The soundtrack of late 20th-century suburbia
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. "Anywhere But Here": Rush and Suburban Desires for Escape
2. "Swimming Against the Stream": Individualism and Middle-Class
Subjectivity in Rush
3. "The Work of Gifted Hands": Professionalism and Virtuosity in
Rush's Style
4. "Experience to Extremes": Discipline, Detachment, and Excess in
Rush
5. "Reflected in Another Pair of Eyes": Representations of Rush
Fandom
6. "Scoffing at the Wise?": Rush, Rock Criticism, and the
Middlebrow
Notes
Works Cited
Selected Discography
Index
Chris McDonald is an ethnomusicologist who specializes in popular music studies. He teaches at Cape Breton University.
"As Chris McDonald correctly points out in Dreaming in Middletown,
writing on rock music traditionally has tended to privilege the
working class as the ultimate site of authentic expression. It is
refreshing to encounter a scholarly book that finally takes up the
challenge of interpreting popular music’s meanings in relation to
its substantial, yet often neglected, middle class fan base. Deftly
interweaving in-depth musical analyses with the insights of
sociology, cultural studies, philosophy, and the voices of Rush
fans themselves, McDonald has produced a smart, probing, and
illuminating scholarly work that deserves a place alongside Susan
Fast’s In the Houses of the Holy as one of the best musicological
studies of a single rock band." —Theo Cateforis, Syracuse
University, editor of The Rock History Reader
"McDonald has a lot of interesting points to make about the music,
the band, and what was going on in the world surrounding them at
the time. Rush fans who are interested in something more in-depth
than the normal run of band biographies should at least take a look
at this volume." —Goldmine, February 12, 2010
"A well-researched, provocative glimpse into one of the most
popular, yet oft-overlooked bands in the history of rock." —Theo
Cateforis, editor of The Rock History Reader
"McDonald makes an important contribution to our understanding of
the middle class as a force in North American rock culture, and at
the same time offers a pioneering look at one of the most
idiosyncratic and influential bands of the past four decades. This
book should be welcomed not only by those with an interest in hard
and progressive rock, but also by anyone who wishes to understand
the role of social class in recent popular culture." —William
Echard, Carleton University, author of Neil Young and the Poetics
of Energy
"If you are the sort who is a Rush freak, a musician, and a fan of
academic writing, you'll enjoy this book." —PopMatters
Ask a Question About this Product More... |