Putting popular music in its place
These essays by Charles Hamm focus on the context of popular music and its interrelationships with other styles and genres. Specific topics include anti-slavery sentiment, rock 'n' roll and soul music, Irving Berlin, cultural control of music in South Africa and China and the impact of modernism.
XII, 390 p. : il., map. ; 24 cm.
9780521471985, 0521471982
1023946575
Acknowledgements; Preface; 1. Modernist narratives and popular music; 2. Rock and the facts of life; 3. Changing patterns in society and music: the US since World War II; 4. 'If I Were a Voice': or, the Hutchinson family and popular song as political and social protest; 5. Some thoughts on the measurement of popularity in music; 6. Elvis, a review; 7. Home cooking and American soul in black South African popular music; 8. Rock 'n' roll in a very strange society; 9. African-American music, South Africa and apartheid; 10. 'The constant companion of man': Separate Development, Radio Bantu and music; 11. Privileging the moment of reception: music and radio in South Africa; 12. Music and radio in the People's Republic of China; 13. Towards a new reading of Gershwin; 14. A blues for the ages; 15. Graceland revisited; 16. Dvorak in America: nationalism, racism and national race; 17. The last minstrel show?; 18. The Role of Rock, a review; 19. Genre, performance and ideology in the early songs of Irving Berlin; 20. Epilogue: John Cage revisited; Index.