Bücher von Lily E. Hirsch

Insulting Music explores insult in and around music and demonstrates that insult is a key dimension of Western musical experience and practice. There is insult in the music we hear, how we express our musical preferences, as well as our reactions to settings and sites of music and music making. More than that, when music and insult overlap, the effects can both promote social justice or undermine it, foster connection or break it apart. The coming together of music and insult shapes our sense of self and view of other people, underlining and  constructing difference, often in terms of race and gender.  In the last decade, music's power dynamics have become an increasingly important concern for music scholars, critics, and fans. Studying musicians such as Frank Zappa, Nickleback, Taylor Swift, and the Insane Clown Posse, and musical phenomena such as musician jokes, the use of music to torture people, and the playing of music in restaurants, this book shows the various and contradictory ways insults are used to negotiate those existing dynamics in and around music.

This is the first book to address in a serious way the impact of the music of "Weird Al" Yankovic. Through original interviews with the man himself, Lily Hirsch addresses Yankovic's relationship to past parody song and his unique approach to the art form, inviting music enthusiasts of all stripes to reconsider Yankovic's music.