or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
35 used & new from £4.07
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don't Get Stockhausen (Zero Books)
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don't Get Stockhausen (Zero Books) (Paperback)

by David Stubbs (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
Price: £6.06 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £3.93 (39%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Thursday, February 11? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
29 new from £4.07 6 used from £4.10

Frequently Bought Together

Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don't Get Stockhausen (Zero Books) + Militant Modernism (Zero Books) + Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?
Total RRP: £27.97
Price For All Three: £17.93

Show availability and delivery details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Militant Modernism (Zero Books)

Militant Modernism (Zero Books)

by Owen Hatherley
£5.98
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?

Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?

by Mark Fisher
5.0 out of 5 stars (3)  £5.89
Cold World: The Aesthetics of Dejection and the Politics of Militant Dysphoria

Cold World: The Aesthetics of Dejection and the Politics of Militant Dysphoria

by Dominic Fox
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £4.96
Sonic Warfare (Technologies of Lived Abstraction Series)

Sonic Warfare (Technologies of Lived Abstraction Series)

by Steve Goodman
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £19.46
Notations 21

Notations 21

by Theresa Sauer
£21.73
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 144 pages
  • Publisher: O Books (24 April 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1846941792
  • ISBN-13: 978-1846941795
  • Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 13.7 x 1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 12,747 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #13 in  Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Music > Styles > Classical Music > By History
    #25 in  Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Music > Musical Theory & Composition > Musical Theory
    #32 in  Books > Study Books > Undergraduate & Postgraduate > Arts & Humanities > Performing Arts > Music

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Product Description

Modern art is a mass phenomenon. The Tate Modern is the most popular tourist attraction in Europe. Conceptual artists like Tracy Emin and Damien Hirst enjoy celebrity status. Works by 20th century abstract artists like Mark Rothko are selling for record breaking sums at auction, while the millions commanded by works by Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon make headline news. However, while the general public has no trouble embracing avant garde and experimental art, there is, by contrast, mass resistance to avant garde and experimental music, although both were born at the same time under similar circumstances - and despite the fact that from Schoenberg and Kandinsky onwards, musicians and artists have made repeated efforts to establish a 'synaesthesia' between their two media.This book examines the parallel histories of modern art and modern music and examines why one is embraced and understood and the other ignored, derided or regarded with bewilderment, as noisy, random nonsense perpetrated by, and listened to by the inexplicably crazed. It draws on interviews and often highly amusing anecdotal evidence in order to find answers to the question: Why do people get Rothko and not Stockhausen?

About the Author

David Stubbs is a freelance British music journalist and author. Between 2004 and 2006 he was reviews editor for The Wire, the UK based magazine dedicated to avant garde and experimental music of all genres. Between 1987 and 1988 he was staff writer at Melody Maker, before going on to join the staff of the NME. As well as music, he also covers sport, film, literature and TV - his work regularly appears in The Guardian, Arena, The Wire, Uncut and When Saturday Comes.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
Search inside this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)
(1)
Agree with these tags?

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don't Get Stockhausen (Zero Books)
68% buy the item featured on this page:
Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don't Get Stockhausen (Zero Books) 3.5 out of 5 stars (2)
£6.06
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?
12% buy
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? 5.0 out of 5 stars (3)
£5.89
Militant Modernism (Zero Books)
10% buy
Militant Modernism (Zero Books)
£5.98
Cold World: The Aesthetics of Dejection and the Politics of Militant Dysphoria
6% buy
Cold World: The Aesthetics of Dejection and the Politics of Militant Dysphoria 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£4.96
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
5 star:    (0)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting if inconclusive, 13 Aug 2009
This book has its origins in a blog post, and it shows - it really needs the hand of an editor, or at least a decent proof-reader. Nevertheless, it's a decent overview of the position avant-garde music has in contemporary culture, and if it doesn't quite manage to pull its threads together into a sustained argument, there are plenty of ideas and opinions to chew on.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A fairly interesting WIRE fanzine blog turned into a book, 13 Jan 2010
By Mr. A. J. Lawrence (Bristol, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Zero Books say this about themselves:
"Zer0 is committed to the idea of publishing as a making public of the intellectual. It is convinced that in the unthinking, blandly consensual culture in which we live, critical and engaged theoretical reflection is more important than ever before."

Subsequently several things immediately grab me about this book but it's difficult to know whether they are faults or not, so I'll just report them and you can decide if it sounds like your kind of thing.

Firstly, there are several irritating editorial mistakes which leave you wondering if the proofreader read it very carefully at all. It doesn't get in the way of the arguments, but it is irritating.

Secondly despite quoting from many books and summarizing others, there is neither a bibliography, nor a list of references anywhere in the book. Presumably putting a bibliography in the back of the book would have been far too blandly consentual for Zero Book's switched on readers.

Thirdly, and more importantly, this book is very interesting in its description of the thread of music that it follows through the 20th Century, but it does seem to be quite a personal journey taken by Stubbs. He leaps from Schoenberg to Stockhausen, from the Futurists to the Musique Concret-ists, then suddenly hits what appears to be his favourite subject, free improvisation and obscure arthouse bands from the 70s and 80s. I didn't know a lot about these artists, so it was an interesting read, as were Stubbs' conclusions about them, but it doesn't take into account the majority of 20th Century music. At one point he mentions Wire magazine and you get the feeling that much of his musical tastes have been lead by that publication.

Finally, Stubbs leaves it to the last chapter to start to answer the question on the front cover, which he does so relatively successfully positing several possible answers, although any thoughtful reader could probably have come up with a list of similar ones themselves. You could easily read the last chapter without reading any of the others, the earlier chapters seemingly acting as a sort of incomplete potted history of 20th century art and music.

Ultimately an interesting read and a good addition to a library of 20th century music type books, but I think if it were the only book you read on 20th century music it would leave you confused.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject












i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.