Elijah Wald is a musician, writer and historian, whose books
include Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the
Blues; Narcocorrido, about the modern Mexican ballads of drug
trafficking; The Mayor of MacDougal Street (with Dave Van Ronk),
and Global Minstrels: Voices of World Music. He is currently
teaching at UCLA, and contributing regular pieces to the Los
Angeles Times. For more information,
please visit www.elijahwald.com.
"I couldn't put it down. It nailed me to the wall, not bad for a
grand sweeping in-depth exploration of American Music with not one
mention of myself. Wald's book is suave, soulful, ebullient and
will blow out your speakers."--Tom Waits
"Wald is a meticulous researcher, a graceful writer and a committed
contrarian... an impressive accomplishment."--New York Times Book
Review
"A complex, fascinating and long-overdue response to decades of
industry-driven revisionism."--Jonny Whiteside, LA Weekly
"It's an ambitious project, but Wald's casual narrative style and
eye for a juicy quote give it a lightness that even a novice to
pop, rock, or jazz history can appreciate... The title is
appropriate: This is a provocative book, in all the right
ways."--The Onion AV Club
"Wald is a sharp, fair critic eager to right the record on popular
music... deepens the appreciation of American popular
music."--Boston Globe
"This is a debatable premise... you don't have to agree with it to
admire this book... It is as an alternative, corrective history of
American music that Wald's book is invaluable. It forces us to see
that only by studying the good with the bad--and by seeing that the
good and bad can't be pulled apart--can we truly grasp the
greatness of our cultural legacy."-- Malcolm Jones, Newsweek
"A serious treatise on the history of recorded music, sifted
through his filter as musician, scholar, and fan... It's a brave
and original work that certainly delivers."-Christian Science
Monitor
"A smart, inclusive celebration of mainstream stars, such as 1920s
bandleader Paul Whiteman and the Fab Four, who introduced jazz,
blues, and other roughhewn musical forms to mass audiences."--AARP
Magazine
"A powerfully provocative look at popular music and its impact on
America."--Dallas Morning News
"Elijah Wald is a treasure... There is far too much in these 300
pages to even summarize here. Wald is an economical and lucid
writer with an amazing grasp of his subject. I know quite a lot of
musical history, and I did not find a single clinker in this
symphony of renewal and re-examination."--Winston-Salem Journal
"As catchy and compelling as a great pop single, this revisionist
retelling is provocative, profound and utterly necessary... Clearly
the product of years of passionate research, it's so rife with
references and surprising anecdotes that it's potentially
overwhelming, but Wald makes a superlative tour guide-- frank,
funny and generous but judicious with his inclusions-- and his book
is a beguiling, blasphemous breeze."--Philadelphia City Paper
"Elijah Wald's provocative, meticulously researched new book, How
the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll: An Alternative History of
American Popular Music, turns the stock rock-and-roll narratives on
their head."--Very Short List
"Brilliant and provocative... the most challenging and
head-clearing history of American popular music to be published in
decades."--The Buffalo News
"Wald explains musical and recording techniques and sociological
phenomena in an engaging style accessible to a wide range of
readers. Throughout, he makes a compelling case for why the figures
most historians have disregarded or footnoted need to be considered
in order to understand the totality of American popular music. This
is an ideal companion to the plethora of standard histories
available. Highly recommended." --Library Journal starred
review
"Wald's arguments are as nuanced as his scope is wide, which makes
this a fascinating and useful volume--required reading for any fan
of pop music."--Memphis Flyer
"Fascinating... It's hard to imagine any American music buff coming
away from this book without a fresh perspective and an overwhelming
desire to seek out Paul Whiteman CDs. Highly recommended."--San
Jose Mercury News
"Wald's book may be the literary equivalent of revisionist Civil
War histories which tell the war through the eyes of soldiers
rather than the generals, for he highlights how consumers actually
heard and experienced music over the years, whether as screaming
teeny-boppers watching Dick Clark's Bandstand or swing afficionados
dancing to Glenn Miller at the Roseland."--HistoryWire.com
"A subtle polemic, one that is fundamentally broad-minded and seeks
to educate the reader on the rich legacy and development of
American popular music, the music that spawned the Beatles and from
which that group departed, for better and worse."--Brooklyn
Rail
"Walds eminently readable book is a scholarly, provocative and
opinionated account of the history of pop music from Sousa to the
Stones, from genteel parlor piano recitals to arena rock
spectacles."--Kansas City Star
"A bracing, inclusive look at the dramatic transformation in the
way music was produced and listened to during the 20th century...
One of those rare books that aims to upend received wisdom and
actually succeeds."--Kirkus Reviews
"Some of the smartest historiography I've ever read. The examples
and turns of phrase sometimes make me laugh out loud, and nearly
every page overturns another outmoded assumption. Wald just calls
it like he sees it and transforms everything as a result."--Susan
McClary, MacArthur Fellow and author of Feminine Endings: Music,
Gender, and Sexuality
"This is a ground-breaking book, a muscular revisionist account
that will get people thinking quite differently about the history
of pop music. I've learned much from it and admire the writing
style that is so light on its feet, lucid and elegant."--Bernard
Gendron, author of Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular
Music and the Avant Garde
"Meticulously researched."--Bookforum.com
"A fascinating and scrupulous piece of pop
scholarship...Tantalizing." --Paste Magazine
"Deserves serious discussion, both in the classroom and by music
scholars. Accordingly, this appealing bookELwill be particularly
useful to those interested in the intersection of popular music and
social climate." --CHOICE
This is, without question, the best book with the worst title I
have ever read. Generally, though, I put more stock in books than
in their titles and this is a terrific book. Wald has a great deal
to say, and most of it is exceptionally perceptive. --History News
Network
This is an excellent read, whether you recognize all the examples,
or just a handful of them. --Uncertain Principles
"This book is a major contribution to our understanding of popular
music and (mainly sonic) media in the twentieth century. It is
beguilingly accessible, yet rigorous. In its field, which includes
a substantial jazz component, it is required reading."--Jazz
Research Journal
"How the Beatles Destroyed Rock and Roll: An Alternative History of
American Popular Music by Elijah Wald appears to be a labor of love
and dedication given its copious research and attention to detail.
As such, it is a work that is at once popular and cerebral, and
that every fan of American popular music - from the days of Edison
to Clear Channel broadcasting - should definitely read." - New York
Journal of Books
Ask a Question About this Product More... |