Present Tense: Rock & Roll and Culture

Front Cover
Anthony DeCurtis
Duke University Press, Sep 18, 1992 - Music - 332 pages
The most compelling art form to emerge from the United States in the second half of the twentieth century, rock & roll stands in an edgy relationship with its own mythology, its own musicological history and the broader culture in which it plays a part. In Present Tense, Anthony DeCurtis brings together writers from a wide variety of fields to explore how rock & roll is made, consumed, and experienced in our time.
In this collection, Greil Marcus creates a collage of words and pictures that evokes and explores Elvis Presley's grisly fate as an American cultural image, while Robert Palmer tells the gripping tale of the origins and meanings of the electric guitar. Rap music, MTV, and the issue of gender identity in the work of Bruce Springsteen all undergo thorough examination; rock & roll's complex relationship with the forces of censorship gets a remarkably fresh reading; and the mainstreaming of rock & roll in the 1980s is detailed and analyzed. And, in an interview with Laurie Anderson and an essay by Atlanta musician Jeff Calder, the artists speak for themselves.

Contributors. Jeff Calder, Anthony DeCurtis, Mark Dery, Paul Evans, Glenn Gass, Trent Hill, Michael Jarrett, Alan Light, Greil Marcus, Robert Palmer, Robert B. Ray, Dan Rubey, David R. Shumway, Martha Nell Smith, Paul Smith
 

Contents

The Eighties
1
The Church of the Sonic Guitar
13
Censorship in Rock Music in the 1950s
39
Adventures of a Metaphor or Modern Cannibalism
73
Why Dont We Do It in the Classroom?
93
Playing for England
101
Rock Roll as a Cultural Practice
117
Tracking
135
Concerning the Progress of Rock Roll
167
Los Angeles 1999
183
Performance as Commentary
197
About a Salary or Reality?Raps Recurrent Conflict
219
Desire and Pleasure on MTV
235
Observations on Life in a Rock Roll Band
271
Index
303
Notes on Contributors
315

Laurie Andersons Crisis of Meaning
149

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About the author (1992)

Greil Marcus is the author of "Invisible Republic," "Dead Elvis," "Lipstick Traces," & "Mystery Train." His pieces have appeared in a wide range of publications, including "Artforum," "Interview," "The New Yorker," "The New York Times," & "Esquire." He will be teaching at Princeton & Berkeley in fall 2000.

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