ANTIROCK: The Opposition to Rock 'n' Roll

by Linda & Kerry Segrave Martin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 15, 1987

An impassioned, exhaustively researched study of the history of opposition to rock-and-roll. The Canadian authors avow in their Preface to give a ""pro-rock point of view,"" and rarely thereafter surprise or disappoint. Most of the famous and infamous scandals of rock are here--Payola, Altamont, the 1979 Who concert stampede, etc.--as well as the reactions they promoted, with only the occasional inclusion of fresh material. Among the latter is the news that the FBI once considered using a drug-swollen Elvis Presley as an informant, and that among the leading celebrities in America to have at one time or another bashed rock-and-roll are Frank Sinatra and Jesse Jackson. Other obscurities dug up here give the antirock movement a dizzying sense of farce, such as the report that a 1970's Turkish study of noise in discotheques concluded that excessive exposure to the boogie beat ""causes homosexuality in mice and deafness in pigs."" This ""damning with evidence"" is the authors' favorite strategy, and to their credit they are far more lucid and objective than the opponents they portray. Still, the book suffers from a sense of overkill. The litany of arrests, protests, concert bans, and censored songs becomes wearisome, and the enemy seems vanquished long before the book ends--although few readers are likely to stay tuned in for that long.

Pub Date: Jan. 15, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Archon/Shoe String

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1987

Categories: NONFICTION