A collection of essays exploring popular culture and its relationship to rock music, which discusses such subjects as the rationale behind Hit Parade radio, black and white "crossover" music, the packaging of pop as a commodity, and how pop music shapes teenage identity and sexuality.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
These five postmortems by popular-music journalists are, as Frith explains, "inspired by the suspicion . . . that the rock story is ending." In the eloquent and compelling "McRock: Pop as a Commodity," Mary Harron interprets such movements as '50s pop, '60s rock and '70s punk, as well as individual style-conscious '80s stars like Madonna, in terms of images created by hype. Frith's ambitious but often unfocused "Video Pop: Picking Up the Pieces" studies the implications of media entertainment conglomerates' intense packaging and marketing. Steve Perry's "Crossover Politics: Ain't No Mountain High Enough," a history of black popular music and a support of black crossover into white-dominated territory, is a welcome contrast to the other essays' cynical tone and focus on white musicians. And Ken Barnes's dry but informative "Top 40 Radio: A Fragment of the Imagination" unravels a maze of radio formats and discusses the reasons formats are adopted in this medium. If not as controversial as Frith aggrandizingly proclaims it to be, his volume is, for the most part, lively and challenging.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
What is my favorite song doing in a wine-cooler commercial?,
By
This review is from: Facing the Music (Paperback)
Rock'n'roll is fifty years old now, and it shows no signs of slowing down, going away, or even turning off that darn racket. The five lengthy essays in this book discuss many of the elements that have contributed to its longevity: the taboos of sexuality and race, the roles played by radio and tv, how the music now dominates the commercial marketplace (and has been turned into a commodity itself), why it still carries the sense of teenage rebellion. While anyone who listens to Sting may take exception to that last statement, it's certainly true that rap and pop are still being influenced by rock'n'roll forms and formulas. These essays are a bit dated (the book was published in 1988) but they're detailed and thoughtful, informative without being critical of the pop marketing elements that were shaping the rise of MTV. This is a good companion to Frith's 1981 book, "Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure, and the Politics of Rock'n'Roll," which examines the spectacular growth of the recording industry in the 1950s and 1960s, and the identification of a youth culture that followed it.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't face it, just enjoy it!,
By MovieMusic (Nautical Newport) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Facing the Music (Paperback)
I've always found that intellectual analyses of primarily non-intellectual subjects (like popular music) look completely ridiculous. And nothing has changed here. What mysterious impulse leads writers to mull over and complicate what was originally simple and primal?
They want to tag every song and every album with a sub-genre, a sociological explanation, and a historical context, and to imbue deep and profound meaning where none may have been intended. One sentence from the book will serve to indicate its pointlessness. "But how Madonna survives into the nineties remains to be seen." Firstly, why did the writer bother to speculate? Why did it matter to her? And secondly, what does its lack of foresight say about everything else she wrote?
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