Audiotopia

"With Audiotopia, Kun emerges as a pre-eminent analyst, interpreter, and theorist of inter-ethnic dialogue in US music, literature, and visual art. This book is a guide to how scholarship will look in the future--the first fully realized product of a new generation of scholars thrown forth by tumultuous social ferment and eager to talk about the world that they see emerging around them."--George Lipsitz, author of Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture "The range and depth of Audiotopia is thrilling. It's not only that Josh Kun knows so much-it's that he knows what to make of what he knows."--Greil Marcus, author of Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century "The way Josh Kun writes about what he hears, the way he unravels word, sound, and power is breathtaking, provocative, and original. A bold, expansive, and lyrical book, Audiotopia is a record of crossings, textures, tangents, and ideas you will want to play again and again."--Jeff Chang, author of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation

“With Audiotopia, Kun emerges as a pre-eminent analyst, interpreter, and theorist of inter-ethnic dialogue in US music, literature, and visual art. This book is a guide to how scholarship will look in the future—the first fully realized product of a new generation of scholars thrown forth by tumultuous social ferment and eager to talk about the world that they see emerging around them.”—George Lipsitz, author of Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture "The range and depth of Audiotopia is thrilling. It's not only that Josh Kun knows so much-it's that he knows what to make of what he knows."—Greil Marcus, author of Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century "The way Josh Kun writes about what he hears, the way he unravels word, sound, and power is breathtaking, provocative, and original. A bold, expansive, and lyrical book, Audiotopia is a record of crossings, textures, tangents, and ideas you will want to play again and again."—Jeff Chang, author of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation

While the growing field of scholarship on heavy metal music and its subcultures has produced excellent work on the sounds, scenes, and histories of heavy metal around the world, few works have included a study of gender and sexuality. This cutting-edge volume focuses on queer fans, performers, and spaces within the heavy metal sphere, and demonstrates the importance, pervasiveness, and subcultural significance of queerness to the heavy metal ethos. Heavy metal scholarship has until recently focused almost solely on the roles of heterosexual hypermasculinity and hyperfemininity in fans and performers. The dependence on that narrow dichotomy has limited heavy metal scholarship, resulting in poorly critiqued discussions of gender and sexuality that serve only to underpin the popular imagining of heavy metal as violent, homophobic and inherently masculine. This book queers heavy metal studies, bringing discussions of gender and sexuality in heavy metal out of that poorly theorized dichotomy. In this interdisciplinary work, the author connects new and existing scholarship with a strong ethnographic study of heavy metal’s self-identified queer performers and fans in their own words, thus giving them a voice and offering an original and ground-breaking addition to scholarship on popular music, rock, and queer studies.

Say the words "evangelical worship" to anyone in the United States -- even if they are not particularly religious -- and a picture will likely spring to mind unbidden: a mass of white, middle-class worshippers with eyes closed, faces tilted upward, and hands raised to the sky. Yet despite the centrality of this image, many scholars have underestimated evangelical worship as little more than a manipulative effort to arouse devotional exhilaration. It is frequently dismissed as a reiteration of nineteenth-century revivalism or a derivative imitation of secular entertainment -- three Christian rock songs and a spiritual TED talk. But by failing to engage this worship seriously, we miss vital insights into a form of Protestantism that exerts widespread influence in the United States and around the world. Evangelical Worship offers a new way forward in the study of American evangelical Christianity. Weaving together insights from American religious history and liturgical studies, and drawing on extensive fieldwork in seven congregations, Melanie C. Ross brings contemporary evangelical worship to life. She argues that corporate worship is not a peripheral "extra" tacked on to a fully-formed spiritual, political, and cultural movement, but rather the crucible through which congregations forge, argue over, and enact their unique contributions to the American mosaic known as evangelicalism.

Written by the world's leading scholars and researchers in sound studies, this handbook offers new and engaging perspectives on the significance of sound in its material and cultural forms.

In brand communication, from the nostalgic hum of radio jingles to the digital symphony of streaming platforms, the role of sound in shaping brand identity has emerged as a captivating field of study. How does the strategic integration of sounds and music contribute to constructing robust brand identities and deepening customer engagement across diverse industries and cultural contexts? Building Strong Brands and Engaging Customers With Sound traverses the diverse realms of sonic branding, examining its multifaceted applications and impact on consumer engagement. The book opens a sonic gateway into the historical evolution of sounds in branding, uncovering the roots of sonic branding and its evolution alongside technological advancements. From linguistics and verbal sound symbolism to the semiotics of sounds, the foundational chapters provide a comprehensive understanding of the multidimensionality of sound, offering a synthesis of different disciplinary approaches to sonic branding. The book explores the sonic brand identity. Chapters illuminate the nuanced process of aligning sounds with brand personality, examining the intricate dance between music and brand experience. From crafting sonic logos to curating brand soundtracks, the book offers insights into the strategic deployment of sound across various touchpoints in the customer journey, including products and packaging. This book also explores consumer perception and response by unraveling the psychological impact of music on consumers. Extensive exploration of cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses to sonic branding, coupled with insights into consumer attitudes and preferences, provides a rich tapestry of understanding. The book also examines the role of sound in enhancing consumer well-being.

Artistic expression is a longstanding aspect of mankind and our society. While art can simply be appreciated for aesthetic artistic value, it can be utilized for other various multidisciplinary purposes. Music as a Platform for Political Communication is a comprehensive reference source for the latest scholarly perspectives on delivering political messages to society through musical platforms and venues. Highlighting innovative research topics on an international scale, such as election campaigns, social justice, and protests, this book is ideally designed for academics, professionals, practitioners, graduate students, and researchers interested in discovering how musical expression is shaping the realm of political communication.

American Bandstand, one of the most popular television shows ever, broadcast from Philadelphia in the late fifties, a time when that city had become a battleground for civil rights. Counter to host Dick Clark’s claims that he integrated American Bandstand, this book reveals how the first national television program directed at teens discriminated against black youth during its early years and how black teens and civil rights advocates protested this discrimination. Matthew F. Delmont brings together major themes in American history—civil rights, rock and roll, television, and the emergence of a youth culture—as he tells how white families around American Bandstand’s studio mobilized to maintain all-white neighborhoods and how local school officials reinforced segregation long after Brown vs. Board of Education. The Nicest Kids in Town powerfully illustrates how national issues and history have their roots in local situations, and how nostalgic representations of the past, like the musical film Hairspray, based on the American Bandstand era, can work as impediments to progress in the present.