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Popular music may be viewed as primary documents of society, and
America's Musical Pulse documents the American experience as recorded in popular sound. Whether jazz, blues, swing, country, or rock, the music, the impulse behind it, and the reaction to it reveal the attitudes of an era or generation. Always a major preoccupation of students, music is often ignored by teaching professionals, who might profitably channel this interest to further understandings of American social history and such diverse fields as sociology, political science, literature, communications, and business as well as music.
In this interdisciplinary collection, scholars, educators, and writers from a variety of fields and perspectives relate topics concerning twentieth-century popular music to issues of politics, class, economics, race, gender, and the social context. The focus throughout is to place music in societal perspective and encourage investigation of the complex issues behind the popular tunes, rhythms, and lyrics.
List of contents
Preface
Introduction: The Importance of Music to People by Rudolf E. Radocy
PoliticsPopular Music as Politics and Protest by Jerome Rodnitzky
"Blues What I Am:" Blues Consciousness and Social Protest by Fred J. Hay
Proud to Be an American: Patriotism in Country Music by Melton A. McLaurin
"Still Boy Meets Girl Stuff:" Popular Music and War by Jeffrey C. Livingston
ClassSocial and Geographic Characteristics of Country Music by James E. Akenson
The Music of the Dispossessed: The Rise of the Blues by William Barlow
Emerging from America's Underside: The Black Musician from Ragtime to Jazz by Burton W. Peretti
Race, Class, and Ethnicity among Swing Musicians by Kenneth J. Bindas
Rock and Roll and the Working Class by James R. McDonald
Rock is Youth/Youth is Rock by Deena Weinstein
EconomicsMusic as a Commodity: Effect and Influence by Scott J. Hammond
The Development of Tin Pan Alley by Craig H. Roell
Small Business and the Recording Industry by Martin Laforse
The Business of Popular Music: A Short History by Patrick R. Parsons
Taking Care of Business: The Commercialization of Rock Music by George M. Plasketes
RaceThe African-American Contribution to Jazz by William Howland Kenney, III
The Day Hank Williams Died: Cultural Collisions in Country Music by Nolan Porterfield
Swing and Segregation by Charles Nanry
The Role and Image of African-Americans in Rock and Roll by Charles R. Warner
GenderEqual Time: A Historical Overview of Women in Jazz by Linda Dahl
Women and Country Music by Karen Saucier Lundy
One Voice: The Legacy of Women Singers in Popular Music by Therese L. Lueck
Lyrical Sexism in Popular Music: A Quantitative Examination by Virginia W. Cooper
Social ContextThe Ragtime Controversy by David Joyner
Debating with Beethoven: Understanding the Fear of Early Jazz by Kathy J. Ogren
Sounds of Seduction: Sex and Alcohol in Country Music Lyrics by Charles Jaret and Jacqueline Boles
The Homogenization of Early Rock and Roll by Richard Aquila
Conclusion: Impact of Popular Music in Society by John Orman
Index
About the author
KENNETH J. BINDAS is Assistant Professor of History at West Georgia College, Carrollton, Georgia. His academic specialization is cultural history, in particular, music history. His publications on the role of popular music in American society have appeared in
The Western Historical Quarterly and
The Historian, among other journals.
