On Record: Rock, Pop and the Written Word

[Old Stagehand]

This comprehensive anthology of serious writings on popular music should prove to be a breakthrough in the field. Frith and Goodwin have assembled an excellent compendium of articles that examine popular music from sociological, feminist, and deconstructionist vantages (to name a few). Because they are "concerned with arguments about music and its meaning," they ignore articles on rock and pop music history as well as "judgments of personal taste," such as reviews. Instead, they examine multiple aspects of music and the music industry in eight sections, each prefaced with a fine bibliographic essay. The articles themselves, spanning four decades, are uniformly fine; remarkably, few seem "dated." Highly recommended with a caveat: this is not a "typical" piece of rock music fluff but a serious work more at home in academic libraries

Regards