Are You Suprised ? s52

PREFACE

This book is intended for instructors and students with the task of surveying the history of a number of styles of American popular music in a one-semester or one-quarter time frame. As arduous as this task would be anyway, it is made more difficult by the relative lack of a single text of reasonable length and cost that covers a wide range of styles. With that predicament in mind, I have written this book. I have attempted to cover the major genres in popular music history—Tin Pan Alley, musical theater, ragtime and blues, early and more popular phases of jazz, country, rock, and pop—while restricting the length of the chapters so that a couple can be covered in approximately one week of class meetings. Within each chapter I have tried to give the reader a balanced perspective of cultural and historical context, an insight into the development of the music industry and music technology, biographies of significant artists and producers, and an appreciation for the formal and stylistic design of the music itself. For the third edition, listening guides and lists of additional listening items have been relegated to a companion website. These listening guides are “play-by-play” verbal analyses in an elapsed-time format for easy following of the recording. As far as the source for the recordings themselves, this edition provides a textbook playlist linked with Apple’s iTunes store. This has proven to be a convenient, versatile, and economical source for recordings, enabling the student to choose and purchase the recordings that are most useful and the publisher to keep consumer costs down by not including a CD anthology limited by length or legal access. Of course, iTunes has its limitations as well. It does not have the rights to all the recordings cited in this book; for instance, as of this writing, The Beatles and Frank Sinatra are not available. All in all, though iTunes does quite well. The iTunes will include the main recordings cited in the body of the text and many of the suggested additional listening items. The second edition ceased preparation in the fall of 2001, just after the tragedy of September 11. Most of the changes to the third edition have been in the form of expansion and updating. Therefore, the reader will find updated information on current Tin Pan Alley crooners, musical theater productions, and the current state of the blues. Recent events in country music, particularly the controversy with the Dixie Chicks and the relevance of the Iraq War on country music, have made it a politically charged subject, which is addressed. The passing of Ray Charles and Johnny Cash since the second edition has prompted a reevaluation of their careers. The revelation of Motown’s session musicians, the Funk Brothers, is an important update. Finally, I have added a twenty-fourth chapter to give more room to the lengthening history of hip-hop and to discuss important media developments, notably the emergence of the iPod and the television phenomenon American Idol. Recording citations now only include song or album title, label, and year of release. With so much purchasing done online today, the catalog number seems irrelevant. It is important to understand what this book is and is not. It is comparatively economical in price and size. That’s the reason for its length, the lack of companion CDs, lyrics, and color photographs. Paper, copyright permissions, and color printing cost a lot of money. For the three editions of this book, the publisher and I have been committed to keeping this book accessible. The book is not a revisionist history, meant to usurp extant histories of the various styles of popular music; the package is more of a carefully selected compilation of American popular music style profiles. This book is certainly not exhaustive. To keep a survey of so many styles within a manageable length for a one-semester course, the material contained herein had to be broad in scope but selective in detail. There is not enough space to address every style or artist or to justify the inclusion of and elaboration on those who are addressed. This study, therefore, ultimately reflects my own sense of scholarly balance and priority. Instructors new to teaching a survey course in popular music may be unfamiliar with the large body of scholarship on any one of the styles in this book; they may lack the expertise, the time, or the inclination to design their own teaching materials. This book will give such instructors a workable solution to their teaching dilemma. Seasoned instructors and knowledgeable students will no doubt take issue with some of the artists, styles, and representative recordings I have chosen for this text. I encourage you to prepare alternative or augmenting materials, making the teaching and learning experience in the class all the richer. This is particularly important as we approach the present day, because young students have a stronger knowledge of more recent styles and artists and a considerable emotional investment in them. It is easier for students to be offended by the omission of a more recent artist or the choice of a representative recording by the ones who are included. Perhaps these students can overcome this transgression by a class presentation “setting the record straight.” I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who helped with the preparation of this third edition. First of all, thanks to Marley Magaziner, Developmental Editor at McGraw-Hill Higher Education, who worked closely with me through the months of revision, and to Sponsoring Editor Chris Freitag, who has sustained my book from 1991 to its present edition. Thanks also to Production Editor David Blatty and Copyeditor Peggy Hines. Second, thanks to all the Internet goodies we use: iTunes, the All Music Guide, YouTube, and other sources. I also want to illuminate another valuable resource—National Public Radio. Shows like Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Fresh Air, and others air and archive wonderful programs about music without all the hype you find on television programs. There you will find some of the most intelligent interviews with musicians and profiles of musicians ever done. Thanks in particular to my mentor, Dr. David Evans at the University of Memphis, for his continued guidance and support. Finally, I would like to thank the prepublication reviewers of the second edition for their valuable comments and suggestions for the third edition: John Albano, Merced College; Jody Benecke, Allan Hancock College; George Beyer, Cypress College; Andrew Connell, James Madison University; Raleigh Dailey, University of Kentucky; Steven W. Emge, Southeastern Oklahoma State University; and Martin Jack Rosenblum, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee.