Cateforis analyzes new wave with a discerning eye

CateforisCover.inddIn his book for the University of Michigan Press, Are We Not New Wave? Modern Pop at the Turn of the 1980s, author Theo Cateforis created a selection if essays on the various focii of new wave, and what connected the quite diverse genres which fell under its umbrella.

Cateforis makes several points as to what conncted the various, seemingly disparate genres that made up new wave. Synth pop, power pop, post-punk, and even rockabilly revivalists and punk itself all fell under the “new wave” banner at one time or another. So, what connects all of these things? In one case, it’s the beat. Cateforis returns again and again to the beat. be it the double backbeat or “Burundi beat,” rhythmic change was just as important to new wave’s image of “herky-jerky” music as the various visual elements.
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The blues, caught in photographs

book-cover-blues-in-bwIn the interest of honesty, I’ll be forthright and explain that I’m not a big fan of photography collections. Inevitably, there are shots that are included more for their historical value than artisitic value, especially in the case of music photography. The accompanying text is also usually of the “you should have been there” variety, explaining that the photos are in no way a substitute for the actual event itself.
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Zak’s I Don’t Sound Like Nobody better the deeper it gets

book-cover-i-dontI Don’t Sound Like Nobody takes its title from a famous quote attributed to Elvis Presley. For the first half of the book of the same name by Albin J. Zak III, the same cannot be said. The musical history contained within the first few chapters is a retread of what’s been said many times in other histories of popular music, and is familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of the twentieth century’s first half.

While no better nor worse than the coverage that came before, the subject of ’50 rock ‘n’ roll and its attendant rise in youth purchasing power has been covered ad nauseum. However, I Don’t Sound Like Nobody starts really kicking about halfway through, when Zak starts examining the concept of covers and copies in chapter five, “Surface Noise.”
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The up-and-down history of the rock musical

book-cover-theater-will-rockUntil I read Elizabeth L. Wollman‘s The Theater Will Rock (from the University of Michigan Press), I’d thought that the history of the rock musical was a bit larger than it actually is. In her book, Wollman analyzes the the history and impact of the rock musical on “legitimate” theater, and I realized that the sub-genre of the Broadway musical started only in 1967, with Hair, with whose subtitle, “The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical,” the genre was named.

The book covers most of the major productions that followed, and the ones that have been original concepts can almost be counted on one hand. Such productions as Grease, Hedwig & the Angry Inch, or Rent have been rare, with performances such as Mamma Mia!, Jersey Boys, and Jesus Christ Superstar more the norm.
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