Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop Music

Published by Duke University Press 2007

Listen Again

A Momentary History of Pop Music

Edited by: Eric Weisbard
With contributions by: W. T. Lhamon Jr. , Marybeth Hamilton , Josh Kun and Ned Sublette

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822390558

Overview
Contents

About this book

Collection of essays on the history of pop music.

Author / Editor information

Eric Weisbard is the organizer of the annual Experience Music Project Pop Conference. He was a curator and senior manager of the Experience Music Project from 2001 until 2005. Before that, he worked as an editor and contributing writer at Spin and The Village Voice. He is the author of Use Your Illusion I and II and the editor of This Is Pop: In Search of the Elusive at Experience Music Project and the Spin Alternative Record Guide.

Reviews

“The EMP papers are a text radio, spilling out evidence of so many strange brilliant forays into the starry night of our common culture. Here’s where my American history—and yours—goes to find itself.”—Jonathan Lethem, author of You Don’t Love Me Yet

“[T]he papers featured in this volume are typically eclectic, eccentric and unorthodox while remaining highly readable and sometimes quite brilliant. . . . As original as it is refreshing and engaging, Listen Again and, by implication, the work of the EMP Pop Conference, represents an important contribution to the serious consideration of pop music—essential reading in an era in which our experience and understanding of music is fragmenting, mixing and morphing at a bewildering pace. “

-- Alex Seago American Studies

“This collection of essays on subjects ranging from ORCH5, a Stravinsky phrase turned synthesizer blip that helped forge the sound of early hip-hop, to James McKune, a record collector who single-handedly invented the Delta-blues genre, deftly analyzes marginal and telling moments in pop history. Listen Again is a brilliant reimagining of last century’s most accessible art form.”

-- Nick Moore LA Weekly

"Listen Again has the guiding vision and rigorous analysis that so much current journalistic and scholarly writing on popular music lacks. . . . The eclecticism on display here isn’t distracting; the book benefits by drawing on many perspectives. Instead of reading as a throwback to music criticism’s glory days, Listen Again maps a future for the field."

-- Geeta Dayal Bookforum

"Time and again, I found myself putting down the book to download a song or to search YouTube for a dimly recalled performer evocatively discussed here. But this isn't a book of pop trivia, a scholarly version of TV nostalgia shows. Anyone who wants to revisit the pop past will find enjoyment in Listen Again, but learning and scholarship too."

-- David Hesmondhalgh Times Higher Education

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
TABLE OF CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Introduction Eric Weisbard Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Whittling on Dynamite: The Difference Bert Williams Makes W. T. Lhamon Jr. Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
2. Searching for the Blues: James McKune, Collectors, and a Different Crossroads Marybeth Hamilton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
3. Abie the Fishman: On Masks, Birthmarks, and Hunchbacks Josh Kun Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
4. The Kingsmen and the Cha-Cha-Chá Ned Sublette Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
5. Ghoulardi: Lessons in Mayhem from the First Age of Punk David Thomas Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
6. Magic Moments, the Ghost of Folk-Rock, and the Ring of E Major David Brackett Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
7. Mystery Girl: The Forgotten Artistry of Bobbie Gentry Holly George-Warren Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	120
8. ‘‘Is That All There Is?’’ and the Uses of Disenchantment Franklin Bruno Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
9. Ghetto Brother Power: The Bronx Gangs, the Beatles, the Aguinaldo, and a Pre-History of Hip-Hop Benjamin Melendez, Henry Chalfant and Jeff Chang Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	150
10. Grand Funk Live! Staging Rock in the Age of the Arena Steve Waksman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
11. The Sound of Velvet Melting: The Power of ‘‘Vibe’’ in the Music of Roberta Flack Jason King Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	172
12. All Roads Lead to ‘‘Apache’’ Michaelangelo Matos Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	200
13. On Punk Rock and Not Being a Girl Lavinia Greenlaw Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	210
14. The Buddy Holocaust Story: A Necromusicology Eric Weisbard Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
15. ORCH5, or the Classical Ghost in the Hip-Hop Machine Robert Fink Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
16. White Chocolate Soul: Teena Marie and Lewis Taylor Mark Anthony Neal Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	256
17. Dancing, Democracy, and Kitsch: Poland’s Disco Polo Daphne Carr Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	272
18. How to Act Like Darby Crash Drew Daniel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	286
19. Death Letters Greil Marcus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	296
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	307
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	313

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 336
Illustrations
- Other: 13 photographs, 13 illustrations

eBook

Published: November 1, 2007
ISBN: 9780822390558