Dave Laing

Simon Frith has been one of the most important figures in the emergence and subsequent development of popular music studies. From his earliest academic publication, The Sociology of Rock (1978), through to his recent work on the live music industry in the UK, in his desire to ’take popular music seriously’ he has probably been cited more than any other author in the field. Uniquely, he has combined this work with a lengthy career as a music critic for leading publications on both sides of the Atlantic. The contributions to this volume of essays and memoirs seek to honour Frith’s achievements, but they are not merely ’about Frith’. Rather, they are important interventions by leading scholars in the field, including Robert Christgau, Antoine Hennion, Peter J. Martin and Philip Tagg. The focus on ’sociology and industry’ and ’aesthetics and values’ reflect major themes in Frith’s own work, which can also be found within popular music studies more generally. As such the volume will become an essential resource for those working in popular music studies, as well as in musicology, sociology and cultural and media studies.

Simon Frith has been one of the most important figures in the emergence and subsequent development of popular music studies. From his earliest academic publication, The Sociology of Rock (1978), through to his recent work on the live music industry in the UK, in his desire to ’take popular music seriously’ he has probably been cited more than any other author in the field. Uniquely, he has combined this work with a lengthy career as a music critic for leading publications on both sides of the Atlantic. The contributions to this volume of essays and memoirs seek to honour Frith’s achievements, but they are not merely ’about Frith’. Rather, they are important interventions by leading scholars in the field, including Robert Christgau, Antoine Hennion, Peter J. Martin and Philip Tagg. The focus on ’sociology and industry’ and ’aesthetics and values’ reflect major themes in Frith’s own work, which can also be found within popular music studies more generally. As such the volume will become an essential resource for those working in popular music studies, as well as in musicology, sociology and cultural and media studies.

"The Guerilla Guide to the Music Business" is chatty and informal, and it's full of useful, hard-earned advice telling you how to get ahead in the music business. Through interviews with industry experts in the US and the UK, "The Guerilla Guide" gives priceless tips on every aspect of gigging - from rehearsals to foreign tours. It takes you through the process of recording, from home-made demos to releasing your own finished product and radio promotion. "The Guerilla Guide to the Music Business" also explains what managers, publishers, PR people, accountants, and lawyers can do for you, and when and why you will need their services. It's a book that will help you enjoy what you do, avoid too many pitfalls, and maybe even help you have a hit or two along the way.

This book is intended as a structured presentation of the major ideas of the most important trends of thought in the Marxist theory of art and is constructed as a map of the field of Marxist aesthetics.

This book is intended as a structured presentation of the major ideas of the most important trends of thought in the Marxist theory of art and is constructed as a map of the field of Marxist aesthetics.

Originally published in 1985, "One Chord Wonders" was the first full-length study of the glory years of British punk. The book argues that one of punk s most significant political achievements was to expose the operations of power in the British entertainment industries as they were thrown into confusion by the sound and the fury of musicians and fans. Through a detailed examination of the conditions under which punk emerged and then declined, Dave Laing develops a view of the music as both complex and contradictory. Special attention is paid to the relationship between punk and the music industry of the late 1970s, in particular the political economy of the independent record companies through which much of punk was distributed. Using examples from a wide range of bands, individual chapters use the techniques of semiology to consider the radical approach to naming in punk (from Johnny Rotten to Poly Styrene), the instrumental and vocal sound of the music, and its visual images. The concluding chapter critically examines various theoretical explanations of the punk phenomenon, including the class origins of its protagonists and the influential view that punk represented the latest in a line of British youth subcultures. There is also a chronology of the punk era, plus discographies and a bibliography."

Buddy Holly occupies an enigmatic position in pop and rock music history, partly because of his premature death at the age of 22 in a plane crash in February 1959. Designated in Don MacLean's hit "American Pie" as 'the day the music died', this enabled him to be included in the trope 'the death of rock 'n roll', alongside the less drastic musical demises of Elvis Presley (joined army), Chuck Berry (imprisoned), Jerry Lee Lewis (disgraced) and Little Richard (joined priesthood). The view that Holly belongs only to the 1950s has often obscured the originality of his music. In an era when the music world was divided into hard rockers, soft pop balladeers and hardcore Nashville country & western singers, his songs transcended the boundaries. Equally innovatory was his use of the recording studio as a laboratory, a place to experiment with sounds. In addition, the two guitars, bass and drums line-up of his group the Crickets was the major contributor to the small group template for generations of rock musicians down to the present day. As well as becoming an influence on other musicians in a conventional sense, Buddy Holly has had his own lengthy musical and cultural afterlife. From the vantage point of 2009, a half century after 'the day the music died', Holly has been the longest-serving member of the rock immortals club, those singers and musicians for whom death seemed to inaugurate a new phase of their career. He has been re-embodied in a biopic, a stage show, in iconic images and numerous reissues of his recordings. While he cannot rival Elvis Presley in terms of sightings (nobody, I think, believes Buddy is still alive) or in terms of 'virtual' performance with his old band, he has been re-embodied in a biopic, a stage show, in iconic images and numerous reissues of his recordings. This book is partly based on the author's 1970 study in the "Rockbooks" series. But it aims to provide a new perspective on Buddy Holly by discussing his career and art in the context of his unique contribution to the swiftly-evolving music scene of the late 1950s and his posthumous 50 year multi-media career through films, stage-shows and copious reissues of his oeuvre.