Full Description
This collection brings new voices and new perspectives to the study of popular—and particularly rock—music. Focusing on a variety of artists and music forms, Rock Over the Edge asks what happens to rock criticism when rock is no longer a coherent concept. To work toward an answer, contributors investigate previously neglected genres and styles, such as "lo fi," alternative country, and "rock en español," while offering a fresh look at such familiar figures as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Kurt Cobain.
Bridging the disciplines of musicology and cultural studies, the collection has two primary goals: to seek out a language for talking about music culture and to look at the relationship of music to culture in general. The editors' introduction provides a backward glance at recent rock criticism and also looks to the future of the rapidly expanding discipline of popular music studies. Taking seriously the implications of critical theory for the study of non-literary aesthetic endeavors, the volume also addresses such issues as the affective power of popular music and the psychic construction of fandom.
Rock Over the Edge will appeal to scholars and students in popular music studies and American Studies as well as general readers interested in popular music.Contributors. Ian Balfour, Roger Beebe, Michael Coyle, Robert Fink, Denise Fulbrook, Tony Grajeda, Lawrence Grossberg, Trent Hill, Josh Kun, Jason Middleton, Lisa Ann Parks, Ben Saunders, John J. Sheinbaum, Gayle Wald, Warren Zanes
Contents
Introduction / Roger Beebe, Denise Fulbrook, and Ben Saunders
Discourses / Histories
Reflections of a Disappointed Popular Music Scholar / Lawrence Grossberg
Elvis Everywhere: Musicology and Popular Music Studies at the Twilight of the Canon / Robert Fink
"Think about What You're Trying to Do to Me": Rock Historiography and the Construction of a Race-Based Dialectic / John J. Sheinbaum
Hijacked Hits and Antic Authenticity: Cover Songs, Race, and Postwar Marketing / Michael Coyle
New Spaces / New Maps
Why Isn't Country Music "Youth" Culture? / Trent Hill
Just A Girl? Rock Music, Feminism, and the Cultural Construction of Female Youth / Gayle Wald
Satellite Rhythms: Channel V, Asian Music Videos, and Transnational Gender / Lisa Parks
The "Feminization" of Rock / Tony Grajeda
Rock's Reconquista / Josh Kun
Desires Affects
A Fan's Notes: Identification, Desire, and the Haunted Sound Barrier / R. J. Warren Zanes
Mourning Becomes . . .? Kurt Cobain, Tupac Shakur, and the "Waning of Affect" / Roger Beebe
D. C. Punk and the Production of Authenticity / Jason Middleton
Queen Theory: Notes on the Pet Shop Boys / Ian Balfour
Contributors
Index
