B. Lee Cooper offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of contemporary American society as it has been captured and transmitted in the lyrics of more than 3,000 popular recordings. By tracing the permutations of American popular music from the end of the Big Band/Swing Era through the Age of Rock, the author presents a thematically structured analysis of popular music lyrics from 1950 through 1985. Cooper divides his lucid commentaries and lists of songs into fifteen sections, each dealing with a particular social, political, or personal theme. In the brief essays that precede the lengthy discographic sections, the author explores the ways in which popular music has dealt with such issues as religion, death, education, youth culture, transportation, mass media, protest, military activity, women's liberation, and drug use and abuse. An illustrative discography of 45 r.p.m. records follows each section of commentary. An extensive bibliography of books, articles, and special reports appears at the end of the volume, along with a selected discography of album-length recordings which supplements the extensive 45 r.p.m. listings.

A Resource Guide to Themes in Contemporary American Song Lyrics, 1950-1985

Arts & Photography

Cooper, B. Lee

Music

Greenwood

More than any other sport, baseball has become a ubiquitous part of popular culture in the United States. Even nonfans can be heard using the game's terminology to describe everyday situations. Writings on the sport reflect the nature of society, from sobering statistical studies to business analyses, from acclaimed novels on the sport to poetry about the game. The 4,500 works here are arranged by 25 broad categories, such as art, commercialization, drug use and abuse, ethnic diversity, heroic images, humor, innovation and change, songs, American values, and women in baseball. Compiled from a wide range of magazines, journals, newspapers, and books, the work gives full bibliographic information for each entry. Comprehensive author and subject indexes are provided for further ease of use.

Baseball and American Culture: A Thematic Bibliography of over 4,500 Works

Sports & Outdoors

Walker, Donald E.

Baseball

McFarland Publishing

William Studwell has struck gold again! Providing a heterogenous mixture of songs that mirrors the diversity of the United States and its culture, The Americana Song Reader is an entertaining and informative collection of over 130 historical essays on various American and foreign songs that have had a significant impact on U.S. popular culture. The essays give you basic historical data on the work, refer to any related or affiliated works, and touch upon the cultural context of its creation and popular usage in the United States. Presented in an offbeat, somewhat irreverent, yet scholarly style, the author has once again compiled a reference book that is fun to read. In addition to presenting information useful for reference, The Americana Song Reader contains anecdotes, ironic sidelights, poetry, and allusions to parodies. For ease of use, the book is divided into several sections. These sections, with some representative songs listed, include: 
<ul>
<li>Dancing Songs: “After the Ball,” “The Hokey Pokey,” “Sleeping Beauty Waltz” </li>
<li>Marching Songs: “March of the Toys,” “When the Saints Go Marching In” </li>
<li>Rural and Western Songs: “The Big Rock Candy Mountain,” “Jessie James,” “The Streets of Laredo” </li>
<li>Songs That Excite or Amuse: “An American in Paris,” “1812 Overture,” “The Sidewalks of New York” </li>
<li>Songs That Soothe or Bring Tears: “Beautiful Dreamer,” “I'm Always Chasing Rainbows,” “My Wild Irish Rose” </li>
<li>Children's Songs: “Hansel and Gretel,” “Pop Goes the Weasel,” “Sing a Song of Sixpence” </li>
<li>Circus Songs: “Barnum and Bailey's Favorite,” “Be a Clown,” “The Flying Trapeze” </li>
<li>Drinking Songs: “Auld Lange Syne,” “Little Brown Jug,” “Ninety Nine Bottles of Beer” </li>
<li>College Songs: “Iowa Corn Song,” “Notre Dame Victory Song,” “The Whiffenpoof Song” </li>
<li>Song title index and author/group indexWhether the music comes from New York City, remote rural areas of the South or West, or from Vienna or Paris, all music having some sort of impact on the lives of everyday Americans is in a very true way part of Americana. In The Americana Song Reader, you'll see the songs both as small pieces of the American culture puzzle and, collectively, as a large segment of the music of the country. This newest addition to William Studwell's collection of song readers will delight the general public, musicians, and librarians.</li>
</ul>

The Americana Song Reader (Haworth Popular Culture)

Studwell, William E.

Hoffmann, Frank

Routledge

Rock Music in American Popular Culture III: More Rock ’n’Roll Resources explores the fascinating world of rock music and examines how this medium functions as an expression of cultural and social identity. This nostalgic guide explores the meanings and messages behind some of the most popular rock ’n’roll songs that captured the American spirit, mirrored society, and reflected events in our history. Arranged by themes, Rock Music in American Popular Culture III examines a variety of social and cultural topics with related songs, such as: 
<ul>
<li>sex and censorship--“Only the Good Die Young” by Billy Joel and “Night Moves” by Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band </li>
<li>holiday songs--“Rockin’Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee and “The Christmas Song” by Nat King Cole </li>
<li>death--“Leader of the Pack” by The Shangri-Las and “The Unknown Soldier” by The Doors </li>
<li>foolish behavior--“When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge and “What Kind of Fool” by Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb </li>
<li>jobs and the workplace--“Don’t Stand So Close to Me” by The Police and “Dirty Laundry” by Don Henley </li>
<li>military involvements--“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” by the Andrews Sisters and “War” by Edwin Starr </li>
<li>novelty recordings--“The Purple People Eater” by Sheb Wooley and “Eat It” by Weird Al Yankovic </li>
<li>letters and postal images--“P. S. I Love You” by The Beatles and “Return to Sender” by Elvis PreselyIn addition, a discography and a bibliography after each section give further examples of the themes and resources being discussed, as do extensive lists of print references at the end of the text.</li>
</ul>

Rock Music in American Popular Culture III: More Rock 'n' Roll Resources (Haworth Popular Culture)

Haney, Wayne S.

Rock Music in American Popular Culture III: More Rock 'n' Roll Resources

Literature & Fiction

A comprehensive, informal overview of world history and popular culture. Popular Culture: From Cavespace to Cyberspace traces the history of people's cultures from primitive to postmodern times. Educational, informative, and absorbing, this book contains interesting facts on such figures as King Tut, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, and Madonna, linking you to the world, past and present. Popular Culture highlights important historical events such as the American, French, Russian, and Chinese Revolutions while examining world-changing social movements. You will go on a journey through time, exploring the cultures of the world, venturing from cavespace to tomb space, to temple space, then medieval space, to modern space and post-modern epochs, and finally to cyberspace. While moving through cultural history, you will explore such stories and discoveries as: the 1991 discovery of Oetzi the Ice Man, who is 5,300 years old the legends of the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and Americans who or what turned on the light to the Dark Ages the impact of René Descartes: “I think, therefore I am,” and the inspiration of the Enlightenment modernism and the determination to be up to date the incredible 20th century that McDonaldized the world postmodernism and its technology cyburbia and globalismPopular Culture contains a wide collection of stories covering cultural phenomena such as Tutmania, the Crusades, the Ninja Turtles, Hamburger University, elitism, Shakespeare, America's Frontier Thesis, The Global Village, and the coming millennium. You will be intrigued by the plethora of fascinating links that Professor Fishwick makes in this comprehensive guide to ever-changing popular culture.

Popular Culture: Cavespace to Cyberspace

History

Fishwick, Marshall

Americas

Popular American Recording Pioneers: 1895-1925 (Haworth Popular Culture)

Encounter the trailblazers whose recordings expanded the boundaries of technology and brought “popular” music into America's living rooms!Popular American Recording Pioneers: 1895--1925 (winner of the 2001 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award of Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research) covers the lives and careers of over one hundred musical artists who were especially important to the recording industry in its early years. Here are the men and women who brought into American homes the hits of the day--Tin Pan Alley numbers, Broadway show tunes, ragtime, parlor ballads, early jazz, and dance music of all kinds.Popular American Recording Pioneers: 1895--1925 compiles rare information that was scattered in hundreds of record catalogs, hobbyist magazines, newspaper clippings, phonograph trade journals, and other sources. Look no further! This volume is the ultimate resource on the subject!You will increase your knowledge in these areas: 
<ul>
<li>the recording industry's formative years </li>
<li>artists’personalities and musical styles </li>
<li>popular music history </li>
<li>history of recording technologyPopular American Recording Pioneers: 1895--1925 provides a unique “who's who” approach to popular music history. It is the definitive work on the music that was popular during America's coming of age. No music historian should be without this volume. </li>
</ul>

Popular American Recording Pioneers (Haworth Popular Culture)

Gracyk, Tim

Reference

The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films

Go behind the scenes with an insightful look at horror filmsand the directors who create them The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films: Dark Parades examines the work of several of the genre’s most influential directors and investigates how traditional themes of isolation, alienation, death, and transformation have helped build the foundation of horror cinema. Authors Carl and Diana Royer examine the techniques used by Alfred Hitchcock that place his work squarely in the horror (rather than suspense) genre, discuss avant-garde cinema’s contributions to mainstream horror, explore films that use the apartment setting as the cell of horror, and analyze how angels and aliens function as the supernatural Other. A unique resource for film students and film buffs alike, the book also examines Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy and the fusion of science, technology, and quasi-religious themes in David Cronenberg’s films. Instead of presenting a general overview of the horror genre or an analysis of a specific sub-genre, actor, or director, The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films offers an imaginative look at classic and contemporary horror cinema. The book examines Surrealist films such as Un Chien Andalou and Freaks, the connections among the concepts of voyeurism, paranoia, and alienation in films like Rear Window, Rosemary’s Baby, Blue Velvet, and The Blair Witch Project; the use of otherworldly creatures in films such as The Prophecy, Dogma, and The Day The Earth Stood Still; and the films of directors George Romero, John Waters, and Darren Aronofsky, to name just a few. This unique book also includes an extensive A-to-Z filmography and a bibliography of writings on, and about, horror cinema from filmmakers, film critics, and film historians.  The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films examines: Body Doubles and Severed Handsthe common ancestry of avant-garde art films and exploitation horror B-movies And I Brought You Nightmaresrecurring themes of psychological terror in Alfred Hitchcock’s films Horror, Humor, PoetrySam Raimi’s transformation of drive-in horror cinema  Atheism and 'The Death of Affect'David Cronenberg’s obsessions, interests, and cautionary messages in films ranging from Videodrome to Dead Ringers to eXistenZ and much more!The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films: Dark Parades is a unique resource of critical analysis for academics working in film and popular culture, film historians, and anyone interested in horror cinema.

The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films: Dark Parades

Humor & Entertainment

Royer, Carl

Movies

Popular Music Perspectives: Ideas, Themes, and Patterns in Contemporary Lyrics

In thirteen essays, this book probes ideas and themes that are prominent in contemporary song lyrics. The essays take social change, human interaction, technology, and intellectual development as points of departure for specific examinations of public education, railroads, death, automobiles, and rebels. The essays also examine humor, traditions, and historical events found in answer songs, cover recordings, nursery rhyme adaptations, and novelty tunes.

Popular Press 1

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