Book List & an email from my professor

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I asked a professor of mine to help me fashion a book-list pertaining to my project. I was expecting a few suggestions, but I should have known better. He went above and beyond with the amount of material he gave for me to investigate.

Before all this stuff he suggested, I already bought two books:

– Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 by Simon Reynolds. Reynolds is a British music journalist who now lives in New York. He used to be a senior editor for Spin magazine, and contributes music coverage to some of the most revered publications for arts coverage, including the New York Times, the Village Voice, and Uncut. I have only just started the book (literally on page 6, after introductory material) and I'm learning so much. This will be a good read.

– Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain. I don't know why I haven't read this one already. All my friends have. They all suggested it. I am intrigued with the topic. Why haven't I read it? Considering that the punk scene effectively did something very similar to what the music industry faced earlier this decade (confusing the market, allowing abnormal, obscure, or extreme music the chance to "make it"), I think it will be a good read.

And now, the email:

Hi Emilia,

You've chosen a massive topic. It covers things like fashion, self-fashioning, technology, role of labels, 'community', to name just a few.

What even constitutes a 'rock star' is a hefty subject.

I've listed a few books and films that might help. I've (over-?)emphasized the role of management, but also have stuff on labels and on the music press.

You might want to use particular bands as case studies.

These days, when so many bands are effectively over before they've even released a record, maybe anonymity is a better (marketing) strategy?

* Andrew Loog Oldham, Stoned [very funny former boss of Stones]
* Johnny Rogan, Starmakers and Svengalis: The History of British Pop Management
* Stephen Davis, Hammer of the Gods [very good on the manager of Led Zeppelin]
* David Cavanagh, The Creation Records Story [very amusing story of one of key 80s indie labels]
* Fred and Judy Vermorel, Starlust: The Secret Life of Fans
* Jon Savage, England’s Dreaming [great punk history]
* Jon Savage, Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture
* Jon Savage and Hanif Kureishi (eds.), The Faber Book of Pop [lots of good essays]
* Lisa Lewis (ed.), The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media
* Caroline Sullivan, Bye Bye Baby: My Tragic Love Affair with the Bay City Rollers
* Julie Burchill, I Knew I Was Right [about the NME]
* Paul Gorman, In Their Own Write: Adventures In The Music Press [role of music press in shaping British pop culture]
* Philip Norman, Shout: The Beatles in Their Generation
* Joe Boyd, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s [US-born label boss and producer of Nick Drake/ Vashti Bunyan]
* Michael Moorcock, The Great Rock n Roll Swindle
* Ray Coleman, The Man Who Made the Beatles: An Intimate Biography of Brian Epstein
* Andrew Motion, The Lamberts: George, Constant and Kit [Kit was the tortured manager of The Who]
* Rob Young, Rough Trade: Labels Unlimited [key (post) punk label]
* Peter Hook, The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club [New Order bassist spills all]
* David Buckley, Strange Fascination: David Bowie: The Definitive Story [great companion to ‘Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’ film]

My favourite:
* Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond [aka The KLF]: The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manual
http://www.kirps.com/web/main/resources/music/themanual/

Watch these:
* Telstar: http://www.telstarthemovie.co.uk/
* Slade In Film:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Slade-Flame-DVD-CD/dp/B000NRRWAQ
* Brothers of the Head:
http://www.brothersofthehead.com/
* Velvet Goldmine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Goldmine
* 24 Hour Party People
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_Hour_Party_People


Good thing I already watched and own Velvet Goldmine and 24 Hour Party People. As for the books, I don't have any of them. Nor can I afford all of them. If anyone has read any of these before and thinks they do or don't fit my subject, please tell me so I can perhaps slim down this plump list of suggestions!

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Thom Yorke – The Eraser (XXXChange Remix)

Creating the "line-up" (Part I)

It's proving to be harder than I imagined to get bands to agree to be the subject of my thesis. There is a list of problems that I know must be interfering:

1. The bands don't know me. They don't know what kind of coverage I'm seeking, and of course they want to look good in the end. How can they trust me?

2. Thus far, this is for my thesis. It's not for Vice magazine, or Rolling Stone, or even some cool independent documentary film maker. It's for little ol' me. Why would they want to put forth so much of their time for it?

3. They might feel like they get nothing out of it.

Here are my responses to these common interferences:

1. You don't know me, but you'll get to know me. I'm not in it to reveal your secrets or smear your name, nor am I out to glorify you. Just be yourselves, and you'll look good in the end, I would hope. If you don't, you probably don't deserve to.

2. Yes, this is for my thesis. But it could be published somewhere, and, hell, you'll get a crap load of fun coverage from my side. Audio, video, photography, etc. My coverage could help you out in the market. And all of my lovely unused material could go towards your Myspace, or next video. Who knows? Unused material is like the leftover bits of cookie dough that don't make it into the cookie cutter frame. Munch on that.

3. If you actually believe #3, I don't think I want to cover you anyway.

As of now, I have sent out a good number of emails (not too many) to bands from all realms of my journalistic background. Bands I know well, bands I met only once, bands I danced with briefly while we were both slightly intoxicated. And I have sent out emails to bands I don't know at all, but this gives me little hope that they will respond.

One band that I interviewed last year seems interested, or at least the drummer does. He forwarded me to the group's manager, and I'm now in talks with them – which is the most progress I have made thus far.

Oliver from the band A Place To Bury Strangers has agreed to help me out, so that's great! He'll serve a great role in the project, so I'm glad to have him.

Check out the video for a new song by APTBS, called "In Your Heart":



Beyond that, I am starting to formulate a book list, things I can read to educate myself on the days of rock and music and love that came long before I was born. I have some friends over at Vice Magazine/VBS, since that's where I intern, and I've heard a few suggestions for books. I also plan to turn to a professor in the English department at New York University who concentrates primarily on radical British culture in the 1970s – including music. He'll definitely have a few literary bites for me to check out.

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These Are Powers – Life of Birds