Steven Blush - Böcker

Disco began as a gay, black, and brown underground New York City party music scene, which alone was enough to ward off most rockers. The difference between rock and disco was as sociological as it was aesthetic.At its best, disco was galvanizing and affirmative. Its hypnotic power to uplift a broad spectrum of the populace made it the ubiquitous music of the late '70s. Disco was a primal and gaudy fanfare for the apocalypse, a rage for exhibitionism, free of moralizing. Disco was an exclamatory musical passageway into the future.1978 was the apex of the record industry. Rock music, commercially and artistically, had never been more successful. At the same time, disco was responsible for roughly 40% of the records on Billboard's Hot 100, thanks to the largest-selling soundtrack of all time in Saturday Night Fever. The craze for this music by The Bee Gees revived The Hustle and dance studios across America.For all its apparent excesses and ritual zealotry, disco was a conservative realm, with obsolete rules like formal dress code and dance floor etiquette. When most '70s artists "went disco," it was the relatively few daring rockers who had the most impact, bringing their intensity and personality to a faceless phenomenon.Rock stars who "went disco" crossed a musical rubicon and forever smashed cultural conformity. The ongoing dance-rock phenomenon demonstrates the impact of this unique place and time.The disco crossover forever changed rock.

In When Rock Met Reggae, Steven Blush takes a spirited, cross-genre perspective in this "illuminating chronicle" (Booklist) of the crossover of Jamaican, British, and American sounds that changed the face of popular music. Library Journal notes that "Blush’s nimble outline of the interplay between reggae and British punk will appeal to music fans.”Bringing the same incisive, cross-genre perspective he offered in When Rock Met Disco, Steven Blush gives a spirited survey of the crossover of Jamaican, British, and American sounds that changed the face of popular music in When Rock Met Reggae. The inspiration of ska, rock-steady, dub, and reggae—heard on independent recordings played on “soundsystems” from Kingston and Brixton—created a new rock tonality and attitude, spanning from Eric Clapton to The Clash. Meanwhile, the “Two Tone” sounds—traversing The Specials, Madness, and UB40—fueled the ‘90s ska revival of Sublime, No Doubt, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and beyond. Attentive to the racial, political, and artistic aspects of this intricate story, Blush gives a memorable account of one of the most fertile cross-pollinations in pop music history.

One of the most important events in modern music remains the late 80s cross-collision of rock and hip hop. Aerosmith/Run DMC, Beastie Boys Paul’s Boutique, Public Enemy and Anthrax, Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons, De La Soul and Third Bass, and the 318 hip hop records that sampled Billy Squier’s “The Big Beat exemplify the era. Rap records sampled rock bands, elevating sampling into an art form, while influencing all other forms of popular music. One of the themes this book will explore is the way the fusion of rap and rock gave hope to a sense of interracial harmony.In keeping with When Rock Met Disco and When Rock Met Reggae, this title relates the musical cross collision, and cultural fallout that changed music for the better, and remains an influence through today.

First edition is out-of-print - this new expanded edition brings back this title with a bang.