2014 9:23:51 pm PST #5791 of 6436
Bob's learned to live with tragedy, but he knows that this tragedy is one that won't ever leave him or get better.
Via Associated Press
American troubadour, folk-music singer and activist Pete Seeger has died at a hospital in New York. He was 94.
Trudy Booth - Jan 28, 2014 7:37:17 am PST #5792 of 6436
Greece's financial crisis threatens to take down all of Western civilization - a civilization they themselves founded. A rather tragic irony - which is something they also invented. - Jon Stewart
I'm pretty fucking shattered.