- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press (Sep 1 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0195100050
- ISBN-13: 978-0195100051
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 318 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #863,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
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
Product Description
Amid the recent increase in scholarly attention to rock music, Understanding Rock stands out as one of the first books that subjects diverse aspects of the music itself to close and sophisticated analytical scrutiny. Written by some of the best young scholars in musicology and music theory, the essays in this volume use harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, formal, and textual approaches in order to show how and why rock music works as music. Topics of discussion include the adaptation of bluesand other styles to rock; the craft of songwriting; techniques and strategies of improvisation; the reinterpretation of older songs; and the use of the recording studio as a compositional tool. A broad range of styles and groups is covered, including Yes, the Beach Boys, Cream, k.d. lang, Paul Simon, Jimi Hendrix, and the Grateful Dead.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
"Progressive rock," "classical rock," "art rock," "symphonic rock"-these labels have been used over the last twenty-five years by various authors to designate a style of popular music developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, primarily by British rock musicians. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
"Progressive rock," "classical rock," "art rock," "symphonic rock"-these labels have been used over the last twenty-five years by various authors to designate a style of popular music developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, primarily by British rock musicians. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally--a book that takes rock music seriously as music!!,
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!!
1.0 out of 5 stars
Misleading Title, Too Academic for Rock and Roll,
By A Customer
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!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.7 out of 5 stars (3 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,
By J. A. Cohen "jakecola" - Published on Amazon.com
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!!,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
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 24 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Misleading Title, Too Academic for Rock and Roll,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
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!
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