Rock and Roll Vs. Modern Life

Description

Amidst the societal rubble of the Second World War, a mythical order was restored in the form of tract housing, the 9-to-5 job, and the immaculate framing of the TV screen. But by the late-1960s, the edges had begun to fray. Rock and roll liberated a generation to challenge the borders between inside and out, us and them, might and right. This book tells the story of this cultural confrontation, arguing that rock and roll was not the soundtrack of this turbulence, but its motor. Rock and roll blurred the color line, expanded the generation gap, and amplified calls for new ways of being and thinking. What emerges is a new understanding of the radical shifts in postwar culture in which rock and roll plays a decisive role as cultural critic, agent provocateur, philosopher, teacher, spirit guide, and brat.

Seth Kim-Cohen is Assistant Professor of Art History, Theory and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA. He is the author of Against Ambience and Other Essays (Bloomsbury, 2013), In the Blink of an Ear: Toward A Non-Cochlear Sonic Art (Bloomsbury, 2009), and One Reason to Live: Conversations About Music (2006). His performances and installations have been presented at venues spanning the cultural spectrum from CBGBs to Tate Modern.