Nothing has been done before
Subtitle: seeking the new in 21st-century American popular music
By: Robert Loss
Series: Alternate takes : critical responses to popular music; Alternate takes (Bloomsbury (Firm))
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 280
Copyright date: 2017
Subjects: Popular music; History and criticism
Description: "Is there such a thing today as music that's meaningfully new? In our contemporary era of remixing and retro styles, cynics and romantics alike cry 'it's all been done before' while record labels and media outlets proclaim that everything is new. Coded into our daily converations about popular music, newness as an artistic and cultural value is too often taken for granted. Nothing Has Been Done Before instigates a fresh debate about newness in American pop, rock 'n' roll, rap, folk, and R&B made since the turn of the millenium. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach that combines music criticism, philosophy, and the literary essay, Robert Loss follows the stories of a diverse cast of musicians who seek the new by wrestling with the past, navigating the market, and speaking politically." -- Back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and select discography and index.
Table of contents: title: Part 1, The past in the present :; title: Revivals are revisions : new millennial folk music rolls the dice --; title: "Love and theft" : transgression and the cultural archive --; title: The problem of knowing too much : meta-rock and the anxiety of influence --; title: Sounds before our time : replicating the old to make the new -- -- Part 2, The American wow :; title: Spectaglam! : Katy Perry and the American wow --; title: The new digital empire : consumerism, technology, and the new --; title: We can flux : Prince queers democracy and the new --; title: Kanye's night at the museum : the iconoclast goes to work --; title: Power up : persona and anonymity trouble the American wow -- -- Part 3, Shouting at the hard of hearing :; title: On the good side : antiwar music in the 2000s --; title: Shouting at the hard of hearing : Springsteen finds a new audience --; title: Living in the interval : political hip-hop, rap, revolution, and To pimp a butterfly --; title: Bodies in the river : tradition and "The body electric."