Bücher der Reihe Tempo: A Rowman & Littlefield Music Series on Rock, Pop, and Culture

In The British Invasion, Simon Philo illustrates how this remarkable event in cultural history disrupted and even reversed pop culture's default flow of influence, goods, and ideas-orchestrating a dramatic turn-around in the commercial fortunes of British pop in North America that turned the 1960s into "The Sixties."

Glam Rock investigates the origins, development, and impact of an often under-valued and misunderstood musical genre. Exploring artistic, political, psychological, sexual, and commercial contexts, this book brings a fresh perspective to the transatlantic cultural history of this unique movement in popular music.

Like other major music genres, ska reflects, reveals, and reacts to the genesis and migration from its Afro-Caribbean roots and colonial origins to the shores of England and back across the Atlantic to the United States. Without ska music, there would be no reggae or Bob Marley, no British punk and pop blends, no American soundtrack to its various subcultures. In Ska: The Rhythm of Liberation, Heather Augustyn examines how ska music first emerged in Jamaica as a fusion of popular, traditional, and even classical musical forms. As a genre, it was a connection to Africa, a means of expression and protest, and a respite from the struggles of colonization and grinding poverty. Ska would later travel with West Indian immigrants to the United Kingdom, where British youth embraced the music, blending it with punk and pop and working its origins as a music of protest and escape into their present lives. The fervor of the music matched the energy of the streets as racism, poverty, and violence ran rampant. But ska called for brotherhood and unity. As series editor and pop music scholar Scott Calhoun notes: ';Like a cultural barometer, the rise of ska indicates when and where social, political, and economic institutions disappoint their people and push them to re-invent the process for making meaning out of life. When a people or group embark on this process, it becomes even more necessary to embrace expressive, liberating forms of art for help during the struggle. In its history as a music of freedom, ska has itself flowed freely to wherever people are celebrating the rhythms and sounds of hope.'Ska: The Rhythm Liberation should appeal to fans and scholars alikeindeed, any enthusiast of popular music and Caribbean, American, and British history seeking to understand the fascinating relationship between indigenous popular music and cultural and political history. Devotees of reggae, jazz, pop, Latin music, hip hop, rock, techno, dance, and world beat will find their appreciation of this remarkable genre deepened by this survey of the origins and spread of ska.

Joshua Duchan looks at the career and music of this remarkable singer-songwriter, exploring the unique ways Joel transforms the cultural life of a changing America over four decades. Original interviews with Joel blend with Duchan's engaging analysis to provide readers of all backgrounds and ages a new look at Joel's most beloved songs.

Joshua Duchan looks at the career and music of this remarkable singer-songwriter, exploring the unique ways Joel transforms the cultural life of a changing America over four decades. Original interviews with Joel blend with Duchan's engaging analysis to provide readers of all backgrounds and ages a new look at Joel's most beloved songs.

In The Clash: The Only Band That Matters, respected music critic Sean Egan examines The Clash's career and art through the prism of the uniquely interesting and fractious UK politics of the Seventies and Eighties, without which they simply would not have existed. Tackling subjects such as The Clash's self-conscious tussles with their record label, the accusations of sell-out that dogged their footsteps, their rivalry with the similarly leaning but less purist Jam, the paradoxical quality of their achieving multi-platinum success and even whether their denunciations of Thatcherism were proven wrong, Egan has come up with new insights into a much discussed group.

The Sex Pistols blew away all that had come before them, setting an entirely new bar for rock acts that followed in their wake. Peter Smith explores the impact the band had on the punk movement as well as its embodiment of disenfranchised youth and in the tense political climate of the 1970s.

With a career in music and film that has spanned over forty years, Kristofferson began as a singer-songwriter. In this book, Mary G. Hurd surveys the life and works of this highly respected American songwriter, exploring the uncommon depth and lyricism of his work.

The American Songbook explores key aspects of individual song's popularizations, addressing how and why the tradition of standards was eventually usurped by rock and roll in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as how it has continued to hold historic, nostalgic, and contemporary value for listeners.

In 1986, when Bon Jovi's third studio album, Slippery When Wet, was released, America had found its next superband. In Bon Jovi: America's Ultimate Band, Margaret Olson chronicles the history and music of the band from its inception to present day. She closely examines Bon Jovi's musical and social relevance to listeners past and present, exploring the remarkable ways the band has emerged as the expression and product of deep cultural needs and how, within a few years of commercial success, it has made a lasting impact on Generation X, the music business, and American culture. Through opportunities offered by cable television (particularly MTV), Hollywood, and corporate brands, Bon Jovi has been able to influence not only the music, film, and television industries but also the worlds of fashion, musical theater, art, philanthropy, and politics.Like any megaband, its members have struggled with addiction, the demands of fame, and a lack of critical respect. They have persevered, however, to become one of the United States' world's best-selling touring bands. Bon Jovi is a testament to the way modern culture and entertainment can become intertwined, and its success underscores the length of the band's career, the professionalism of its management, the recognition of what audiences want, and the unique way the musicmore than anything elseboth reflects and shapes the social and musical American landscape it inhabits.Titles in the Tempo series are ideal introductions to major pop and rock artists, the music they produce, and their cultural and musical impact on society. Bon Jovi: America's Ultimate Band should interest fans, students, and scholars alike.

Bruce Springsteen: American Poet and Prophet by literary critic Donald L. Deardorff II classifies and explains Springsteen's remarkable reception as it evolved from small beginnings in the Jersey shore bars of the 1970s to worldwide fame today. This book thoughtfully considers the trenchant commentary Springsteen's albums make on the mythology of the American Dream, working-class concerns, the changing character of American masculinity, the relationship between Americans and their government, the importance of social justice, and the evocation of an American spirit.