Music of the 1980s

Download Music of the 1980s PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313366004
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (133 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Music of the 1980s by : Thomas Harrison

Download or read book Music of the 1980s written by Thomas Harrison and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-06-16 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beyond coverage of mainstream 80s music, such as "hair band" hard rock, pop, new wave, and rap, this compilation of essential musical artists also covers genres like classical, jazz, outlaw country, and music theater. Popular music in the United States during the 1980s is well known for imports from abroad, such as A-ha, Def Leppard, Falco, and Men at Work, as well as homegrown American rock acts such as Guns 'N Roses, Huey Lewis and the News, Bon Jovi, and Poison. But there were many other types of genres of music that never received airplay on the radio or MTV that also experienced significant evolutions or growth in that decade. Music of the 1980s examines the key artists in specific genres of popular music: pop, hard rock/heavy metal, rock, and country. No other reference book for students has previously explored the surprisingly diverse categories of hard rock and heavy metal music with such detail and depth. Additionally, a chapter focuses on the prominent artists and composers of less-mainstream genres for specialized audiences, including music theater, jazz, and classical music.

Are We Not New Wave?

Download Are We Not New Wave? PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
ISBN 13 : 047202759X
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (72 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Are We Not New Wave? by : Theo Cateforis

Download or read book Are We Not New Wave? written by Theo Cateforis and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2011-06-22 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Are We Not New Wave? is destined to become the definitive study of new wave music.” —Mark Spicer, coeditor of Sounding Out Pop New wave emerged at the turn of the 1980s as a pop music movement cast in the image of punk rock’s sneering demeanor, yet rendered more accessible and sophisticated. Artists such as the Cars, Devo, the Talking Heads, and the Human League leapt into the Top 40 with a novel sound that broke with the staid rock clichés of the 1970s and pointed the way to a more modern pop style. In Are We Not New Wave? Theo Cateforis provides the first musical and cultural history of the new wave movement, charting its rise out of mid-1970s punk to its ubiquitous early 1980s MTV presence and downfall in the mid-1980s. The book also explores the meanings behind the music’s distinctive traits—its characteristic whiteness and nervousness; its playful irony, electronic melodies, and crossover experimentations. Cateforis traces new wave’s modern sensibilities back to the space-age consumer culture of the late 1950s/early 1960s. Three decades after its rise and fall, new wave’s influence looms large over the contemporary pop scene, recycled and celebrated not only in reunion tours, VH1 nostalgia specials, and “80s night” dance clubs but in the music of artists as diverse as Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, and the Killers.

Mad World

Download Mad World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Abrams
ISBN 13 : 1613126662
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (131 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Mad World by : Lori Majewski

Download or read book Mad World written by Lori Majewski and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “hugely entertaining” history of the 1980s New Wave music scene told through new interviews with its biggest artists (Rolling Stone). Mad World is a compelling oral history that celebrates the New Wave music phenomenon of the 1980s via new interviews with 35 of the most notable artists of the period. Each chapter begins with a discussion of their most popular song and leads to stories of their history and place in the scene, ultimately painting a vivid picture of this colorful, idiosyncratic time. Mixtape suggestions, fashion sidebars, and quotes from famous contemporary admirers help fill out the fun. Participants include members of Duran Duran, New Order, The Smiths, Tears for Fears, Adam Ant, Echo, and the Bunnymen, Devo, ABC, Spandau Ballet, A Flock of Seagulls, Thompson Twins, INXS, and more. “One addictive chapter after another.” —Rob Sheffield, author of Talking to Girls About Duran Duran “Tells the tale of some of the decade’s most unforgettable songs . . . in fascinating detail, letting the architects of these memorable records shine a light on how the sound of a generation came to be.” —The Hollywood Reporter “The new wave era is often dismissed for its one-hit wonders and silly haircuts, but [Mad World] examines the period with a great deal of love and reverence.” —Buzzfeed “A really informative and insightful read.” —People

Songs of the 1980s

Download Songs of the 1980s PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN 13 : 1540049116
Total Pages : 746 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (4 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Songs of the 1980s by : Hal Leonard Corp.

Download or read book Songs of the 1980s written by Hal Leonard Corp. and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2019-02-01 with total page 746 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Easy Piano Songbook). Easy piano arrangements of over 80 songs from the decade of excess where Generation X came of age. Includes: Another Brick in the Wall * Billie Jean * Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run) * Chariots of Fire * Don't Stop Believin' * Endless Love * Eye of the Tiger * Flashdance...What a Feeling * Girls Just Want to Have Fun * How Will I Know * I Love Rock 'N Roll * Jump * Karma Chameleon * Let's Hear It for the Boy * Like a Virgin * Missing You * Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now * One More Night * Pour Some Sugar on Me * Right Here Waiting * Sweet Child O' Mine * Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) * Take on Me * Through the Years * Up Where We Belong * What's Love Got to Do with It * When Doves Cry * With or Without You * and more.

The Last Miles

Download The Last Miles PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
ISBN 13 : 9780472032600
Total Pages : 570 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (326 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Last Miles by : George Cole

Download or read book The Last Miles written by George Cole and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2007-07-17 with total page 570 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the final recordings of one of the greatest jazz musicians of the twentieth century

Greatest Hits the 1980s for Piano

Download Greatest Hits the 1980s for Piano PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Greatest Hits
ISBN 13 : 9781470620011
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Greatest Hits the 1980s for Piano by : Alfred Publishing

Download or read book Greatest Hits the 1980s for Piano written by Alfred Publishing and published by Greatest Hits. This book was released on 2015-04 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of over 40 songs highlights the biggest hits from the '80s, by such artists as Bruce Springsteen, Journey, Madonna, The Motels, Toto, Cyndi Lauper, and more. Piano accompaniment, vocal melodies, lyrics, and guitar chord diagrams are included. Titles: Africa (Toto) * Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) (Phil Collins) * Anything for You (Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine) * Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) (from Arthur) (Christopher Cross) * Born in the U.S.A. (Bruce Springsteen) * Circle in the Sand (Belinda Carlisle) * Conga (Miami Sound Machine) * Dancing in the Dark (Bruce Springsteen) * Don't Stop Believin' (Journey) * Everybody Have Fun Tonight (Wang Chung) * Footloose (Kenny Loggins) * Get Closer (Linda Ronstadt) * Ghostbusters (Ray Parker, Jr.) * Gloria (Laura Branigan) * Glory Days (Bruce Springsteen) * Glory of Love (Theme from The Karate Kid) (Peter Cetera) * The Greatest Love of All (Whitney Houston) * Heart of Mine (Boz Scaggs) * Heart to Heart (Kenny Loggins) * Heaven Is a Place on Earth (Belinda Carlisle) * How Do You Keep the Music Playing? (from Best Friends) (Patti Austin and James Ingram) * I Live for Your Love (Natalie Cole) * I Love L.A. (Randy Newman) * I'm Alright (from Caddyshack) (Kenny Loggins) * Into the Night (Benny Mardones) * Jojo (Boz Scaggs) * Kokomo (The Beach Boys) * Only the Lonely (The Motels) * Open Arms (Journey) * Open Your Heart (Madonna) * Pink Cadillac (Bruce Springsteen) * Rhythm of the Night (DeBarge) * Rosanna (Toto) * Separate Lives (Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin) * Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) (Journey) * She Bop (Cyndi Lauper) * Solitaire (Laura Branigan) * Suddenly Last Summer (The Motels) * Who Will You Run To (Heart) * Who's Crying Now (Journey) * Words Get in the Way (Miami Sound Machine).

Christgau's Record Guide

Download Christgau's Record Guide PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780306805820
Total Pages : 514 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (58 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Christgau's Record Guide by : Robert Christgau

Download or read book Christgau's Record Guide written by Robert Christgau and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text surveys the popular music of the decade that brought us rap, hardcore, MTV, new age, new wave, worldbeat and speed metal - the decade of Prince, King Sunny Ade, Marshall Crenshaw, De-Barge, The Replacements, Black Union, Hukser Du, New Order, Sonic Youth, R.E.M., Madonna and Public Enemy. Robert Christgau, author of Rock Albums of the '70s is one of America's leading rock critics. In this book he reviews and letter-grades some 3000 albums, providing a guide to the rock, pop, country, rap, blues, rock-related jazz, reggae, and African records of the 1980s.

Synthesizers and Saxophones: Montage Pop and Musical Movies of the 1980s

Download Synthesizers and Saxophones: Montage Pop and Musical Movies of the 1980s PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Tape-Era Travesties
ISBN 13 : 9781797886817
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (868 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Synthesizers and Saxophones: Montage Pop and Musical Movies of the 1980s by : Michael J. Heagle

Download or read book Synthesizers and Saxophones: Montage Pop and Musical Movies of the 1980s written by Michael J. Heagle and published by Tape-Era Travesties. This book was released on 2019-02-23 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fun and, like, totally incomplete guide to the place where '80's music and '80's movies collide. Join filmmaker and author Michael J. Heagle for the story behind great movie songs, hit soundtrack albums, and musical movies of the 1980's.Synthesizers and Saxophones tackles everything from movie musicals like Purple Rain and Streets of Fire, to cult movies with a musical bent like The Last Dragon and Howard the Duck. Rock band Queen and their work for such films as Flash Gordon and Highlander is explored, along with the complete 80s film output of everyone from Prince to Alex (Repo Man) Cox. Animated films, heavy metal horror films, punk movies, breakdancing movies, movies where the dancing is dirty, and a whole lot more gets the treatment here. With movie reviews, behind the scenes stories, and chart-busting hits galore, Synthesizers and Saxophones poses the question "did MTV ruin movies?" And just what are the greatest soundtrack songs of the VHS generation?About the Author: Michael J. Heagle has been making movies since 1980, back when you shot it on Super8, processed it at K-Mart, and projected it on a bed sheet. He has produced and directed a number of low-budget independent feature films, including Troma's Go To Hell (1999), a sci-fi spaghetti western (Planetfall, 2005), and the puppet comedy Transylvania Television.

The 80s Music Compendium

Download The 80s Music Compendium PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781515287766
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (877 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The 80s Music Compendium by : Dave Kinzer

Download or read book The 80s Music Compendium written by Dave Kinzer and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The 80s Music Compendium is not only an entertaining book for 80s music lovers, but it is informative for music geeks everywhere." -Nina Blackwood: Original MTV VJ and SiriusXM Radio Host The 80s Music Compendium is the ultimate resource for every 80s music fan, deejay, cover band, and music educator. After listening to all 4,172 songs that made Billboard's Hot 100 chart during the 80s, the author has compiled 113 lists that include over 3600 songs. "If you like 80s music, The 80s Music Compendium is a must have." -www.liketotally80s.com 80s Music Fans will love the lists that organize their old favorite songs and help them discover lost 80s gems they may have missed. "This is the perfect companion for 80s fanatics! Love it!" -Clive Farrington, When in Rome Music Trivia Buffs will love the countless numbers of 80s music trivia, facts, and tidbits. For example, which artist had the most hits with a saxophone solo? The answer is on page 152. Deejays will love the ready-made playlists this book gives them- Want to make a playlist with songs with piano solos, country-pop crossover hits, 80s rap songs, or 70s remakes? The research is already done for you. Cover Bands will love the ease with which they can find songs with certain instruments- Need a popular song with a mandolin? What about that guy in your band who's always begging to show off his skills on the accordion, violin, or banjo? Find songs for those instruments quickly and easily! What about Music Teachers? There are lists of songs with countermelodies, syncopation, ostinatos, foreign languages, etc. Music from the 80s has never been organized like this!

Marillion in the 1980s

Download Marillion in the 1980s PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Decades in Music
ISBN 13 : 9781789520651
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (26 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Marillion in the 1980s by : Nathaniel Webb

Download or read book Marillion in the 1980s written by Nathaniel Webb and published by Decades in Music. This book was released on 2020-10 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Derided as seventies throwbacks upon their arrival and misremembered by the wider population as one-hit wonders, Marillion rode the 1980s as one of the most successful bands in Britain. Delivering the musical and conceptual density of early progressive rock with the caustic energy of punk, the Aylesbury heroes both spearheaded the neo-prog revival and produced its crown jewel in their number one album Misplaced Childhood and its Top 5 singles 'Kayleigh' and 'Lavender.' Musically, their influence reaches from prog legends Dream Theater and Steven Wilson to household names like Radiohead and Muse. The 1980s encapsulated Marillion's birth, commercial apex, and near-implosion. This book combines meticulous history with careful musical analysis to chronicle their most turbulent decade from their first gig, through the dizzying success and destructive decadence of their time with frontman Fish, to his bitter departure and replacement by Steve Hogarth. It turns an experienced critical eye not only on their five albums of the decade - from the seminal Script For A Jester's Tear to Season's End - Hogarth's debut - and a line up that remains as active as ever. The book also discusses demos, singles, and Fish's solo debut to dissect a band which critics still love to hate, even as today's music industry stands upon their shoulders as pioneers of self promotion and internet-based crowd funding.

The Encyclopaedia of Classic 80s Pop

Download The Encyclopaedia of Classic 80s Pop PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 510 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Encyclopaedia of Classic 80s Pop by : Daniel Blythe

Download or read book The Encyclopaedia of Classic 80s Pop written by Daniel Blythe and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An indispensable guide to the best - and the worst - pop music of the 1980s.

80s Music Trivia Quiz Book

Download 80s Music Trivia Quiz Book PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781512111408
Total Pages : 116 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (114 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis 80s Music Trivia Quiz Book by : Clint Glover

Download or read book 80s Music Trivia Quiz Book written by Clint Glover and published by . This book was released on 2015-04-23 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Think you know all about the artists, songs and number one hits of the 1980s? See how much you know and take a trip down memory lane as you remember all the great music from the 80's.Test your knowledge of the music of the 1980's by completing the 35 quiz rounds within this book. The book has 350 questions covering the whole of this amazing decade of music.

Woman Walk the Line

Download Woman Walk the Line PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 1477322582
Total Pages : 233 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (773 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Woman Walk the Line by : Holly Gleason

Download or read book Woman Walk the Line written by Holly Gleason and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Full-tilt, hardcore, down-home, and groundbreaking, the women of country music speak volumes with every song. From Maybelle Carter to Dolly Parton, k.d. lang to Taylor Swift—these artists provided pivot points, truths, and doses of courage for women writers at every stage of their lives. Whether it’s Rosanne Cash eulogizing June Carter Cash or a seventeen-year-old Taylor Swift considering the golden glimmer of another precocious superstar, Brenda Lee, it’s the humanity beneath the music that resonates. Here are deeply personal essays from award-winning writers on femme fatales, feminists, groundbreakers, and truth tellers. Acclaimed historian Holly George Warren captures the spark of the rockabilly sensation Wanda Jackson; Entertainment Weekly’s Madison Vain considers Loretta Lynn’s girl-power anthem “The Pill”; and rocker Grace Potter embraces Linda Ronstadt’s unabashed visual and musical influence. Patty Griffin acts like a balm on a post-9/11 survivor on the run; Emmylou Harris offers a gateway through paralyzing grief; and Lucinda Williams proves that greatness is where you find it. Part history, part confessional, and part celebration of country, Americana, and bluegrass and the women who make them, Woman Walk the Line is a very personal collection of essays from some of America’s most intriguing women writers. It speaks to the ways in which artists mark our lives at different ages and in various states of grace and imperfection—and ultimately how music transforms not just the person making it, but also the listener.

Songs of the 2000s

Download Songs of the 2000s PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN 13 : 1540049035
Total Pages : 809 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (4 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Songs of the 2000s by : Hal Leonard Corp.

Download or read book Songs of the 2000s written by Hal Leonard Corp. and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2019-01-01 with total page 809 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Easy Piano Songbook). 70 songs from the new millenium arranged for easy piano, including: Beautiful * Before He Cheats * Bye Bye Bye * Chasing Pavements * Don't Know Why * Drive * Fallin' * Hey There Delilah * I Gotta Feeling * I'm Yours * Just Dance * Love Story * Mercy * Only Time * The Reason * Rehab * This Love * A Thousand Miles * Umbrella * Viva La Vida * Waiting on the World to Change * With Arms Wide Open * You Raise Me Up * and more.

We're Not Here to Entertain

Download We're Not Here to Entertain PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0190908238
Total Pages : 417 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis We're Not Here to Entertain by : Kevin Mattson

Download or read book We're Not Here to Entertain written by Kevin Mattson and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "After the blast, Kurt Cobain's body slumped. Next to his corpse lay a piece of paper with his last words. At the time the bullet seared his head, Cobain was a rock star, his grizzled face graced the covers of slick music industry magazines, his songs received mainstream radio play, his band Nirvana performed in huge arenas. But he had been thinking an awful lot about what he called the "punk rock world" that saved his life during his teen years and that he had subsequently abandoned for stardom. He first encountered this world in the summer of 1983, at a free show the Melvins held in a Thriftway parking lot. After hearing the guttural sounds and watching kids dance by slamming against one another, he ran home and wrote in his journal: "This was what I was looking for," underlined twice. As he dove into this world, he recognized its blistering music played in odd venues, but also a wider array of creativity, like self-made zines, poetry, fiction, movies, artwork on flyers and record jackets, and even politics. This too: how all of these things opened up spaces for ideas and arguments. Now in his suicide note he reflected on his "punk rock 101 courses," where he learned "ethics involved with independence and the embracement of your community."2 There are people who can recount where they were when Cobain's suicide became news. I was in Ithaca, NY, finishing up my dissertation... but my mind immediately hurled backwards to growing up in Washington, D.C.'s "metropolitan area" (euphemism for suburban sprawl). I started to remember the first time I entered this "punk rock world." Around a year or two before Cobain went to the Thriftway parking lot, I opened the doors of the Chancery, a small club in Washington, D.C., and witnessed a tiny little stage, maybe a foot and a half off the ground. Suddenly, a small kid about my age (fifteen), his hair bleached into a shade of white that glowed in the lights, jumped up. I remember it being brighter than expected (unlike my earlier, wee-boy experiences in darkened, cavernous arenas where bands like Kiss or Cheap Trick would play to me and thousands of stoned audience members). This kid with the blond hair might have said something, I don't remember, what I recall is that his band broke into the fastest, most vicious sounding music I had ever heard. Suddenly bodies started flying through the air, young men (mostly) propelling themselves off the ground into the space between one another, flailing their arms, skin smacking skin. Control was lost, for when a body moved in one direction, another body collided into its path. When someone fell over, another would pick him up. The bodies got pushed onto the stage, making it hard to differentiate performer from audience member. At one moment it appeared the singer had been tackled by a clump of kids, and he seemed to smile. Sometimes, I could even make out what the fifteen-year old was shouting, especially, "I'm going to make their society bleed!" Overwhelmed, I rushed outside to clear my head"--

The New Blue Music

Download The New Blue Music PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN 13 : 1496801288
Total Pages : 303 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (968 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The New Blue Music by : Richard J. Ripani

Download or read book The New Blue Music written by Richard J. Ripani and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2009-09-23 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rhythm & blues emerged from the African American community in the late 1940s to become the driving force in American popular music over the next half-century. Although sometimes called “doo-wop,” “soul,” “funk,” “urban contemporary,” or “hip-hop,” R&B is actually an umbrella category that includes all of these styles and genres. It is in fact a modern-day incarnation of a musical tradition that stretches back to nineteenth-century America, and even further to African beginnings. The New Blue Music: Changes in Rhythm & Blues, 1950-1999 traces the development of R&B from 1950 to 1999 by closely analyzing the top twenty-five songs of each decade. The music of artists as wide-ranging as Louis Jordan; John Lee Hooker; Ray Charles; James Brown; Earth, Wind & Fire; Michael Jackson; Public Enemy; Mariah Carey; and Usher takes center stage as the author illustrates how R&B has not only retained its traditional core style, but has also experienced a “re-Africanization” over time. By investigating musical elements of form, style, and content in R&B—and offering numerous musical examples—the book shows the connection between R&B and other forms of American popular and religious music, such as spirituals, ragtime, blues, jazz, country, gospel, and rock 'n' roll. With this evidence in hand, the author hypothesizes the existence of an even larger musical “super-genre” which he labels “The New Blue Music.”

Back to Our Future

Download Back to Our Future PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Ballantine Books
ISBN 13 : 0345518802
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (455 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Back to Our Future by : David Sirota

Download or read book Back to Our Future written by David Sirota and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wall Street scandals. Fights over taxes. Racial resentments. A Lakers-Celtics championship. The Karate Kid topping the box-office charts. Bon Jovi touring the country. These words could describe our current moment—or the vaunted iconography of three decades past. In this wide-ranging and wickedly entertaining book, New York Times bestselling journalist David Sirota takes readers on a rollicking DeLorean ride back in time to reveal how so many of our present-day conflicts are rooted in the larger-than-life pop culture of the 1980s—from the “Greed is good” ethos of Gordon Gekko (and Bernie Madoff) to the “Make my day” foreign policy of Ronald Reagan (and George W. Bush) to the “transcendence” of Cliff Huxtable (and Barack Obama). Today’s mindless militarism and hypernarcissism, Sirota argues, first became the norm when an ’80s generation weaned on Rambo one-liners and “Just Do It” exhortations embraced a new religion—with comic books, cartoons, sneaker commercials, videogames, and even children’s toys serving as the key instruments of cultural indoctrination. Meanwhile, in productions such as Back to the Future, Family Ties, and The Big Chill, a campaign was launched to reimagine the 1950s as America’s lost golden age and vilify the 1960s as the source of all our troubles. That 1980s revisionism, Sirota shows, still rages today, with Barack Obama cast as the 60s hippie being assailed by Alex P. Keaton–esque Republicans who long for a return to Eisenhower-era conservatism. “The past is never dead,” William Faulkner wrote. “It’s not even past.” The 1980s—even more so. With the native dexterity only a child of the Atari Age could possess, David Sirota twists and turns this multicolored Rubik’s Cube of a decade, exposing it as a warning for our own troubled present—and possible future.