Nicholas P. Greco - Böcker

One of the keys to the enduring popularity of the British singer Morrissey is his carefully crafted enigmatic persona. This critical book examines the role of enigma in the celebrity's public life, exploring how a level of mystery is maintained through television interviews, videos, reviews and concerts, as well as through his music and lyrics. Of particular interest is the way in which enigma stimulates interest and desire in his audience, and how the artist manipulates traditional modes of masculinity and the conventions of pop music to further cultivate enigma.

As an artist, David Bowie was widely considered a "chameleon," shedding one persona to create another and thus staying popular, relevant and compelling. In reality, Bowie was able to work with the resources around him to create something new, causing many to see him as a sort of lone artist rather than a collaborator in the creation of his own celebrity.Mid-career, Bowie began presenting himself as a figure in darkness, progressively more hidden. He required an audience for his continued celebrity but worked against that audience in the creation--or rather the destruction--of his star image. This tension is made clear in his 1995 album 1. Outside, which has him performing for an audience while simultaneously shunning them. This book explores Bowie's negotiation of his celebrity during his later career, with particular focus on 1. Outside, an album symptomatic of deep-seated societal and personal anxiety.

The Rosary and the Microphone explores U2 as a politically engaged band that manifests a particular brand of Christianity through the band's mediation in a global context and for a global audience. Through the primarily semiotic study of U2's various mediations, this book maps the band's strategies for negotiating its place in the world as a global band--and mediated brand--and as a proponent of a kind of cosmopolitanism, or global care. U2's brand is heavily informed by Bono's own personal religious formation. This religious viewpoint is expressed in a global concern--a Christian cosmopolitanism--that looks outward and draws others to do the same.