Full Description
The most compelling art form to emerge from the United States in the second half of the twentieth century, rock & roll stands in an edgy relationship with its own mythology, its own musicological history and the broader culture in which it plays a part. In Present Tense, Anthony DeCurtis brings together writers from a wide variety of fields to explore how rock & roll is made, consumed, and experienced in our time.
In this collection, Greil Marcus creates a collage of words and pictures that evokes and explores Elvis Presley's grisly fate as an American cultural image, while Robert Palmer tells the gripping tale of the origins and meanings of the electric guitar. Rap music, MTV, and the issue of gender identity in the work of Bruce Springsteen all undergo thorough examination; rock & roll's complex relationship with the forces of censorship gets a remarkably fresh reading; and the mainstreaming of rock & roll in the 1980s is detailed and analyzed. And, in an interview with Laurie Anderson and an essay by Atlanta musician Jeff Calder, the artists speak for themselves.
Contributors. Jeff Calder, Anthony DeCurtis, Mark Dery, Paul Evans, Glenn Gass, Trent Hill, Michael Jarrett, Alan Light, Greil Marcus, Robert Palmer, Robert B. Ray, Dan Rubey, David R. Shumway, Martha Nell Smith, Paul Smith
Contents
Preface ix
The Eighties / Anthony DeCurtis 1
The Church of the Sonic Guitar / Robert Palmer 13
The Enemy Within: Censorship in Rock Music in the 1950s / Trent Hill 39
A Corpse in Your Mouth: Adventures of a Metaphor, or Modern Cannibalism / Greil Marcus 73
Why Don't We Do It in the Classroom? / Glenn Gass 93
Playing for England / Paul Smith 101
Rock & Roll as a Cultural Practice / David R. Shumway 117
Tracking / Robert B. Ray 135
Signposts on the Road to Nowhere: Laurie Anderson's Crisis of Meaning / Mark Dery 149
Concerning the Progress of Rock & Roll / Michael Jarrett 167
Los Angeles, 1999 / Paul Evans 183
Sexual Mobilities in Bruce Springsteen: Performance as Commentary / Martha Nell Smith 197
About a Salary or Reality?- Rap's Recurrent Conflict / Alan Light 219
Voguing at the Carnival: Desire and Pleasure on MTV / Dan Rubey 235
Living by Night in the Land of Opportunity: Observations on Life in a Rock & Roll Band / Jeff Calder 271
Index 303
Notes on Contributors 315
