Rock Til You Drop

A polemic against corporate rock bands, magazines, and festivals, and anyone or anything else who commodifies rebellion.

Presents year-by-year chronologies of influential artists from the past fifty years.

This is the sequel to Rock Deadly, which was also published under the title Dead Barchetta. Matt "Lerxst" Johnston can't stay out of trouble. Hoping to resume a peaceful existence with his family and career, he's thrown for a loop when his fellow Dead Barchetta band mates want out of the group and the music teaching business they run together. When a body once again turns up at the studio, Lerxst can't decide whether to sympathize with or suspect his old friends. Lerxst doesn't fear the Reaper, but he's not exactly fond of him, either. Will he be successful in catching him this time?

Based on Martin Strong's The Great Rock Discography, this is a compact version featuring 500 of the most influential figures in the history of popular music. It expands on the format of the previous title, in which full track listings for all albums, b-sides for all singles, labels, UK and US chart positions, band members, recommended listening, style analysis, band histories - from original line-ups to dissolution, solo projects, potted biographies, a pricing guide for rare albums and release dates are given.

A refreshingly clearheaded and taboo-breaking look at race relations reveals that American culture is neither Black nor White nor Other, but a mix-a mongrel. Black Like You is an erudite and entertaining exploration of race relations in American popular culture. Particularly compelling is Strausbaugh's eagerness to tackle blackface-a strange, often scandalous, and now taboo entertainment. Although blackface performance came to be denounced as purely racist mockery, and shamefacedly erased from most modern accounts of American cultural history, Black Like You shows that the impact of blackface on American culture was deep and long-lasting. Its influence can be seen in rock and hiphop; in vaudeville, Broadway, and gay drag performances; in Mark Twain and "gangsta lit"; in the earliest filmstrips and the 2004 movie White Chicks; on radio and television; in advertising and product marketing; and even in the way Americans speak. Strausbaugh enlivens themes that are rarely discussed in public, let alone with such candor and vision: - American culture neither conforms to knee-jerk racism nor to knee-jerk political correctness. It is neither Black nor White nor Other, but a mix-a mongrel. - No history is best forgotten, however uncomfortable it may be to remember. The power of blackface to engender mortification and rage in Americans to this day is reason enough to examine what it tells us about our culture and ourselves. - Blackface is still alive. Its impact and descendants-including Black performers in "whiteface"-can be seen all around us today.

Martin Strong's best-selling and highly acclaimed monster reference book is now in its fourth edition. Encyclopaedic in scope, the book contains incomparable details on all the great figures in the development of the rock genre.