Words and Music: the history of pop in the shape of a city
Encyclopedia
Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City is a 2005 book charting the history of popular music
, by the acclaimed music journalist and cultural commentator Paul Morley
. Its style is highly idiosyncratic, and it takes the form of a robotic Kylie Minogue
traveling, with Morley, in a cyber-car towards a city of "sound and ideas."
The starting point for this highly unusual, yet scholarly history of popular music are Morley's favourite pieces at the time of writing: Minogue's electro-pop song "Can't Get You Out Of My Head
" and Alvin Lucier
's experimental "I am sitting in a room
". From these seemingly unrelated musical compositions Morley reflects on the meanings of music in its many contradictory forms: the avant-garde and pop, the iconic and the obscure, the mechanical and the digital, the commercial and the creative, the human and the robotic.
Along the way a host of musical greats rear their heads (and sounds), followed by digressions into the point of writing about music, as well as the writer's own place in the canon of music writing. Ultimately the book is a set of lists of the great and the good in music.
The list in the book are really interesting as is Morely's take on the non linear history of music and the way his shifts away from the "canon" of rock music places other acts - Brian Eno
and Kraftwerk
at the center.
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
, by the acclaimed music journalist and cultural commentator Paul Morley
Paul Morley
Paul Morley is an English journalist, who wrote for the New Musical Express from 1977 to 1983, during one of its most successful periods, and has since written for a wide range of publications...
. Its style is highly idiosyncratic, and it takes the form of a robotic Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
traveling, with Morley, in a cyber-car towards a city of "sound and ideas."
The starting point for this highly unusual, yet scholarly history of popular music are Morley's favourite pieces at the time of writing: Minogue's electro-pop song "Can't Get You Out Of My Head
Can't Get You out of My Head
"Can't Get You Out of My Head" is a song by Australian recording artist and songwriter Kylie Minogue, which was released from her eighth studio album Fever . The song was released worldwide as the lead single from the album, which was released on 8 September, 2001. The song was written and produced...
" and Alvin Lucier
Alvin Lucier
Alvin Lucier is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. A long-time music professor at Wesleyan University, Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Arts Union, which included Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and...
's experimental "I am sitting in a room
I Am Sitting in a Room
I am sitting in a room is one of composer Alvin Lucier's best known works, featuring Lucier recording himself narrating a text, and then playing the recording back into the room, re-recording it. The new recording is then played back and re-recorded, and this process is repeated. Since all rooms...
". From these seemingly unrelated musical compositions Morley reflects on the meanings of music in its many contradictory forms: the avant-garde and pop, the iconic and the obscure, the mechanical and the digital, the commercial and the creative, the human and the robotic.
Along the way a host of musical greats rear their heads (and sounds), followed by digressions into the point of writing about music, as well as the writer's own place in the canon of music writing. Ultimately the book is a set of lists of the great and the good in music.
The list in the book are really interesting as is Morely's take on the non linear history of music and the way his shifts away from the "canon" of rock music places other acts - Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
and Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
at the center.