The Poetics of Rock

The Poetics of Rock
Author: Albin J. Zak III
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2001-11-20
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780520928152

After a hundred years of recording, the process of making records is still mysterious to most people who listen to them. Records hold a fundamental place in the dynamics of modern musical life, but what do they represent? Are they documents? Snapshots? Artworks? Fetishes? Commodities? Conveniences? The Poetics of Rock is a fascinating exploration of recording consciousness and compositional process from the perspective of those who make records. In it, Albin Zak examines the crucial roles played by recording technologies in the construction of rock music and shows how songwriters, musicians, engineers, and producers contribute to the creative project, and how they all leave their mark on the finished work. Zak shapes an image of the compositional milieu by exploring its elements and discussing the issues and concerns faced by artists. Using their testimony to illuminate the nature of record making and of records themselves, he shows that the art of making rock records is a collaborative compositional process that includes many skills and sensibilities not traditionally associated with musical composition. Zak connects all the topics--whether technical, conceptual, aesthetic, or historical--with specific artists and recordings and illustrates them with citations from artists and with musical examples. In lively and engaging prose, The Poetics of Rock brilliantly illustrates how the musical energy from a moment of human expression translates into a musical work wrought in sound.

The Poetics of Rock

The Poetics of Rock
Author: Albin Zak
Publisher:
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2001-01-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9781282445727

After a hundred years of recording, the process of making records is still mysterious to most people who listen to them. Records hold a fundamental place in the dynamics of modern musical life, but what do they represent? Are they documents? Snapshots? Artworks? Fetishes? Commodities? Conveniences? "The Poetics of Rock" is a fascinating exploration of recording consciousness and compositional process from the perspective of those who make records. In it, Albin Zak examines the crucial roles played by recording technologies in the construction of rock music and shows how songwriters, musicians, engineers, and producers contribute to the creative project, and how they all leave their mark on the finished work. Zak shapes an image of the compositional milieu by exploring its elements and discussing the issues and concerns faced by artists. Using their testimony to illuminate the nature of record making and of records themselves, he shows that the art of making rock records is a collaborative compositional process that includes many skills and sensibilities not traditionally associated with musical composition. Zak connects all the topics--whether technical, conceptual, aesthetic, or historical--with specific artists and recordings and illustrates them with citations from artists and with musical examples. In lively and engaging prose, "The Poetics of Rock" brilliantly illustrates how the musical energy from a moment of human expression translates into a musical work wrought in sound.

The Poetics of American Song Lyrics

The Poetics of American Song Lyrics
Author: Charlotte Pence
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2012
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1617031569

Poets, teachers, and musicologists fusing studies of form, scansion, and musical creation to redefine the place of the American bard

Shake, Rattle and Roll: Yugoslav Rock Music and the Poetics of Social Critique

Shake, Rattle and Roll: Yugoslav Rock Music and the Poetics of Social Critique
Author: Dalibor Mišina
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2016-04-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 131705671X

From the late-1970s to the late-1980s rock music in Yugoslavia had an important social and political purpose of providing a popular cultural outlet for the unique forms of socio-cultural critique that engaged with the realities and problems of life in Yugoslav society. The three music movements that emerged in this period - New Wave, New Primitives, and New Partisans - employed the understanding of rock music as the 'music of commitment' (i.e. as socio-cultural praxis premised on committed social engagement) to articulate the critiques of the country's 'new socialist culture', with the purpose of helping to eliminate the disconnect between the ideal and the reality of socialist Yugoslavia. This book offers an analysis of the three music movements and their particular brand of 'poetics of the present' in order to explore the movements' specific forms of socio-cultural engagement with Yugoslavia's 'new socialist culture' and demonstrate that their cultural praxis was oriented towards the goal of realizing the genuine Yugoslav socialist-humanist community 'in the true measure of man'. Thus, the book's principal argument is that the driving force behind the music of commitment was, although critical, a fundamentally constructive disposition towards the progressive ideal of socialist Yugoslavia.

Popular Music and the Poetics of Self in Fiction

Popular Music and the Poetics of Self in Fiction
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2021-11-29
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9004500685

The volume explores the various intersections and interconnections of the self and popular music in fiction; it examines questions of musical taste and identity construction across decades, spaces, social groups, and cultural contexts, covering a wide range of literary and musical genres.

Bob Dylan's Poetics

Bob Dylan's Poetics
Author: Timothy Hampton
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2019-09-04
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1942130236

A career-spanning account of the artistry and politics of Bob Dylan’s songwriting Bob Dylan’s reception of the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature has elevated him beyond the world of popular music, establishing him as a major modern artist. However, until now, no study of his career has focused on the details and nuances of the songs, showing how they work as artistic statements designed to create meaning and elicit emotion. Bob Dylan’s Poetics: How the Songs Work is the first comprehensive book on both the poetics and politics of Dylan’s compositions. It studies Dylan, not as a pop hero, but as an artist, as a maker of songs. Focusing on the interplay of music and lyric, it traces Dylan’s innovative use of musical form, his complex manipulation of poetic diction, and his dialogues with other artists, from Woody Guthrie to Arthur Rimbaud. Moving from Dylan’s earliest experiments with the blues, through his mastery of rock and country, up to his densely allusive recent recordings, Timothy Hampton offers a detailed account of Dylan’s achievement. Locating Dylan in the long history of artistic modernism, the book studies the relationship between form, genre, and the political and social themes that crisscross Dylan’s work. Bob Dylan’s Poetics: How the Songs Work offers both a nuanced engagement with the work of a major artist and a meditation on the contribution of song at times of political and social change.

Coded Lyrics: The Poetics of Argentine Rock under Censorship and Beyond

Coded Lyrics: The Poetics of Argentine Rock under Censorship and Beyond
Author: Mara Favoretto
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2024-04-15
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1835532314

Coded Lyrics is the first comprehensive academic work dedicated to unraveling the lyrical intricacies of Argentine rock in the English language. This book redefines the narrative of rock history, shedding light on the distinctive journey undertaken by South American rock music amidst a unique set of contextual challenges, far removed from its English-speaking counterparts. Within this vibrant musical landscape, Argentine rock emerges as a shining example of cultural resistance in the region. Focusing intently on Argentina's tumultuous authoritarian decades and the post-dictatorship era, this book delves deep into the heart of the Argentine rock genre's lyrical content. It vividly portrays the ongoing struggle between the state and the public, where identity, language, and perception converge around the powerful medium of rock music. Coded Lyrics is not a conventional musicological study; instead, it serves as a meticulous exploration of language and culture. With captivating prose, the book unravels the genesis of Argentine rock, placing language at its epicentre. Through a thorough examination of rock lyrics, this work unveils the artful manipulation of language as a vehicle for resistance. It illuminates the unexpected consequences of censorship in Argentina, with Argentine rock lyrics standing as a compelling testament to the transformative power of art in the face of totalitarianism.

Shake, Rattle and Roll: Yugoslav Rock Music and the Poetics of Social Critique

Shake, Rattle and Roll: Yugoslav Rock Music and the Poetics of Social Critique
Author: Dalibor Mišina
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2016-04-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1317056701

From the late-1970s to the late-1980s rock music in Yugoslavia had an important social and political purpose of providing a popular cultural outlet for the unique forms of socio-cultural critique that engaged with the realities and problems of life in Yugoslav society. The three music movements that emerged in this period - New Wave, New Primitives, and New Partisans - employed the understanding of rock music as the 'music of commitment' (i.e. as socio-cultural praxis premised on committed social engagement) to articulate the critiques of the country's 'new socialist culture', with the purpose of helping to eliminate the disconnect between the ideal and the reality of socialist Yugoslavia. This book offers an analysis of the three music movements and their particular brand of 'poetics of the present' in order to explore the movements' specific forms of socio-cultural engagement with Yugoslavia's 'new socialist culture' and demonstrate that their cultural praxis was oriented towards the goal of realizing the genuine Yugoslav socialist-humanist community 'in the true measure of man'. Thus, the book's principal argument is that the driving force behind the music of commitment was, although critical, a fundamentally constructive disposition towards the progressive ideal of socialist Yugoslavia.

Book of Rhymes

Book of Rhymes
Author: Adam Bradley
Publisher: Civitas Books
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2017-06-27
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0465094414

If asked to list the greatest innovators of modern American poetry, few of us would think to include Jay-Z or Eminem in their number. And yet hip hop is the source of some of the most exciting developments in verse today. The media uproar in response to its controversial lyrical content has obscured hip hop's revolution of poetic craft and experience: Only in rap music can the beat of a song render poetic meter audible, allowing an MC's wordplay to move a club-full of eager listeners. Examining rap history's most memorable lyricists and their inimitable techniques, literary scholar Adam Bradley argues that we must understand rap as poetry or miss the vanguard of poetry today. Book of Rhymes explores America's least understood poets, unpacking their surprisingly complex craft, and according rap poetry the respect it deserves.

"Do You Have a Band?"

Author: Daniel Kane
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2017-07-25
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 023154460X

During the late 1960s, throughout the 1970s, and into the 1980s, New York City poets and musicians played together, published each other, and inspired one another to create groundbreaking art. In "Do You Have a Band?", Daniel Kane reads deeply across poetry and punk music to capture this compelling exchange and its challenge to the status of the visionary artist, the cultural capital of poetry, and the lines dividing sung lyric from page-bound poem. Kane reveals how the new sounds of proto-punk and punk music found their way into the poetry of the 1960s and 1970s downtown scene, enabling writers to develop fresh ideas for their own poetics and performance styles. Likewise, groups like The Fugs and the Velvet Underground drew on writers as varied as William Blake and Delmore Schwartz for their lyrics. Drawing on a range of archival materials and oral interviews, Kane also shows how and why punk musicians drew on and resisted French Symbolist writing, the vatic resonance of the Beat chant, and, most surprisingly and complexly, the New York Schools of poetry. In bringing together the music and writing of Richard Hell, Patti Smith, and Jim Carroll with readings of poetry by Anne Waldman, Eileen Myles, Ted Berrigan, John Giorno, and Dennis Cooper, Kane provides a fascinating history of this crucial period in postwar American culture and the cultural life of New York City.