Rock And Roll: A Social History [Paperback]

Paul Friedlander (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 3, 2006

Now updated with two new chapters and an extraordinary collection of photographs, this second edition of Paul Friedlander’s Rock and Roll: A Social History is a smash hit. The social force of rock and roll music leaps off the page as Paul Friedlander provides impressive insights based on hits from "Johnny B. Goode" to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and beyond. In this musical journey, Friedlander offers the melodious strains and hard-edged riffs of Elvis, the Beatles, The Who, Dylan, Clapton, Hendrix, Motown, the San Francisco Beat, Punk, New Wave, rap, metal, 90's grunge, plus file sharing, and much more. The book is written in a refreshing, captivating style that pulls the reader in, offering no less than a complete social and cultural history of rock and roll for students and general audiences alike.Friedlander writes, "This book chronicles the first forty years of rock/pop music history. Picture the various musical styles as locations on a giant unfolding road map. As you open the map, you travel from place to place, stopping at each chapter to sample the artistry. Don't forget to dress your imagination appropriately for this trip, because each genre is affected by the societal topography and climate that surround it."Enjoy your trip. We promise it will be a good one!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As rock and roll enters its fifth decade, critics and scholars have taken up the gauntlet to chart its evolution and examine it within the context of late-20th century civilization. Friedlander, a professor at the Conservatory of Music/University of the Pacific, has done his research, reading Robert Palmer on blues, Dick Hebdige on punk and Tricia Rose on rap, among many others. Still, his tome, despite its subtitle, is better read as a catalogue of rock trivia than as a critique. At the outset, Friedlander traces how gospel, country and blues have influenced everyone from Marvin Gaye and Elvis to the Who. Looking back across classic, alternative, punk and folk rock, Friedlander postulates a rather obvious recipe for success: seizing the moment and having a team approach (talent, manager, producer label support). In his conclusion, he speculates on the oligarchy of the few record labels which now dominate the industry. Although not the definitive cultural critique of rock and roll, this does have an appealing tone as Friedlander combines the ebullience of an amateur with the technical fluency of a musician.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

This social history of rock covers its first thirty years, from classic rock to the punk stars of the 80s: it goes beyond the usual approach of naming stars and hits, tracing the roots of rock to its gospel and country influences and blending lesser-known rock trivia with considerations of the historical factors which have shaped different rock styles. An unusual, diverse approach. -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press; Second Edition edition (January 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813343062
• ISBN-13: 978-0813343068
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #83,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good start, but you should go further---, April 11, 2002

By 

Christopher W. Chase "Christopher W. Chase" (East Lansing, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rock And Roll: A Social History (Paperback)

There is no shortage of books purporting to give historical accounts of American rock and roll music. From trade paperbacks to more scholarly treatments (like Steve Waksman's "Instruments of Desire") these texts vary widely in scope and quality. Paul Friedlander's "Rock and Roll: A Social History" is one of the better treatments of this music, although it suffers from some difficulties. Published on Westview Press, the book is written by a musician turned academic historian, and is targeted towards an intelligent readership, although not necessarily towards the strict academician.

The book exhibits a number of strong points, including an opening essay providing a hermeneutics of rock and roll, focusing on open-ended readings of both music and lyrics, while acknowledging the biases and cultural positioning of the critic. Friedlander avoids exclusivist and reductionistic modes of analysis, instead arguing for pluralistic elements of both "escape" and "enlightenment" in popular music. This allows him to maintain a critical distance, but avoids a simplistic overgeneralization of the subject matter, as seen in both left-wing music critics like Theodore Adorno and right-wing critics like Orrin Hatch.

The bulk of Friedlander's book, however, focuses on tracing a narrative of influences from artist to genre and back again. While useful, this reveals a limitation on Friedlander's part, a subterranean impulse to regard the history of music as a history of artists. While the fetishizing of the "artist" is nothing new (dating at least from the publication of "Sentimental Education" by French realist Gustav Flaubert) it deserves to be interrogated and examined, especially in a text claiming to be a "social history."

Friedlander's narrative progresses from a largely white middle class phenomenon in the early fifties, to an infiltration of urban R +B into the musical sensibilities of white teens. Friedlander is careful to analyze the appeal of early artists in terms of race and sexually rebellious theme, as in the case of Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis as compared to Elvis Presley. Friedlander devotes complete chapters to supergroups, and artists, like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan, while chronicling the interplay of Soul and Motown music with issues race. Later chapters are devoted to themes of "decades" (70's, 80's) while punctuating these chapters with genre examinations, such as Punk Rock and Folk Rock. The attention given to race as a guiding issue in rock and roll music is admirable, even if some of the particular conclusions are debatable-here Friedlander shows himself superior to many other treatments of the subject, which often ignore Soul, Motown or post-50's R+B altogether.

Another strength of the book is an extensive discography of the artists covered (and skipped too) in the book. Again here Friedlander rises above others in his careful treatment and guidance to the reader regarding label reissues, as well as refusing to fetishize the "original album" as the proper unit of record collecting (a fairly recent and annoying trend). At the same time, Friedlander's endnotes are frustrating, leaving very few openings to track down interpretations and influences in his own writings.

In the final analysis, "Rock and Roll : A Social History," is a valuable but insufficient introduction, especially with regard to social issues other than race. An excellent place continue reading is Steve Waksman's "Instruments of Desire," an excellent cultural history of the electric guitar.

-Christopher W. Chase, PhD Fellow, Michigan St. Univ.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book On the History of Great Music, December 2, 1999

By 

Jim (Bonita Springs, Florida, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rock And Roll: A Social History (Paperback)

I am only 15 years old, but am a very big fan of Rock and Roll. I was doing a report for school, and was suprised to find theis book in the school library. I gained much needed information from this book and it is a great buy for anyone who wants to learn more about music.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rock and Roll: A Social History, October 3, 2005

By 

C. Martin (Saratoga, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rock And Roll: A Social History (Paperback)

my teacher lectures from this book in my college class on the history of rock and roll. It is a required text. It is an entertaining, informative & well written source of knowledge on this subject. My teacher is in the entertainmet business and he raves about this book.