Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis [Hardcover]

John Covach (Author), Graeme M. Boone (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195100042 | ISBN-13: 978-0195100044 | Publication Date: November 20, 1997

Scholars have become increasingly interested in rock music, but few of the many works published on the subject attempt to place the music itself under close and sophisticated scrutiny. This text brings together essays by several of musicology and music theory's young scholars who take a music-analytical perspective. Each essay explores the often complex musical structure of rock music, by such artists as the Beach Boys, the Grateful Dead, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Yes, Paul Simon, and k.d. lang. Richly illustrated with musical examples and transcriptions, these essays attempt to expand our understanding of the musical experience generally, and to suppress dividing lines between pop and art music and the way they are studied.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An anthology of critical essays focusing on either one or just a handful of songs, the collection offers all the attention to detail that guides the musical analysis of classical music."--American Music

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

John Covach, Assistant Professor of Music, University of North Texas. Graeme Boone, Associate Professor of Music, Harvard University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (November 20, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195100042
• ISBN-13: 978-0195100044
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,854,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great scholarly analysis of rock and contemporary music, March 23, 2005

By 

J. A. Cohen "jakecola" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis (Paperback)

The previous reviewer was clearly expecting something that would be a bit more like music journalism. In reality, this is a true scholarly work, designed for mostly graduate students and professionals in the musicological fields. The title clearly implies a more academic nature because of the "musical analysis" tag. Some of these articles are more geared towards recording practices, some are more music theory, some ethnomusicological, and others in the greater scheme of music history. The previous reviewer commented "this ain't Mahler, y'know," but the point is that these essays are designed for people who do want to use the traditional studies used for the classics of music to apply to current rock too.

This is a great resource for anyone trying to get a sense of how one can write about rock music. It is also an excellent sourcebook with a typically accurate and extensive bibliography for rock scholarship. The field of rock and pop studies in music academia is growing, from Beatles to Beach Boys to Tori Amos to Radiohead. This is a great survey study on a number of broad aspects of music scholarship.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally--a book that takes rock music seriously as music!!, December 15, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis (Paperback)

This is a great book for anyone who has always suspected that there is more to rock music than just 3 chords, tough-guy posturing, and stories of wild lifestyles. As a working musician for over 20 years, I've seen first-hand how much skill goes into making even the simplest-sounding records. I especially liked the chapters on Yes and the Beach Boys. Let's have more of this kind of writing!!

2 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Misleading Title, Too Academic for Rock and Roll, July 18, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis (Paperback)

Unfortunately, many so-called "rock journalists" are nothing more than sociology majors who let their devotion to an artists or group cloud their vision of unbiased criticism. In this case, we get a bit of that from the contributing writers as well as a bias toward progressive "rock," which is in most cases nothing more than classical music composer wannabees who don't want to miss out on the fabled rock lifestyle. Perhaps "Understanding Irrevalent Prog Rock" would have been a better title. And why would anyone analyze a four-minute song in 20 pages? Does any true rock song need more than a couple of paragraphs? This ain't Mahler, y'know!