Brings together a diverse collection of voices to explore a broad spectrum of popular music
"A variety of approaches are brought to bear on fascinating repertoire, but with the underlying aim of better understanding of some brilliant music. There's nothing more exciting in music writing than something entices you to listen to what’s familiar to you in a new way, and this collection brings such excitement in abundance."
—Allan Moore, author of Jethro Tull: Aqualung and Rock: The Primary Text.
"These essays bring together a remarkable range of tools and perspectives to such diverse topics and contexts as the behind-the-scenes collaborations of composers, performers, arrangers, producers and engineers; pop culture; narratology; and race, politics and gender. The reader continuously benefits from a complementary lineup of sensitive ears that discover novelty in the familiar, deeply exposing the heart of many rock and pop classics through imaginative and authoritative prose."
—Walter Everett, author of The Foundations of Rock and The Beatles as Musicians
"For this volume, Spicer and Covach assembled and impressive collection of scholars rooted in popular music studies...the volume does much to dispel the notion that popular-idiom stylisitc analysis is impossible...Spicer and Covach have made an enormous contribution to the literature with this exciting, substantial volume."
—Choice, K S Todd, Oklahoma Baptist University
"Musicologists, theorists, academics from non-musical disciplines, fans, and even undergraduate survey audiences will likely find the essays contained within both deeply interesting and of significant scholarly value."
—Brad Osborn, Rhodes College, Notes
