Country Music: A Cultural and Stylistic History - Softcover

Neal, Jocelyn R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199730598 ISBN 13: 9780199730599

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2012

Synopsis

A vibrant introduction to a quintessential American art form, Country Music: A Cultural and Stylistic History is the first undergraduate textbook that focuses solely on country music.

Written by an experienced teacher and renowned scholar of the genre, it offers a coherent narrative that explains country music, its origins, its development, and its meaning from the first commercial recordings of the 1920s up to the present. It highlights significant performers, songs, and institutions in country music. It also considers key social, political, and musical issues that span many decades of evolution within the genre.

Each part of Country Music opens with an introduction that provides a broad sense of the trends, context, and significant elements of country music during a specific period. Each chapter offers three essential features within the narrative:

* Artist Profiles provide a close look at important figures in the history of country music, from country stars to songwriters to industry personnel
* Listening Guides connect specific recordings to the ideas presented in each chapter; end-of-chapter playlists offer suggestions for further listening
* Boxed essays offer in-depth explorations of topics in seven categories: history, musical style, the music business, culture, technology, songwriting, and issues of identity

Country Music concludes with three helpful appendices on song form, country music instruments, and finding the recordings.

A companion website at www.oup.com/us/neal offers chapter summaries, questions for review, and web links.

Offering a thorough overview of a core part of American culture, this compelling and accessible book is ideal as the main text for Country Music courses and as a supplement for courses in American Music and American Popular Music.

About this title

About the Author:

Jocelyn R. Neal is Associate Professor of Music and Adjunct Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers (2009), which won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. She is the past chair of the Popular Music Group within the Society for Music Theory, and is coeditor of Southern Cultures. In 2012, she was named Director of the Center for the Study of the American South.

Review:

"Engaging and well written."--James Harvey, Alvin Community College

"Beautifully written, organized, conceptually defined, and fleshed out with clear detail. This text will be appealing to students and instructors and will 'wear well' over time."--James E. Akenson, Tennessee Technological University

"Well suited for college-level courses. It covers the 'big splashes' of the genre and fills a need for textbooks on the subject. The appendices are golden--especially the appendix with recorded examples."--Keith Cozart, Indiana University East

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0199730598
• ISBN 13: 9780199730599
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 530