Download or read book Dancing in Spite of Myself written by Lawrence Grossberg and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Dancing in Spite of Myself, Lawrence Grossberg--well known as a pioneering figure in cultural studies--has collected essays written over the past twenty years that have also established him as one of the leading theorists of popular culture and, specifically, of rock music. Grossberg offers an original and sophisticated view of the growing power of popular culture and its increasing inseparability from contemporary structures of economic and political power and from our everyday lives. In the course of conducting this exploration into the meaning of "popularity," he investigates the nature of fandom, the social effects of rock music and youth culture, and the possibilities for understanding the history of popular texts and practices. Describing what he calls "the postmodernity of everyday life," Grossberg offers important insights into the relation of pop music to issues of postmodernity and inton the growing power of the new cultural conservatism and its relationship to "the popular." Exploring the limits of existing theories of hegemony in cultural studies, Grossberg reveals the ways in which popular culture is being mobilized in the service of economic and political struggles. In articulating his own critical practice, Grossberg surveys and challenges some of the major assumptions of popular culture studies, including notions of domination and resistance, mainstream and marginality, and authenticity and incorporation. Dancing in Spite of Myself provides an introduction to contemporary theories of popular culture and a clear statement of relationships among theories of the nature of rock music, postmodernity, and conservative hegemony.
Download or read book Making Meaning in Popular Song written by Theodore Gracyk and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-06-16 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner, ASA (American Society for Aesthetics) 2023 Outstanding Monograph Prize For Theodore Gracyk meaning in popular music depends as much on the context of reception and performer's intentions as on established musical and semantic practices. Songs are structures that serve as the scaffolding for meaning production, influenced by the performance decisions of the performer and their intentions. Arguing against prevailing theories of meaning that ignore the power of the performance, Gracyk champions the contextual relevance of the performer as well as novel messaging through creative repurposing of recordings. Extending the philosophical insight that meaning is a function of use, Gracyk explains how both the performance persona and the personal life of a song's performer can contribute to (or undercut) ethical and political aspects of a performance or recording. Using Carly Simon's “You're So Vain”, Pink Floyd, the emergence of the musical genre of post-punk and the practice of “cover” versions, Gracyk explores the multiple, sometimes contradictory, notions of authenticity applied to popular music and the conditions for meaningful communication. He places popular music within larger cultural contexts and examines how assigning a performance or recording to one music genre rather than another has implications for what it communicates. Informed by a mix of philosophy of art and philosophy of language, Gracyk's entertaining study of popular music constructs a theoretical basis for a philosophy of meaning for songs.
Download or read book Whiteness Otherness and the Individualism Paradox from Huck to Punk written by D. Traber and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-02-19 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traber reexamines the practice of self-marginalization in Euro-American literature and popular culture that depict whites adopting varied markers of otherness to disengage from the dominant culture. He draws on critical theory, whiteness and cultural studies to counter an eager correlation between marginality and agency. The nonconformist cultural politics of these border crossings implode since the transgressive identity the protagonists desire relies upon, is built from, the center's values and definitions. An orthodox notion of individualism underpins each act of sovereignty as it rationalizes exploiting stereotypes of an Other constructed by the center. The work closes by positing a theory of identity based on Jean-Luc Nancy's concept of the emptied self. In recognizing the already mixed quality of being, identity is made a vacuous concept as the standards for determining self and difference become too slippery to hold.
Download or read book Roll Over Adorno written by Robert Miklitsch and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What happens when Theodor Adorno, the champion of high, classical artists such as Beethoven, comes into contact with the music of Chuck Berry, the de facto king of rock 'n' roll? In a series of readings and meditations, Robert Miklitsch investigates the postmodern nexus between elite and popular culture as it occurs in the audiovisual fields of film, music, and television—ranging from Gershwin to gangsta rap, Tarantino to Tongues Untied, Tony Soprano to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Miklitsch argues that the aim of critical theory in the new century will be to describe and explain these commodities in ever greater phenomenological detail without losing touch with those evaluative criteria that have historically sustained both Kulturkritik and classical aesthetics.
Download or read book You Should See Yourself written by Vincent Brook and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2006-07-24 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past few decades have seen a remarkable surge in Jewish influences on American culture. Entertainers and artists such as Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, Allegra Goodman, and Tony Kushner have heralded new waves of television, film, literature, and theater; a major klezmer revival is under way; bagels are now as commonplace as pizza; and kabbalah has become as cool as crystals. Does this broad range of cultural expression accurately reflect what it means to be Jewish in America today? Bringing together fourteen new essays by leading scholars, You Should See Yourself examines the fluctuating representations of Jewishness in a variety of areas of popular culture and high art, including literature, the media, film, theater, music, dance, painting, photography, and comedy. Contributors explore the evolution that has taken place within these cultural forms and how we can best explain these changes. Are variations in our understanding of Jewishness the result of general phenomena such as multiculturalism, politics, and postmodernism, or are they the product of more specifically Jewish concerns such as the intermarriage/continuity crisis, religious renewal, and relations between the United States and Israel? Accessible to students and general readers alike, this volume takes an important step toward advancing the discussion of Jewish cultural influences in this country.
Download or read book Rock Star written by David R. Shumway and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Filled with memorable photographs, Rock Star will appeal to anyone interested in modern American popular culture or music history.
Download or read book Sporting Sounds written by Anthony Bateman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-10-27 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sporting Sounds presents an eclectic collection of essays, all of which are concerned with various relationships between sport and music. This unique book includes a range of international case studies, examines the use of music as a motivational aid for players, and the historical roots of music in sport.
Download or read book I Wanna be Me written by Theodore Gracyk and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Gracyk grapples with the ways that rock shapes--limits and expands--our notions of who we can be in the world. [He] sees rock as a mass art, open-ended and open to diverse (but not unlimited) interpretations. Recordings reach millions, drawing people together in communities of listeners who respond viscerally to its sound and intellectually to its messages. As an art form that proclaims its emotional authenticity and resistance to convention, rock music constitutes part of the cultural apparatus from which individuals mold personal and political identities. Going to the heart of this relationship between the music's role in its performers' and fans' self-construction, Gracyk probes questions of gender and appropriation. How can a feminist be a Stones fan or a straight man enjoy the Indigo Girls? Does borrowing music that carries a "racial identity" always add up to exploitation, a charge leveled at Paul Simon's Graceland? Rang[es] through forty years of rock history and offer[s] a trove of anecdotes"--Publisher description.
Download or read book Stars Don t Stand Still in the Sky written by Karen Kelly and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Music industry insiders on the nature of fame Our cultural darlings make music; we make them mythic. Every musical genre begets a community of listeners, performers, and critics, and quite often those categories are blurred. From the principled punk refusal of celebrity to hip-hop's celebration of its power, the music world is self-obsessed. Stars Don't Stand Still in the Sky assembles scholars, music writers, industry workers, and musicians, who offer a range of opinions and experience of the nature of fame. The collection focuses on commerce, the crowd, performance and image, history and memory, and romance. Contributors discuss black women icons, love-songs, the legacy of the blues, the image of the tortured rock star, MTV, the politics of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the joy of line-dancing, and more. The contributors are James Bernard, Anthony DeCurtis, Katherine Dieckmann, Chuck Eddy, Paul Gilroy, Daniel Glass, Lawrence Grossberg, Jessica Hagedorn, Kathleen Hanna, James Hannaham, Dave Hickey, Jon Langford, Greil Marcus, Angela McRobbie, Paul D. Miller (a.k.a. DJ Spooky), Barbara O'Dair, Ann Powers, Toshi Reagon, Simon Reynolds, Robert Santelli, Jon Savage, Danyel Smith, Arlene Stein, Deena Weinstein, and Ellen Willis.
Download or read book I m Dancing as Fast as I Can written by Barbara Gordon and published by Beaufort Books. This book was released on 2011-10-01 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Barbara Gordon's groundbreaking memoir tells the extraordinary story of a woman who has it all, or thinks she does-a career as an Emmy-award-winning documentary producer, a man she loves, a world of friends, and a beautiful apartment in Manhattan.But beneath the façade, Barbara's life is spinning out of control. In spite of the pills prescribed by her doctor, a nameless terror disrupting her daily life intensifies until she is besieged by crippling anxiety attacks. A formerly strong, independent, successful woman, Barbara's life becomes a nightmare of paralysis and fear.When Barbara finds herself unable to leave her apartment or walk the streets of New York alone, she decides to take charge of her life. She doesn't want pills, she wants answers. Instead of ending her fears, quitting the medicine leads to the unraveling of what she thought was her perfect life, and Barbara becomes a casualty of a flawed and inept mental health system. Barbara had often spoken for the voiceless in her films, but she suddenly finds herself powerless, without a voice of her own. Though she feels frightened and misunderstood, the tenderness and love of another young patient, Jim, helps Barbara rediscover her voice and her identity.In the years since her memoir was first published, thousands of readers all over the world have read her book, followed her descent into hell, traveled with her along the bumpy road to recovery, and celebrated as she creates a new life. I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can is a strikingly honest look at a life gone off the rails. Throughout her journey, Gordon's hope and strength make her an incredible heroine worth rooting for.
Download or read book Dancing to the Lyrics written by Dwayne A. Ratleff and published by Dwayne a Ratleff. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dancing to the Lyrics is a timeless and timely coming-of-age tale. Through the eyes of the young protagonist, Grant Cole, we are offered a first-hand account of an African American gay youth who perseveres in spite of personal and family obstacles as well as the larger challenges of his era. As Grant struggles to comprehend his own nature, his world, and the adults who populate it, he observes and emotionally reacts to the assassinations of MLK and RFK, the Baltimore riots, the Vietnam War and more. Poverty, accompanied by crime, violence and fear, is his frequent companion, but his own vivid imagination and close relationships with his younger sisters, various family members and friends bring hope and humor into his life. While Grant witnesses the abuse of his mother at the hands of a cruel stepfather, and discovers the man he doesn't want to be, he strives continually toward understanding the person he was born to be. He learns crucial lessons from his life teachers: faith and pragmatism from his grandparents, and open-mindedness and self-acceptance from a diverse cast of unconventional but kindly characters woven throughout his story. While very much an individual's story of overcoming adversity during a specific point in time and place - 1960's America - Dancing to the Lyrics also provides a lens through which we can view events in our current time. The lessons that young Grant learns are as relevant today as ever and discerning them through the eyes of such an insightful youngster is a revelation.
Download or read book The Sound Studies Reader written by Jonathan Sterne and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sound Studies Reader is a groundbreaking anthology blending recent work that self-consciously describes itself as 'sound studies' with earlier and lesser known scholarship on sound.
Download or read book The Republic of Rock written by Michael J. Kramer and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2013-06-27 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Kramer draws on new archival sources and interviews to explore sixties music and politics through the lens of these two generation-changing places--San Francisco and Vietnam. From the Acid Tests of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters to hippie disc jockeys on strike, the military's use of rock music to "boost morale" in Vietnam, and the forgotten tale of a South Vietnamese rock band, The Republic of Rock shows how the musical connections between the City of the Summer of Love and war-torn Southeast Asia were crucial to the making of the sixties counterculture. The book also illustrates how and why the legacy of rock music in the sixties continues to matter to the meaning of citizenship in a global society today. --from publisher description
Download or read book Neil Young and the Poetics of Energy written by William Echard and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2005-06-15 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative, multifaceted look at a rock icon.
Download or read book Live from the Underground written by Katherine Rye Jewell and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2023-11-07 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bands like R.E.M., U2, Public Enemy, and Nirvana found success as darlings of college radio, but the extraordinary influence of these stations and their DJs on musical culture since the 1970s was anything but inevitable. As media deregulation and political conflict over obscenity and censorship transformed the business and politics of culture, students and community DJs turned to college radio to defy the mainstream—and they ended up disrupting popular music and commercial radio in the process. In this first history of US college radio, Katherine Rye Jewell reveals that these eclectic stations in major cities and college towns across the United States owed their collective cultural power to the politics of higher education as much as they did to upstart bohemian music scenes coast to coast. Jewell uncovers how battles to control college radio were about more than music—they were an influential, if unexpected, front in the nation's culture wars. These battles created unintended consequences and overlooked contributions to popular culture that students, DJs, and listeners never anticipated. More than an ode to beloved stations, this book will resonate with both music fans and observers of the politics of culture.
Download or read book Capitalizing on Culture written by Shane Gunster and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Building on the work of Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, Capitalizing on Culture presents an innovative, accessible, and timely exploration of critical theory in a cultural landscape dominated by capital. Despite the increasing prevalence of commodification as a dominant factor in the production, promotion, and consumption of most forms of mass culture, many in the cultural studies field have failed to engage systematically either with culture as commodity or with critical theory. Shane Gunster corrects that oversight, providing attentive readings of Adorno and Benjamin's work in order to generate a complex, non-reductive theory of human experience that attends to the opportunities and dangers arising from the confluence of culture and economics. Gunster juxtaposes Benjamin's thoughts on memory, experience, and capitalism with Adorno's critique of mass culture and modern aesthetics to illuminate the key position that the commodity form plays in each thinker's work and to invigorate the dialectical complexity their writings acquire when considered together. This blending of perspectives is subsequently used to ground a theoretical interrogation of the comparative failure of cultural studies to engage substantively with the effect of commodification upon cultural practices. As a result, Capitalizing on Culture offers a fresh examination of critical theory that will be valuable to scholars studying the intersection of culture and capitalism.
Download or read book Is Rock Dead written by Kevin J. H. Dettmar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
