Rock Music
Known for its loud amplification and rebellious spirit, rock emerged in the 1950s, initially as a fusion of Black rhythm and blues with white commercial genres like country music. Through repeated transformations, it became the dominant genre of popular music in the second half of the twentieth century, spawning such subgenres as folk-rock, heavy metal, soft rock, and punk. Find below resources on the phenomenon of rock music, including its history and topics like the rock concert, production, and gender.
Recommended Books
The recommended books below include print reference sources and books on a wide sampling of topics related to rock and its subgenres. Reference sources on rock are classified in ML 102.R6 (encyclopedias), ML 128.R6 (bibliographies), and ML 156.4.R6 (discographies). Other books can be found in biographies (especially ML 420 and ML 421) and in types and styles of popular music (ML 3524). Books are sorted by their call numbers for ease of browsing. Hover over the info icon to see a description.
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Rock Band Name Origins: The Stories of 240 Groups and Performers
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This book details the origins of the names of 240 musical acts, focusing on the most popular groups (and a few individual performers) from the 1960s through today. Even casual music fans will recognize almost all of the acts discussed. A few one-hit wonders are included simply because their name is so unusual (Mungo Jerry, for example) that they warrant a place in the study. Each entry focuses on the meaning and/or origin of the act's name, what it had been called previously, and any other names that were considered and rejected during the naming process. Also included are facts and figures about the act's history and place in the rock music pantheon, the year the act was formed, the names of original members and later members of note and the act's best known hit. The book lists bands alphabetically to give the casual reader the opportunity to open it to any page and read at leisure, the historian the ability to easily pinpoint the subject of his or her research, or the die-hard rock fan the chance to learn from A to Z the name origins of the biggest acts in rock and pop music history.
Call Number: ML102.R6 M48 2008 (Music Reference)Publication Date: 2008 -
Chuck Berry: An American Life
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The definitive biography of Chuck Berry, legendary performer and inventor of rock and roll. Best known as the groundbreaking artist behind classics like "Johnny B. Goode," "Maybellene," "You Never Can Tell" and "Roll Over Beethoven," Chuck Berry was a man of wild contradictions, whose motives and motivations were often shrouded in mystery. After all, how did a teenage delinquent come to write so many songs that transformed American culture? And, once he achieved fame and recognition, why did he put his career in danger with a lifetime's worth of reckless personal behavior? Throughout his life, Berry refused to shed light on either the mastery or the missteps, leaving the complexity that encapsulated his life and underscored his music largely unexplored--until now. In Chuck Berry, biographer RJ Smith crafts a comprehensive portrait of one of the great American entertainers, guitarists, and lyricists of the 20th century, bringing Chuck Berry to life in vivid detail. Based on interviews, archival research, legal documents, and a deep understanding of Berry's St. Louis (his birthplace, and the place where he died in March 2017), Smith sheds new light on a man few have ever really understood. By placing his life within the context of the American culture he made and eventually withdrew from, we understand how Berry became such a groundbreaking figure in music, erasing racial boundaries, crafting subtle political commentary, and paying a great price for his success. While celebrating his accomplishments, the book also does not shy away from troubling aspects of his public and private life, asking profound questions about how and why we separate the art from the artist. Berry declined to call himself an artist, shrugging that he was good at what he did. But the man's achievement was the rarest kind, the kind that had social and political resonance, the kind that made America want to get up and dance. At long last, Chuck Berry brings the man and the music together.
Call Number: ML420.B365 S65 2022Publication Date: 2022 -
Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd
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The acclaimed, definitive biography of Pink Floyd, from their iconic beginnings in psychedelic, Swinging London to their historic reunion at the Live8 concert ("The most complete, insightful, and current account of Pink Floyd...nearly as essential as the music itself."--Austin Chronicle). Mark Blake draws on his own interviews with band members as well as the group's friends, road crew, musical contemporaries, former housemates, and university colleagues to produce a riveting history of one of the biggest rock bands of all time. We follow Pink Floyd from the early psychedelic nights at UFO, to the stadium-rock and concept-album zenith of the seventies, to the acrimonious schisms of the late '80s and '90s. Along the way there are fascinating new revelations about Syd Barrett's chaotic life at the time of Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the band's painstaking and Byzantine recording sessions at Abbey Road, and the fractious negotiations to bring about their fragile, tantalizing reunion in Hyde Park. Meticulous, exacting, and ambitious as any Pink Floyd album, Comfortably Numb is the definitive account of this most adventurous--and most English--rock band.
Call Number: ML421.P6 B53 2008BPublication Date: 2008 -
The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock
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This Companion maps the world of pop and rock, pinpointing the most significant moments in its history and presenting the key issues involved in understanding popular culture's most vital art form. Expert writers chart the changing patterns in the production and consumption of popular music, the emergence of a vast industry with a turnover of billions and the rise of global stars from Elvis to Public Enemy, Nirvana to the Spice Girls. They trace the way new technologies - from the amplifier to the internet - have changed the sounds and practices of pop and they analyze the way maverick entrepreneurs have given way to multimedia corporations. In particular they focus on the controversial issues concerning race and ethnicity, politics, gender and globalization. Contains full profiles of a selection of figures from the pop and rock world.
Call Number: ML3470 .C36 2001Publication Date: 2001 -
Before Elvis: The Prehistory of Rock 'n' Roll
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An essential work for rock fans and scholars, Before Elvis: The Prehistory of Rock 'n' Roll surveys the origins of rock 'n' roll from the minstrel era to the emergence of Bill Haley and Elvis Presley. Unlike other histories of rock, Before Elvis offers a far broader and deeper analysis of the influences on rock music. Dispelling common misconceptions, it examines rock's origins in hokum songs and big-band boogies as well as Delta blues, detailing the embrace by white artists of African-American styles long before rock 'n' roll appeared. This unique study ranges far and wide, highlighting not only the contributions of obscure but key precursors like Hardrock Gunter and Sam Theard but also the influence of celebrity performers like Gene Autry and Ella Fitzgerald. Too often, rock historians treat the genesis of rock 'n' roll as a bolt from the blue, an overnight revolution provoked by the bland pop music that immediately preceded it and created through the white appropriation of music till then played only by and for black audiences. In Before Elvis, Birnbaum daringly argues a more complicated history of rock's evolution from a heady mix of ragtime, boogie-woogie, swing, country music, mainstream pop, and rhythm-and-blues--a melange that influenced one another along the way, from the absorption of blues and boogies into jazz and pop to the integration of country and Caribbean music into rhythm-and-blues. Written in an easy style, Before Elvis presents a bold argument about rock's origins and required reading for fans and scholars of rock 'n' roll history.
Call Number: ML3477 .B47 2013Publication Date: 2013 -
All Shook Up: How Rock 'n' Roll Changed America
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The birth of rock 'n roll ignited a firestorm of controversy--one critic called it "musical riots put to a switchblade beat"--but if it generated much sound and fury, what, if anything, did it signify? As Glenn Altschuler reveals in All Shook Up, the rise of rock 'n roll--and the outraged reception to it--in fact can tell us a lot about the values of the United States in the 1950s, a decade that saw a great struggle for the control of popular culture. Altschuler shows, in particular, how rock's "switchblade beat" opened up wide fissures in American society along the fault-lines of family, sexuality, and race. For instance, the birth of rock coincided with the Civil Rights movement and brought "race music" into many white homes for the first time. Elvis freely credited blacks with originating the music he sang and some of the great early rockers were African American, most notably, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. In addition, rock celebrated romance and sex, rattled the reticent by pushing sexuality into the public arena, and mocked deferred gratification and the obsession with work of men in gray flannel suits. And it delighted in the separate world of the teenager and deepened the divide between the generations, helping teenagers differentiate themselves from others. Altschuler includes vivid biographical sketches of the great rock 'n rollers, including Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Buddy Holly--plus their white-bread doppelgangers such as Pat Boone. Rock 'n roll seemed to be everywhere during the decade, exhilarating, influential, and an outrage to those Americans intent on wishing away all forms of dissent and conflict. As vibrant as the music itself, All Shook Up reveals how rock 'n roll challenged and changed American culture and laidthe foundation for the social upheaval of the sixties.
Call Number: ML3534 .A465 2003Publication Date: 2003 -
Rock: The Primary Text: Developing a Musicology of Rock
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This thoroughly revised third edition of Allan Moore's ground-breaking book, now co-authored with Remy Martin, incorporates new material on rock music theory, style change and the hermeneutic method developed in Moore's Song Means (2012). An even larger array of musicians is now discussed, bringing the book right into the 21st century. Rock's 'primary text' - its sounds - is the focus of attention here. The authors argue for the development of a musicology particular to rock within the context of the background to the genres, the beat and rhythm and blues styles of the early 1960s, 'progressive' rock, punk rock, metal and subsequent styles. They also explore the fundamental issue of rock as a medium for self-expression, and the relationship of this to changing musical styles. Rock: The Primary Text remains innovative in its exploration of an aesthetics of rock.
Call Number: ML3534 .M66 2019Publication Date: 2019 -
Rock Concert: An Oral History as Told by the Artists, Backstage Insiders, and Fans Who Were There
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A lively, entertaining, wide-ranging oral history of the golden age of the rock concert based on over ninety interviews with musicians, promoters, stagehands, and others who contributed to the huge cultural phenomenon that is live rock. Decades after the rise of rock music in the 1950s, the rock concert retains its allure and its power as a unifying experience--and as an influential multi-billion-dollar industry. In Rock Concert, acclaimed interviewer Marc Myers sets out to uncover the history of this compelling phenomenon, weaving together ground-breaking accounts from the people who were there. Myers combines the tales of icons like Joan Baez, Ian Anderson, Alice Cooper, Steve Miller, Roger Waters, and Angus Young with figures such as the disc jockeys who first began playing rock on the radio, like Alan Freed in Cleveland and New York; the audio engineers that developed new technologies to accommodate ever-growing rock audiences; music journalists, like Rolling Stone's Cameron Crowe; and the promoters who organized it all, like Michael Lang, co-founder of Woodstock, to create a rounded and vivid account of live rock's stratospheric rise. Rock Concert provides a fascinating, immediate look at the evolution of rock 'n' roll through the lens of live performances --spanning from the rise of R&B in the 1950s, through the hippie gatherings of the '60s, to the growing arena tours of the '70s and '80s. Elvis Presley's gyrating hips, the British Invasion that brought the Beatles in the '60s, the Grateful Dead's free flowing jams, and Pink Floyd's The Wall are just a few of the defining musical acts that drive this rich narrative. Featuring dozens of key players in the history of rock and filled with colorful anecdotes, Rock Concert will speak to anyone who has experienced the transcendence of live rock.
Call Number: ML3534 .M985 2021Publication Date: 2021 -
The Poetics of Rock: Cutting Tracks, Making Records
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After a hundred years of recording, the process of making records is still mysterious to most people who listen to them. Records hold a fundamental place in the dynamics of modern musical life, but what do they represent? Are they documents? Snapshots? Artworks? Fetishes? Commodities? Conveniences? The Poetics of Rock is a fascinating exploration of recording consciousness and compositional process from the perspective of those who make records. In it, Albin Zak examines the crucial roles played by recording technologies in the construction of rock music and shows how songwriters, musicians, engineers, and producers contribute to the creative project, and how they all leave their mark on the finished work. Zak shapes an image of the compositional milieu by exploring its elements and discussing the issues and concerns faced by artists. Using their testimony to illuminate the nature of record making and of records themselves, he shows that the art of making rock records is a collaborative compositional process that includes many skills and sensibilities not traditionally associated with musical composition. Zak connects all the topics--whether technical, conceptual, aesthetic, or historical--with specific artists and recordings and illustrates them with citations from artists and with musical examples. In lively and engaging prose, The Poetics of Rock brilliantly illustrates how the musical energy from a moment of human expression translates into a musical work wrought in sound.
Call Number: ML3534 .Z35 2001Publication Date: 2001 -
Rock Atlas USA: 650 Great Music Locations
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Featuring more than seven hundred great music locations across America, this book is the perfect guide for those people who want to visit some of rock's most memorable sites. Also a great read for all music lovers who want to find out some of the fascinating stories behind many of the iconic locations covered. The book is packed with hundreds of rare and unseen photographs including pictures of The Beatles, The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, The Beach Boys, The Grateful Dead, and many more! It is a must-read for all music lovers. David Roberts was formerly managing editor of the Guinness range of music books including British Hit Singles, Rockopedia, and The Encyclopedia of Popular Music.
Call Number: ML3534.3 .R63 2013Publication Date: 2014 -
Gender and Rock
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The first book of its kind, Gender and Rock introduces readers to how gender operates in multiple sites within rock culture, including its music, lyrics, imagery, performances, instruments, and business practices. Additionally, it explores how rock culture, despite a history of regressive gender politics, has provided a place for musicians and consumers to experiment with alternate identities and ways of being. Drawing on feminist and queer scholarship in popular music studies, musicology, cultural studies, sociology, performance studies, literary analysis, and media studies, Gender and Rock provides readers with a survey of the topics, theories, and methods necessary for understanding and conducting analyses of gender in rock culture. Via an intersectional approach, the book examines how the gendering of particular roles, practices, technologies, and institutions within rock culture is related to discourses of race, sexuality, age, and class.
Call Number: ML3918.R63 K42 2017Publication Date: 2017 -
Encyclopedia of Punk Rock and New Wave: 1975-1985
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Explore the defining musical artists and moments of the punk rock and new wave eras - one of the most transformative times in rock and roll history. This encyclopedia makes the case for punk rock's enduring social and cultural importance from 1975, when punk was born in New York City, through 1985, by which time punk and new wave had changed the rock music industry forever. Their introduction of new forms of rebellious, boundary-redefining musical expression reverberated with new generations of listeners, singers, and musicians.
Call Number: ML3918.R63 L857 2025Publication Date: 2025 -
50 Years of Rolling Stone
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Join Hunter Thompson, Annie Leibovitz, Tom Wolfe, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, Kendrick Lamar, and Taylor Swift on a decade-by-decade exploration of music and history with this one-of-a-kind gift book. For over fifty years, Rolling Stone magazine has been a leading voice in journalism, cultural criticism, and--above all--music. Whether you bought your music on vinyl, on CD, by downloading, or even on 8-tracks and cassette tapes, this landmark book documents the magazine's rise to prominence as the voice of rock and roll and a leading showcase for era-defining photography. From the revolution of 1960s to the hip hop and pop of today, this unique gift book offers a decade-by-decade exploration of American music and history. Interviews with rock legends--Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Kurt Cobain, Bruce Springsteen, and more--appear alongside iconic photographs by Baron Wolman, Annie Leibovitz, Mark Seliger, and other leading image-makers. Chapters include: The 1960s: Pete Townshend, Woodstock, "The Groupies and Other Girls," and more The 1970s: John Lennon, Charles Manson, The Sex Pistols, and more The 1980s: Michael Jackson, Guns N' Roses, Keith Richards, and more The 1990s: Eminem, Marilyn Manson, Kurt Cobain, and more The 2000s: Bono, Bob Dylan, David Foster Wallace, and more The 2010s: Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, and more With feature articles, excerpts, photography, and exposés by such quintessential writers as Hunter S. Thompson, Matt Taibbi, and David Harris, this book is an irresistible and essential keepsake of the magazine that has defined American music from the Baby Boomers to Generation Z.
Call Number: PN4900.R6 A155 2017 (General Collection Oversize)Publication Date: 2017 -
Global Metal Music and Culture: Current Directions in Metal Studies (eBook)
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This book defines the key ideas, scholarly debates, and research activities that have contributed to the formation of the international and interdisciplinary field of Metal Studies. Drawing on insights from a wide range of disciplines including popular music, cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and ethics, this volume offers new and innovative research on metal musicology, global/local scenes studies, fandom, gender and metal identity, metal media, and commerce. Offering a wide-ranging focus on bands, scenes, periods, and sounds, contributors explore topics such as the riff-based song writing of classic heavy metal bands and their modern equivalents, and the musical-aesthetics of Grindcore, Doom metal, Death metal, and Progressive metal. They interrogate production technologies, sound engineering, album artwork and band promotion, logos and merchandising, t-shirt and jewelry design, and fan communities that define the global metal music economy and subcultural scene. The volume explores how the new academic discipline of metal studies was formed, also looking forward to the future of metal music and its relationship to metal scholarship and fandom. With an international range of contributors, this volume will appeal to scholars of popular music, cultural studies, and sociology, as well as those interested in metal communities around the world.
Call Number: ProQuest Ebook Central and EBSCOhost eBooksPublication Date: 2016
Interlibrary Loan
Users are encouraged to search for items beyond University Libraries' catalog via RILM Abstracts of Music Literature and WorldCat. Materials not available in print or online may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. Please allow up to seven days for electronic delivery and up to fourteen days for delivery of physical items.