Reading Rock and Roll - by Kevin Dettmar & William Richey (Paperback)

About the Book

This collection of original essays develops new, intertextual approaches to thinking about rock music.

Book Synopsis

Considering the work of such artists as Madonna, George Clinton, U2, Elvis Costello, and Nirvana, the contributors deftly combine the rigors of scholarship with the energy of rock journalism to provide an analysis at once critical, contextualized, and enthusiastic. While a number of scholars have recently turned their attention to rock and pop music, most of their work has focused on providing sweeping cultural contexts for its popularity rather than exploring the music itself. Now, in Reading Rock and Roll, Kevin Dettmar and William Richey have gathered a wealth of erudite, original, and clever writings that perform close readings of rock music--often with surprising results.

The authors in this volume view rock and roll as having had affinities with postmodernism from its inception. With its mongrel pedigree--drawing on blues, folk, R and B, and bluegrass--and its relation to mass media and high-tech modes of production, rock music has been self-conscious and full of irony from the beginning. These essays regularly call attention to the allusiveness and intertextuality of rock and roll, whether it is Kurt Cobain undermining the Beatles, M. C. Hammer stealing from Rick James's "Super Freak," or U2's use of Johnny Cash's legendary voice.

From a careful examination of the roles of addictions and female sexuality in the remakings of Courtney Love and Madonna, to the politics of George Clinton's uses and abuses of language, to the referencing of Elvis Costello in two recent novels and the use of 1970s rock in several recent film soundtracks, these essays are as varied as the artists they consider. Informal and theoretically informed, Reading Rock and Roll is an important investigation of the music that more than any other has defined our century.

From the Back Cover

INFORMAL AND THEORETICALLY INFORMED, Reading Rock & Roll is an important investigation of the music that more than any other has defined our century. Kevin Dettmar and William Richey have gathered a wealth of erudite, original, and clever writings that perform close readings of rock music -- often with surprising results.

From a careful examination of the roles of addictions and female sexuality in the remakings of Courtney Love and Madonna, to the politics of George Clinton's uses and abuses of language, to the referencing of Elvis Costello in two recent novels and the use of 1970s rock in recent film soundtracks, these essays are as varied as the artists they consider. Arguing that from its inception rock and roll has exhibited the self-consciousness and irony characteristic of other postmodern art forms, the writings featured in Reading Rock & Roll regularly call attention to the allusiveness and intertextuality of rock and roll, whether it is Kurt Cobain undermining the Beatles, M. C. Hammer stealing from Rick James's "Super Freak", or U2's use of the legendary voice of Johnny Cash.

Review Quotes

" "Reading Rock and Roll" establishes a unique identity for itself, and maintains consistently high quality within its own terms." -- William Echard, "American Studies"

" Reading Rock and Roll establishes a unique identity for itself, and maintains consistently high quality within its own terms." -- William Echard, American Studies

" "Reading Rock and Roll" establishes a unique identity for itself, and maintains consistently high quality within its own terms." -- William Echard, "American Studies"

About the Author

Kevin J. H. Dettmar is professor and chair of the Department of English at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He is the author of The Illicit Joyce of Postmodernism: Reading Against the Grain, editor of Rereading the New: A Backward Glance at Modernism, and (with Stephen Watt) Marketing Modernisms: Self-Promotion, Canonization, and Rereading.William Richey is associate professor of English at the University of South Carolina. He is the author of Blake's Altering Aesthetic.