- Hardcover: 640 pages
- Publisher: Viking; 1st ed edition (26 Jan 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0670832448
- ISBN-13: 978-0670832446
- Product Dimensions: 24 x 15.6 x 4.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,663,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
The story of how the music of the English-speaking peoples swept the world is told in this book. Commercial popular music began in 18th century London, where an early Tin Pan Alley, already popular in colonial America, evolved to service the English pleasure gardens. The earliest music publishers were printers, and copyright law evolved as they squabbled among themselves for the right to exploit the available talent. Thomas Edison's invention of the phonograph brought million-selling hits during the acoustic era. Then radio brought stars such as Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong to the sitting rooms of people who had never set foot inside a music hall or Broadway theatre. In the golden age, today's grandparents danced to the music of the Big Band era, and fell in love to the songs of Rodgers and Hart. Then a World War, the long-playing record and the curse of television changed everything again - radio and the pop chart were abandoned to jingles, while serious music fans bought albums for the first time. This history of the development of popular music pays tribute to the contribution of black Americans, from the slaves' banjos to jazz, blues and soul; it covers the traditions of the white working class who poured through the Cumberland Gap in the 1750s, bringing songs, harmonies and attitudes that can be traced back to Elizabethan England; and it shows how each generation has had to struggle against the manipulators of the descendants of those early English printers, now the owners of a multi-billion-dollar-industry.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This was recommended to me by the lecturer on a music appreciation course - it covers from 1820 to 1980's and is a good little reference guide.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Decline and Fall from Prez to Poop
2 Feb 2000
Format:Paperback
This is not a bad overview of American popular music. Mr. Clarke is clearly a jazz fan who regards the days of Lester Young, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, et al. as the high point from which we have declined, and sees the present state of commercial popular music as a "culture of musical impoverishment." The career of A&R man Mitch Miller, the evil genius whose venality and lack of taste was a landmark in adult pop's precipitous decline in the 1950s, is touchingly portrayed. I think Clarke's conclusions are correct; however, this is a matter of taste to some degree. Many will think differently, no doubt. Read it anyway, along with Will Friedwald's history of Jazz Singing.
From Art to Product
14 Feb 2002
Format:Paperback
This is a fascinating book going back to the origins of popular music forms, going through jazz and blues and getting to today's pop music.
A main theme of the book appears to be that the further the music gets away from its roots, the less musical value it has. And then today too much music has just become product to sell with little musical value.
Sometimes a bit too opinionated, but mainly an excellent analysis of the of the fall of pop music.
A main theme of the book appears to be that the further the music gets away from its roots, the less musical value it has. And then today too much music has just become product to sell with little musical value.
Sometimes a bit too opinionated, but mainly an excellent analysis of the of the fall of pop music.
Good Survey
20 Jan 2002
Format:Paperback
I particularly liked the start of this book that gave the origins of popular music from Europe.
The author dwells a bit too much on the details of Jazz but his premise is well taken and he shows how and why pop music has become grunge, rap and muzak. He recognizes the originality in performers like the early Elvis and Hank Williams even though he regrets the decline of the real learned Jazz musicians. He shows how the corporate entities and listener surveys have destroyed a promising genre if it can be called that.
Interesting that the Internet seems to be allowingl real musicians to connect with the public directly without needing the middle corporate ground.
The author dwells a bit too much on the details of Jazz but his premise is well taken and he shows how and why pop music has become grunge, rap and muzak. He recognizes the originality in performers like the early Elvis and Hank Williams even though he regrets the decline of the real learned Jazz musicians. He shows how the corporate entities and listener surveys have destroyed a promising genre if it can be called that.
Interesting that the Internet seems to be allowingl real musicians to connect with the public directly without needing the middle corporate ground.
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