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Rock Music: Defining the Genre
"It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)": Defining the Genre
Whether it is referred to as rock ‘n roll, rock ‘n’ roll, rock and roll, rock & roll, or just rock, the meaning of rock music is not definitive to one explanation or practice. These readings guide researchers in understanding "the spirit" of rock music by identifying characteristics, styles, and discourses of the genre.
Books
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Major Labels: History of Popular Music in Seven Genres
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One of Oprah Daily's 20 Favorite Books of 2021 * Selected as one of Pitchfork's Best Music Books of the Year "One of the best books of its kind in decades." --The Wall Street Journal An epic achievement and a huge delight, the entire history of popular music over the past fifty years refracted through the big genres that have defined and dominated it: rock, R&B, country, punk, hip-hop, dance music, and pop Kelefa Sanneh, one of the essential voices of our time on music and culture, has made a deep study of how popular music unites and divides us, charting the way genres become communities. In Major Labels, Sanneh distills a career's worth of knowledge about music and musicians into a brilliant and omnivorous reckoning with popular music--as an art form (actually, a bunch of art forms), as a cultural and economic force, and as a tool that we use to build our identities. He explains the history of slow jams, the genius of Shania Twain, and why rappers are always getting in trouble. Sanneh shows how these genres have been defined by the tension between mainstream and outsider, between authenticity and phoniness, between good and bad, right and wrong. Throughout, race is a powerful touchstone: just as there have always been Black audiences and white audiences, with more or less overlap depending on the moment, there has been Black music and white music, constantly mixing and separating. Sanneh debunks cherished myths, reappraises beloved heroes, and upends familiar ideas of musical greatness, arguing that sometimes, the best popular music isn't transcendent. Songs express our grudges as well as our hopes, and they are motivated by greed as well as idealism; music is a powerful tool for human connection, but also for human antagonism. This is a book about the music everyone loves, the music everyone hates, and the decades-long argument over which is which. The opposite of a modest proposal, Major Labels pays in full.
Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9780525559597Publication Date: 2021-10-05 -
Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music
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Who's better? Billie Holiday or P. J. Harvey? Blur or Oasis? Dylan or Keats? And how many friendships have ridden on the answer? Such questions aren't merely the stuff of fanzines and idle talk; they inform our most passionate arguments, distill our most deeply held values, make meaning of our ever-changing culture. In Performing Rites, one of the most influential writers on popular music asks what we talk about when we talk about music. What's good, what's bad? What's high, what's low? Why do such distinctions matter? Instead of dismissing emotional response and personal taste as inaccessible to the academic critic, Simon Frith takes these forms of engagement as his subject--and discloses their place at the very center of the aesthetics that structure our culture and color our lives. Taking up hundreds of songs and writers, Frith insists on acts of evaluation of popular music as music. Ranging through and beyond the twentieth century, Performing Rites puts the Pet Shop Boys and Puccini, rhythm and lyric, voice and technology, into a dialogue about the undeniable impact of popular aesthetics on our lives. How we nod our heads or tap our feet, grin or grimace or flip the dial; how we determine what's sublime and what's "for real"--these are part of the way we construct our social identities, and an essential response to the performance of all music. Frith argues that listening itself is a performance, both social gesture and bodily response. From how they are made to how they are received, popular songs appear here as not only meriting aesthetic judgments but also demanding them, and shaping our understanding of what all music means.
Call Number: ML3795 .F738 1996ISBN: 0674661958Publication Date: 1996-09-15 -
Rhythm and Noise: An Aesthetics of Rock
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You know it when you hear it, but can you say what it is? How you know? Why you either love or loathe it? What makes it original or derivative? To a music that tends to render its aficionados and detractors equally inarticulate, Theodore Gracyk brings a rare critical clarity. His book tells us once and for all what makes rock music rock. A happy marriage of aesthetic theory and the aesthetic practice that moved a generation, Rhythm and Noise is the only thorough-going account of rock as a distinct artistic medium rather than a species of popular culture. What's in a name? "Rock" or "Rock 'n' Roll?" Grayck argues that rock and roll is actually a performance style, one in a number of musical styles comprising rock. What distinguishes rock, Gracyk tells us, is how it is mediated by technology: The art is in the recording. The lesson is a heady one, entailing a tour through the history of rock music from Elvis Presley's first recordings in 1954 to Kurt Cobain's suicide in 1994. Gracyk takes us through key recordings, lets us hear what rock musicians and their critics have to say, shows us how other kinds of music compare, and gives us the philosophical background to make more than passing sense of the medium. His work takes up the common myths and stereotypes about rock, popular and academic, and focuses on the features of the music that electrify fans and consistently generate controversy. When Elvis came to town, did southern sheriffs say that rock was barbaric and addictive? Well so did Theodor Adorno, in his way, and Allan Bloom, in his, and Gracyk takes aim at this charge as it echoes through the era of recorded music. He looks at what rock has to do with romanticism and, even more, with commercialism. And he questions the orthodoxy of making grand distinctions between "serious" and "popular" art. Keenly attuned to the nuances of music and of all the ways that we can think about it, this exhilarating book tunes us in, as no other has, to the complex role of rock in American culture.
Call Number: ML3534 .G7 1996ISBN: 0822317346Publication Date: 1996-03-19 -
The Foundations of Rock: From "Blue Suede Shoes" to "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"
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A comprehensive introduction to the inner workings of rock music, The Foundations of Rock goes back to the heart of the music itself from the time of its birth through the end of classic rock. Walter Everett expertly takes readers through all aspects of the music and its lyrics, leading fansand listeners to new insights and new ways to develop their own interpretations of the aural landscapes of their lives. Written with style, Everett does not depend on musical notation nor professional jargon, but rather combines text with nearly 300 newly written audio examples (performed on thecompanion website) and more than 100 expertly chosen photographs, to offer a rich text-and-web experience that brings new meanings to songs that have dominated music for a half-century.Through careful illustration, frequently citing the most familiar and pertinent examples from throughout the 1955-1970 period, The Foundations of Rock covers the nature and use of all musical instruments and vocal qualities; reveals the many different ways that phrases and sections of songs can becombined; discusses the materials and patterns in melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic invention; explains the many important ways that producers and engineers add to the artistry; and finally suggests paths for combining an understanding of all of these elements with interpretations of a song's lyrics.This is all done in thorough detail, and always with an ear towards the possible meanings such techniques convey in a music that has had a profound impact upon our world. In doing so, Everett helps readers create new depths of understanding and appreciation. Hundreds of memorable hit songs arereferred to in order to illustrate every individual point, while twenty-five diverse classics of the period have been chosen for very close hearing from multiple perspectives. The reader will come away with a much deeper appreciation of the music of the Beatles and the Stones, the Supremes and theTemptations, the Dead and Janis, Elvis and Buddy Holly, the Beach Boys and the Rascals.
Call Number: MT146 .E96 2009ISBN: 9780195310238Publication Date: 2008-12-09 -
Rock and Roll: Its History and Stylistic Development by Rock and Roll - Changing Society, Evolving History - Rock and Roll: Its History and Stylistic Development, gives a thorough historical and musical analysis of rock artists, styles, and events in a clear and accessible language. This new edition includes callouts in the text that links students to the new MySearchLab with eText website. KEY TOPICS: Improve Active Listening - Updated "Take Note" section at the beginning of each chapter focuses on a series of key questions in the chapter. The questions are restated at the end of the chapter along with concise answers derived from the text. MARKET: For anyone interested in a comprehensive book about the history of rock and roll, including those in the music industry, such as disc jockeys, rock music writers, and promoters.
Call Number: ML3534 .S83 2013ISBN: 9780205246977Publication Date: 2019-08-07 -
American Popular Music: The Rock Years
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Rock, country, pop, soul, funk, punk, folk, hip-hop, techno, grunge--it's all here. In American Popular Music: The Rock Years, Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman take readers on a fascinating journey through the rich historical and stylistic landscape of American rock. An abridged version ofthe authors' acclaimed American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MTV, this volume includes chapters 8-14 of the longer book along with new introductory and concluding chapters.American Popular Music: The Rock Years traces the development of rock from its roots in the mid-1940s to its current state in the twenty-first century, integrating in-depth discussions of the music itself with solid coverage of the attendant historical, social, and cultural circumstances. Itstrikes a balance between musical analysis and social context, showing how rock and American culture have continuously influenced each other over time. Using well-chosen examples, insightful commentaries, and an engaging writing style, the authors highlight the contributions of diverse groups to thedevelopment of rock music, explain the effects of advancements in recording technology, and chronicle the growth of rock music as an industry. The book is enhanced by a rich illustration program; boxed inserts on significant individuals, recordings, and intriguing topics; and well-organizedlistening charts for recordings that are discussed in detail in the text. Remarkably accessible, American Popular Music: The Rock Years is ideal for introductory courses in the history of rock and roll and will encourage readers to become more critically aware listeners of rock music.
Call Number: ML3534.3 .S73 2006ISBN: 0195300521Publication Date: 2005-10-27 -
Is Rock Dead?
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Rock and roll's death has been forecast nearly since its birth; the country song "The Death of Rock and Roll" appeared in September 1956, showing that the music had already outraged a more conservative listening audience. Is Rock Dead? sets out to explore the varied and sometimes conflicting ways in which the death of rock has been discussed both within the discourse of popular music and American culture. If rock is dead, when did it die? Who killed it? Why do rock journalists lament its passing? Has its academic acceptance stabbed it in the back or resuscitated an otherwise lifeless corpse? Why is rock music the music that conservatives love to hate? On the other side of the coin, how have rock's biggest fans helped nail shut the coffin? Does rock feed on its own death-and-rebirth? Finally, what signs of life are there showing that rock, in fact, is surviving? Is Rock Dead? will appeal to all those who take seriously the notion that rock is a serious musical form. It will appeal to students of popular music and culture, and all those who have ever spun a 45, cranked up the radio, or strummed an air guitar.
Call Number: ML3534 .D48 2006ISBN: 0415970342Publication Date: 2005-12-14 -
The Pop, Rock, and Soul Reader: Histories and Debates
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Featuring over 100 readings from a wide range of sources and writers, The Pop, Rock, and Soul Reader, Third Edition, provides a rich and engaging introduction to the development of American popular music and the important social and cultural issues raised by its study. The third edition bringstogether a vast array of selections from sources that include mainstream and specialized magazines, newspapers, scholarly journals, interviews, and autobiographies of musicians and other music industry insiders, plus ten new readings on timely topics such as:* The emerging influence of digital technology like autotune and filesharing on popular music* The integration of popular music and reality TV through shows like American Idol* Lady Gaga's meteoric rise to fame and its inextricable link to new media* A retrospective look at and reevaluation of Michael Jackson's long career* The global impact of legendary artist Bob Marley and reggaeVisit the companion website at www.oup.com/us/brackett for additional study resources.
Call Number: ML3477 .B68 2014ISBN: 9780199811700Publication Date: 2013-08-23 -
Pop-Rock Music: Aesthetic Cosmopolitanism in Late Modernity
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Pop music and rock music are often treated as separate genres but the distinction has always been blurred. Motti Regev argues that pop-rock is best understood as a single musical form defined by the use of electric and electronic instruments, amplification and related techniques. The history of pop-rock extends from the emergence of rock'n'roll in the 1950s to a variety of contemporary fashions and trends - rock, punk, soul, funk, techno, hip hop, indie, metal, pop and many more. This book offers a highly original account of the emergence of pop-rock music as a global phenomenon in which Anglo-American and many other national and ethnic variants interact in complex ways. Pop-rock is analysed as a prime instance of 'aesthetic cosmopolitanism' - that is, the gradual formation, in late modernity, of world culture as a single interconnected entity in which different social groupings around the world increasingly share common ground in their aesthetic perceptions, expressive forms and cultural practices. Drawing on a wide array of examples, this path-breaking book will be of great interest to students and scholars in cultural sociology, media and cultural studies as well as the study of popular music.
Call Number: ML3470 .R44 2013ISBN: 9780745661728Publication Date: 2013-06-24 -
Good Music: What Is It and Who Gets to Decide?
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Over the past two centuries Western culture has largely valorized a particular kind of "good" music--highly serious, wondrously deep, stylistically authentic, heroically created, and strikingly original--and, at the same time, has marginalized music that does not live up to those ideals. In Good Music, John J. Sheinbaum explores these traditional models for valuing music. By engaging examples such as Handel oratorios, Beethoven and Mahler symphonies, jazz improvisations, Bruce Springsteen, and prog rock, he argues that metaphors of perfection do justice to neither the perceived strengths nor the assumed weaknesses of the music in question. Instead, he proposes an alternative model of appreciation where abstract notions of virtue need not dictate our understanding. Good music can, with pride, be playful rather than serious, diverse rather than unified, engaging to both body and mind, in dialogue with manifold styles and genres, and collaborative to the core. We can widen the scope of what music we value and reconsider the conventional rituals surrounding it, while retaining the joys of making music, listening closely, and caring passionately.
Call Number: ML3880 .S515 2019ISBN: 9780226593241Publication Date: 2018-11-29
Articles
- "What Kind of Music?" by Franco Fabbri and Iain Chambers, Popular Music, 1982
- "Producing Artistic Value: The Case of Rock Music" by Motti Regev, The Sociological Quarterly, February 1994
- "The Future of Rock: Discourses That Struggle to Define a Genre" by Johan Fornäs, Popular Music, January 1995
- "What Is Bad Music" by Simon Frith, from Bad Music: The Music We Love to Hate, 2008
- "The Aesthetic Discourse Space of Popular Music: 1985-86 and 2004-05" by Alex Van Venrooij, Poetics, August 2009
- "'Nobody Likes Rock and Roll but the Public': Down Beat, Genre Boundaries and the Dismissal of Rock and Roll by Jazz Critics" by Matt Brennan, Popular Music and Society, 2013
- "My Music, Not Yours: Ravings of a Rock-and-Roll Fanatic" by B. Lee Cooper, Popular Music and Society, 28 May 2013
- "Making Sense of Genre and Style in the Age of Transcultural Reproduction" by Mats Sigvard Johansson, International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 2016
- "Challenging Authenticity: Fakes and Forgeries in Rock Music" by Chris Atton, Popular Music, May 2019
- "What Makes Heavy Metal 'Heavy'?" by Jason Miller, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 1 December 2022
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Articles PlusIndex to hundreds of millions electronic resources, including journal and newspaper articles, e-books, dissertations, and media in campus library collections.
Suggested Subject Headings
"Popular music genres"
"Rock music -- Analysis, appreciation"
"Rock music -- Criticism and interpretation"
"Rock music -- Instruction and study"
"Rock music -- Philosophy and aesthetics"
"Style, Musical"
Recommended Reference Materials
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Appetite for Definition
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Part reference book, part history, and part road map to the connectivity of popular music, this book is a must for all rock 'n' roll fans as it brings together a compilation of over two hundred genres of rock music--an entertaining, enlightening, knotty family tree of America's favorite musical genre. In the six decades since rock 'n' roll stole America's soul, the single genre has produced over two hundred sub-genres. The days of being able to walk in to a Tower Records and seek out recommendations from an aloof, all-knowing staffer has been relegated to a long-lost Generation X paradise preserved in John Hughes films. From iTunes to Spotify, listeners now regularly turn to algorithms instead of human advice to develop relationships with the music they love. The essential companion for any rock lover's collection--be it on vinyl or Spotify playlists--Appetite for Definition breaks down algorithms into their human stories and interconnected histories. It provides and pulls up recommendations from a deeper well of consideration and gives you the tools to do the same. Operating on a macro level it surveys the myriad microlevel movements into an accessible map that readers can use to navigate the vast, craggy terrain of rock music and take their rock knowledge--whether casual or obsessive--to the next level.
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The Rock Snob's Dictionary
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At last! An A-to-Z reference guide for readers who want to learn the cryptic language of Rock Snobs, those arcana-obsessed people who speak of "Rickenbacker guitars" and "Gram Parsons." We've all been there--trapped in a conversation with smarty-pants music fiends who natter on about "the MC5" or "Eno" or "the Hammond B3," not wanting to let on that we haven't the slightest idea what they're talking about. Well, fret no more! The Rock Snob's Dictionary is here to define every single sacred totem of rock fandom's know-it-all fraternity, from Alt.country to Zimmy. (That's what Rock Snobs call Bob Dylan, by the way.)
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New Book of Rock Lists
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From Simon & Schuster, The New Book of Rock Lists is Dave Marsh and James Bernard's collection of the hits (and misses) from rock n' roll--present completely in the form of individual lists. The New Book of Rock Lists include Quotations from Chairman Elvis, Wisdom from the Hip-Hop Nation, 10 Ways to Tell If a Rapper's Careers on the Way Out, 10 Worst Performers of All Time, and more!
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The Rough Guide to Rock
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The third edition of The Rough Guide to Rock is more extensive than ever. It features over 3000 album reviews, 1200 biographies, 300 original images and 268 classic album covers, covering all areas of rock music and touching on the fringes of dance, hip-hop, blues, country and soul. Compiled by a group of music journalists and enthusiastic fans, this is the guide that is not afraid to say what's hot and what's not.
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All Music Guide to Rock
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(Book). Easy to use and fun to explore, this 1,400-page tome is the most complete guide ever published on the artists and recordings that really rock. Compiled by dozens of music critics, it reviews and rates more than 14,000 great albums by over 2,200 artists and groups in more than 400 styles both mainstream and alternative including bootlegs, import-only releases, important out-of-print recordings, and lesser-known cult artists. A brief profile details each performer's career, while insightful reviews of top recordings help define the musician's artistic development and impact on rock. Expanded biographies spotlight major figures, along with complete album discographies. Also features educational essays and "music maps" that chart the evolution of rock's diverse subgenres at a glance.
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Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll
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Completely updated with new entries and extensive revisions of the previous 1,800, The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia Of Rock & Roll is the authoritative volume on the world's music makers--from the one-hit wonders to the megastars. In 1983, Rolling Stone Press introduced its first Rock & Roll Encyclopedia. Almost two decades later, it has become the premier guide to the history of rock & roll, and has been selected by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum as its official source of information. Giving full coverage to all aspects of the rock scene, it tells the story of rock & roll in a clear and easy reference format, including complete discographies, personnel changes for every band, and backstage information like date and place of birth, from Elvis Presley to Eminem. Since the last edition, the music scene has exploded in every area, from boy-bands to hip-hop, electronica to indie rock. Here, the Encyclopedia explores them all--'NSync, Notorious B.I.G., Ricky Martin, Radiohead, Britney Spears, Blink-182, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Portishead, Fatboy Slim, Fiona Apple, Lil' Kim, Limp Bizkit, Oasis, Outkast, Yo La Tengo, TLC, and many, many more. The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Third Edition includes all the facts, phenomena, and flukes that make up the history of rock. Accompanying the biographical and discographical information on the nearly 2,000 artists included in this edition are incisive essays that reveal the performers' musical influences, first breaks, and critical and commercial hits and misses, as well as evaluations of their place in rock history. Filled with hundreds of historical photos, The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia is more than just a reference book, it is the bible of rock & roll.
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Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock
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- Lavishly illustrated with hundreds of full-color photos of artists and classic album covers - Includes extensive sidebars throughout with artists' key recordings, influences, collaborators, connections, videos, and biographies - Billboard is reconized internationally as the information source for the music industry
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The Literature of Rock III, 1984-1990
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This book continues the objectives of the original volume: to act as a pathfinder in the study of rock music for both the serious student and the interested enthusiast, and to serve as a guide to the vast quantities of material on the subject for librarians and educators. Covering 1984-1990, it also lists many sources published between 1954 and 1983 supplemental to the earlier two volumes.
