Andrew Hickey
Autor von A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs vol 1: From Savoy Stompers to Clock Rockers
Werke von Andrew Hickey
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs vol 1: From Savoy Stompers to Clock Rockers (2019) 16 Exemplare
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs Volume 2: From the Million Dollar Quartet to the Fab Four (2021) 9 Exemplare
An Incomprehensible Condition: An Unofficial Guide To Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers (2011) 6 Exemplare
Welcome To The Multiverse: An Unauthorised Examination of Grant Morrison's Multiversity (2018) 1 Exemplar
Fifty Stories For Fifty Years: An Unauthorised Guide To The Highlights Of Doctor Who (2013) 1 Exemplar
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A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs Volume 2: From… von Andrew Hickey
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs is my absolute favorite podcast these days. Andrew Hickey's research into music is exhaustive and defies the many myths that have arisen about the artists who made it. The podcast has the advantage of hearing clips of the songs under discussion, but I find that reading the book I catch things I previously missed. The second volume covers the years 1957 to 1962, essentially the second wave of Rock and Roll. The common wisdom was that this was a fallow period in rock history when the music business pushed sanitized pop vocalists (typically named Bobby) to the forefront. But this period also saw the emergence of The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Ray Charles, Brenda Lee, and Roy Orbison, as well as the first girl groups in New York, and the Motown sound in Detroit. Leiber and Stoller had some of their biggest rock hits, and Goffin and King started their illustrious partnership. Not too mention dance trends like "The Twist" and "The Loco-Motion." The period ends with the first efforts by Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, and The Beatles (who we learn throughout the book were the culmination of many attempts to create a UK rock sound). I recommend the book and the podcast highly.… (mehr)
Last fall I discovered the podcast A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs and it has become a must listen for me. Presented by English author Andrew Hickey, it is a meticulously researched and well-produced in-depth study of popular music. Each episode focuses not on one song but on the musicians, songwriters, and producers behind that song including samples of their work (not just the title song) and songs that influenced this work. Hickey is very good at debunking the myths of rock music and revealing the much more interesting history of the genre and the people behind it. This includes acknowledging the innovations of Black musicians whose contributions were often appropriated by the white music industry and later historical revisionism.
Right now the podcast is at episode 153, but this book covers the first 50 podcasts. This very early history begins in 1938 with the jazz, jump blues, rhythm and blues, Western swing, vocal groups, and other artists who created the many elements that would become rock & roll. This volume ends in the mid-50 just after the first generation of rock & roll stars such as Fats Domino, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and of course, Elvis Presley. The book, and the podcast, is easy to follow in the chapters/episodes on each song, but it is also an ongoing story that winds through the whole project. The individuals who manage to pop up again and again and different times and places, and the way they influence and collaborate with one another is one of the fascinating elements of this history.
I can't recommend the podcast and the book more highly!
Favorite Passages:
Right now the podcast is at episode 153, but this book covers the first 50 podcasts. This very early history begins in 1938 with the jazz, jump blues, rhythm and blues, Western swing, vocal groups, and other artists who created the many elements that would become rock & roll. This volume ends in the mid-50 just after the first generation of rock & roll stars such as Fats Domino, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and of course, Elvis Presley. The book, and the podcast, is easy to follow in the chapters/episodes on each song, but it is also an ongoing story that winds through the whole project. The individuals who manage to pop up again and again and different times and places, and the way they influence and collaborate with one another is one of the fascinating elements of this history.
I can't recommend the podcast and the book more highly!
Favorite Passages:
One of the great things about popular music before about 1970 is it had a lot of space for people who could do one thing really really well, and who just did their one thing. Artists like Duane Eddy and John Lee Hooker just kept making basically the same record over and over, and it was a great record, so why not?… (mehr)
But people will always want to push against those constraints. And in the 1950s, just like today, there were black people who wanted to make country music. But in the 1950s, unlike today, there was a term for the music those people were making. It was called rock and roll. For about a decade, from roughly 1955 through 1965, “rock and roll” became a term for the music which disregarded those racial boundaries. And since then there has been a slow but sure historical revisionism. The lines of rock and roll expand to let in any white man, but they constrict to push out the women and black men who were already there. But there’s one they haven’t yet been able to push out, because this particular black man playing country music was more or less the embodiment of rock and roll.
This series is about the history of rock music, but one of the things we’re going to learn as the story goes on is that the history of any genre in popular music eventually encompasses them all. And at the end of 1955, in particular, there was no hard and fast distinction between the genres of rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and country music.
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3836799.html
My expectations were not completely fulfilled. I felt it leant a bit too heavily on the traditional fannish resources for Doctor Who - articles from DWM, Howe et al, Cornell et al - and not enough on other sources. In particular I missed any reference to Who's Next, by Derrick Sherwin, the writer of the first episode of The Mind Robber and script editor for the whole; his autobiography was published in time for the 50th anniversary rush in 2013, and Hickey's Black Archive study almost three years later. So there was a lot more telling me what I already knew than telling me new stuff.
Having said that, for those less familiar with Whovian reference books, it's a workmanlike summary of the state of play, comprehensibly structured and decently written. The chapters cover:
- the production of the story, and its roots in Platonic philosophy and Alice in Wonderland;
- the questions of authorship and the nature of fiction;
- a very short chapter on the story's structure;
- a defence of Season Six and brief bio notes on the main cast and crew;
- a much longer survey of the characters in the Land of Fiction, especially Gulliver, the Karkus and the Master himself;
- another very short chapter on why The Mind Robber is different to the First Doctor story The Celestial Toymaker;
- what a shame it is that a subtle story full of nuance is chiefly remembered for one male gaze scene [I plead guilty];
- why the Doctor is not from the Land of Fiction (only one reference is given for this argument);
- other appearances of the Land of Fiction in the Whoniverse, unsurprisingly omitting The Wonderful Doctor of Oz, published five years later.… (mehr)
My expectations were not completely fulfilled. I felt it leant a bit too heavily on the traditional fannish resources for Doctor Who - articles from DWM, Howe et al, Cornell et al - and not enough on other sources. In particular I missed any reference to Who's Next, by Derrick Sherwin, the writer of the first episode of The Mind Robber and script editor for the whole; his autobiography was published in time for the 50th anniversary rush in 2013, and Hickey's Black Archive study almost three years later. So there was a lot more telling me what I already knew than telling me new stuff.
Having said that, for those less familiar with Whovian reference books, it's a workmanlike summary of the state of play, comprehensibly structured and decently written. The chapters cover:
- the production of the story, and its roots in Platonic philosophy and Alice in Wonderland;
- the questions of authorship and the nature of fiction;
- a very short chapter on the story's structure;
- a defence of Season Six and brief bio notes on the main cast and crew;
- a much longer survey of the characters in the Land of Fiction, especially Gulliver, the Karkus and the Master himself;
- another very short chapter on why The Mind Robber is different to the First Doctor story The Celestial Toymaker;
- what a shame it is that a subtle story full of nuance is chiefly remembered for one male gaze scene [I plead guilty];
- why the Doctor is not from the Land of Fiction (only one reference is given for this argument);
- other appearances of the Land of Fiction in the Whoniverse, unsurprisingly omitting The Wonderful Doctor of Oz, published five years later.… (mehr)
This is an enjoyable enough murder mystery set at a convention of people who believe in The Singularity, life everlasting through mind upload, etc. I was a little disappointed that although the book grapples with some of the big questions (or at least some of the questions that rich tech bros consider big), it came down on the other side of those big questions from the tech bros but its argument was basically "eh, it's stupid, innit"; the lead character was dismissive of both the substantive arguments of the community she found herself in, and (to a lesser extent) the emotional need that community had to believe in those arguments. It seemed too much like picking on easy targets and not enough like engaging with the debate. I will say that in fairness the book, as opposed to the lead character, seemed to take the emotional engagement of the Singularity community with their beliefs serious, but the persistent facetiousness of the lead character in response to those arguments was a bit alienating. And I don't even necessarily agree with the Less Wrong community; I just would like my characters in books to be something other than sideshow freaks.
This is a more negative review than my star rating; it's a well-constructed mystery, and the resolution is emotionally and logically satisfying. But inside it is a much better book that takes its material more seriously while ending up in the same place, and is much more fulfilling for it.… (mehr)
This is a more negative review than my star rating; it's a well-constructed mystery, and the resolution is emotionally and logically satisfying. But inside it is a much better book that takes its material more seriously while ending up in the same place, and is much more fulfilling for it.… (mehr)
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