SONGBOOKS

An annotated bibliography writ large exploring America’s history and social trends through its books about music.

Weisbard, a former editor at Spin magazine, is now a professor of American studies at the University of Alabama and co-organizer of the Pop Conference, an annual gathering of academic music scholars and rank-and-file music journalists. In this exhaustive (sometimes exhausting) tome, the author discusses major books about American music chronologically, from an 18th-century Psalm book to Jay-Z’s memoir, Decoded. Weisbard is comfortable discussing a vast range of genres, including gospel, blues, punk, narcocorridos, Top 40, ragtime, jazz, Tin Pan Alley, Native American music, and more. The brief chapters dedicated to each book can sometimes be about the book at hand—as with Edna Ferber’s Show Boat, which “romanticized Black primitivism as a power supply for white women navigating stormy modernity”—or a launch pad for broader riffs (the entry on Peter Guralnick’s definitive Elvis biographies is a commentary on Elvis lit in general). The connective tissue among the entries involves an ongoing debate over the “sentimental” and “vernacular” in pop music, which breaks down into explorations of race, gender, and capitalism. Minstrelsy is a recurring subject, as is the writing of pioneering rock critic Ellen Willis, who grasped rock’s “impossible relationship to collective and individual freedom.” Weisbard’s comprehensiveness means he may introduce many music fans to works they might not know otherwise, like Andrew Holleran’s great disco-era gay novel, Dancer From the Dance, and his multidisciplinary approach is appealing. For instance, he makes some smart connections between rock and science fiction. However, Weisbard’s academese will be tough sledding for those seeking casual recommendations, and the book-by-book structure precludes a more sustained consideration of his sentimental/vernacular thesis.

A valuable literature review of American pop that is easier to consult than read from cover to cover.