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In the 1960s and 1970s, becoming a rock musician was fundamentally different than playing other kinds of music. It was a learned rather than a taught skill. In On Becoming a Rock Musician, sociologist H. Stith Bennett observes what makes someone a rock musician and what persuades others to take him seriously in this role. The book explores how bands form; the backstage and onstage reality of playing in a band; how bands promote themselves and interact with audiences and music professionals like DJs; and the role of performance.
Price: $32.00
Pages: 304
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Series: Legacy Editions
Publication Date:
30 May 2017
Trim Size: 8.50 X 5.50 in
ISBN: 9780231182850
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
The information captured in these pages remains as relevant today as it was thirty years ago when rock and roll was still in its nova stage. Bennett’s book is perhaps the only one of its kind to explain the relatively inscrutable process of how one finds their own ‘sound,’ and in so doing, he expands the reach of sociology deeper into the meaning of social music. A rare combination of scholarship and street smarts.
H. Stith Bennett has taught at the University of Illinois, the University of Washington, the University of Missouri, and Colorado Women’s College. He now lives off the grid in a cabin in Colorado, where he writes his own prose, poems, and songs.
Foreword to the Legacy Edition, by Howard S. Becker
Preface
A Guide for the Reader
Acknowledgments
Part I. Group Dynamics
1. Introduction
2. Group Definition and Redefinition
Part II. Rock Ecology
3. Instruments and "the Outside World"
4. Equipment and the Band Van
5. Gigs
Part III. Mastering the Technological Component
6. Technology and The Music
7. The Realities of Practice
Part IV. Performance: Aesthetics and the Technological Imperative
8. Playing
9. "Other People's Music"
Afterword
Appendix: Loudness and Equalization
Notes
Bibliography
Index