Customer Reviews

All the Years of American Popular Music

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This is one of my all-time favorite books on the history of American music, mainly emphasizing popular music from the beginning of European settlement in North America (and later the arrival of African Americans) up to the 1970s (which is when the edition I own was published).

Ewen often adds interesting anecdotes surrounding the songs, songwriters, composers and performers. While the book is dated (which is probably why it is out of print), I find the index helpful when I want to quickly look up the background to older songs.

Reading this chapter by chapter, one can get a clear idea of the "greatest hits" of each era.

This is a highly readable book, which I recommend to any fan of American music, or even American history. This one certainly deserves to be updated and republished.

I used this book for my course in American popular music at DePaul University in Chicago. It covers vaudeville, operetta, minstrel shows, dance bands, folk music, 30's workers songs, R&B, rock, as well as radio, TV, and film scores. Its style is less scholarly and more oral tradition.

Although it is not up to date, it covers in depth the foundations of American popular music. Bring it back!