Hello there reading friends. What a shit month for music lovers. When I woke up on Monday Jan 11th, the first thing I read was "David Bowie transcended-"in a facebook notification on my phone. Taking in the past-tense I thought. "Oh no."
I will recommend some books and share music videos today, but no Bowie-thon. For that, here's a link to his 100 favorite books
A couple of people have been flummoxed by this category on the challenge; read a history or biography about either music, sports, or a city or town; and the next one: read an ethnographic study of the same topic - either music, sports or a city or town. The idea is to read two books in a general area from different disciplines. With that, I'm listing some historical books about music here and will continue with ethnographic studies later on.
If you're a Bowie fan, maybe you'd like to read a historical study of Glam? Phillip Auslander's book on 1970s glam rock approaches it through the lens of gender performance.
Turning the clock back a a bit, if you're interested in Americana, why not try Cece Conway's African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia which discusses the African roots of American country music. Conway is a folklorist who has been working on banjo history for a very long time.
Cecil Brown's Stagolee Shot Billy is one of my all-time music history favorites, as it does what seems nearly impossible: identifying the story behind a folk-legend. Brown's degree is in folklore and this book combines folkloric analysis with research into the history of the man behind in the legend of Stagolee in the Black working-class community of late 19th century Memphis.
To continue with Americana, and moving into the twentieth century, Robbie Lieberman's ASCAP award-winning, My Song is My Weapon: People's Songs, American Communism and the Politics of Culture connects the history of American communism and its cultural organizations to the folk-revival of the 1950s and 1960s. This book is a must for fans of Woodie Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and other political folk-stars.
Also in the 1940s, and especially if you're interested in gender studies, Sherrie Tucker is a wonderful scholar in American Studies whose work includes both music and dance. Her most recent book is Dance Floor Democracy , based on oral history of people who frequented the Hollywood canteen during WWII. I've heard Tucker give a talk on this book, a really creative analysis of race, gender, sexuality in America through music and dance. She is also the author of another book on "all-girl " swing bands called Swing Shift.
Moving up in time to the 1960s and 1970s, also exploring music history, sexuality and gender, Alice Echols has written two fantastic books on music history. The first of these is the (best) biography of Janis Joplin, Scars of Sweet Paradise which tells the story of Janis Joplin's journey from Port Arthur, TX to stardom, with great attention to her influences by Black R&B greats and critical discussion of sexism within the counter-culture. Echols has more recently written the book Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture, which would be a good read for Bowie fans looking for a more detailed and complicated understanding of gender, race, and sexuality in the popular music scene of the 1970s,
Moving uptown, and still in New York City, from the heart of disco, it's more theoretical than narrative, but Juan Flores's From Bomba to Hip Hop analyzes the development of U.S. Puerto Rican identity through music and dance cultures including historical discussions of such well-known artists as Tito Puente and Willie Colon, as well as lesser-known artists across musical genres.
Every hip hop fan should read Jeff Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation, and (for this reading challenge) at least read the hip-hop history section of Mark Anthony Neal's massive edited collection, That's the Joint: The Hip Hop Studies Reader, in which Chang also has a piece. If you love comics, there's also an award winning graphic historical analysis, Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor.
For hitting my own generation-betraying sweet spot, I loved the hell out of Greill Marcus's Lipstick Traces, which is not just about music, but about connections between music and all kinds of other "secret" political histories. I read it as a graduate student in 1992. It's now out in a 20th anniversary edition (2009). Some people say he gets everything wrong about punk rock, especially because of his central locating of the Sex Pistols. I disagree; he's unearthing connections between a band some purists describe as a sham, commercial vehicle, or (ahem.).swindle to broader currents in history and culture. That said this book is not so much music history as an immersive experience.
For a more conventionally historical analysis, check out Clinton Heylin's From the Velvets to the Voidoids which argues that the American rockers of the 1970s were the real origin point for punk rock. That's an agreed-upon view by most listeners today. I would also be remiss if I didn't mention Simon Reynolds' Rip it Up and Start Again, on the history of post-punk, the music that was more properly the college-radio soundtrack of my own adolescence. I have not read this book but it comes highly recommended by one of my favorite people - and we have two different editions on our shelves at home.
I will recommend some books and share music videos today, but no Bowie-thon. For that, here's a link to his 100 favorite books
A couple of people have been flummoxed by this category on the challenge; read a history or biography about either music, sports, or a city or town; and the next one: read an ethnographic study of the same topic - either music, sports or a city or town. The idea is to read two books in a general area from different disciplines. With that, I'm listing some historical books about music here and will continue with ethnographic studies later on.
Some Great Studies of Music History:
If you're a Bowie fan, maybe you'd like to read a historical study of Glam? Phillip Auslander's book on 1970s glam rock approaches it through the lens of gender performance.
Turning the clock back a a bit, if you're interested in Americana, why not try Cece Conway's African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia which discusses the African roots of American country music. Conway is a folklorist who has been working on banjo history for a very long time.
Cecil Brown's Stagolee Shot Billy is one of my all-time music history favorites, as it does what seems nearly impossible: identifying the story behind a folk-legend. Brown's degree is in folklore and this book combines folkloric analysis with research into the history of the man behind in the legend of Stagolee in the Black working-class community of late 19th century Memphis.
To continue with Americana, and moving into the twentieth century, Robbie Lieberman's ASCAP award-winning, My Song is My Weapon: People's Songs, American Communism and the Politics of Culture connects the history of American communism and its cultural organizations to the folk-revival of the 1950s and 1960s. This book is a must for fans of Woodie Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and other political folk-stars.
Also in the 1940s, and especially if you're interested in gender studies, Sherrie Tucker is a wonderful scholar in American Studies whose work includes both music and dance. Her most recent book is Dance Floor Democracy , based on oral history of people who frequented the Hollywood canteen during WWII. I've heard Tucker give a talk on this book, a really creative analysis of race, gender, sexuality in America through music and dance. She is also the author of another book on "all-girl " swing bands called Swing Shift.
Moving up in time to the 1960s and 1970s, also exploring music history, sexuality and gender, Alice Echols has written two fantastic books on music history. The first of these is the (best) biography of Janis Joplin, Scars of Sweet Paradise which tells the story of Janis Joplin's journey from Port Arthur, TX to stardom, with great attention to her influences by Black R&B greats and critical discussion of sexism within the counter-culture. Echols has more recently written the book Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture, which would be a good read for Bowie fans looking for a more detailed and complicated understanding of gender, race, and sexuality in the popular music scene of the 1970s,
Every hip hop fan should read Jeff Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation, and (for this reading challenge) at least read the hip-hop history section of Mark Anthony Neal's massive edited collection, That's the Joint: The Hip Hop Studies Reader, in which Chang also has a piece. If you love comics, there's also an award winning graphic historical analysis, Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor.
For hitting my own generation-betraying sweet spot, I loved the hell out of Greill Marcus's Lipstick Traces, which is not just about music, but about connections between music and all kinds of other "secret" political histories. I read it as a graduate student in 1992. It's now out in a 20th anniversary edition (2009). Some people say he gets everything wrong about punk rock, especially because of his central locating of the Sex Pistols. I disagree; he's unearthing connections between a band some purists describe as a sham, commercial vehicle, or (ahem.).swindle to broader currents in history and culture. That said this book is not so much music history as an immersive experience.
For a more conventionally historical analysis, check out Clinton Heylin's From the Velvets to the Voidoids which argues that the American rockers of the 1970s were the real origin point for punk rock. That's an agreed-upon view by most listeners today. I would also be remiss if I didn't mention Simon Reynolds' Rip it Up and Start Again, on the history of post-punk, the music that was more properly the college-radio soundtrack of my own adolescence. I have not read this book but it comes highly recommended by one of my favorite people - and we have two different editions on our shelves at home.
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