Rock and Roll: An Introduction Review

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(More customer reviews)This textbook is good overall and very suitable for college rock and roll courses.
Michael Campbell is the author of AND THE BEAT GOES ON, a textbook about the history of American Popular Music. This textbook focuses just on rock and roll.
The first few chapters cover the roots of rock n' roll: the basics of blues, boogie woogie, and other popular styles in the years after World War II. The authors spend a large chunk of pages on Rock's ascendance from 1964-1974 (about 170 pages). The period from 1974-1989, as a comparison, receives about 90 pages.
The book's strengths are their thoroughness of explanation and clarity of the text. While the textbook is certainly not exhaustive or complete (somebody always complains that THEIR FAVORITE band was overlooked), all the major styles and bands are discussed.
Campbell and Brody do a good job of placing each rock movement within its historical context and tracking the progression of rock through the mid-90s.
The pictures and diagrams can be helpful, especially to non-music majors. The key terms at the end of each chapter are basic, and the study questions are somewhat helpful.
One strong criticism (and certainly any R&R textbook will run into this) is its listening examples. Because these songs are still so popular, it is impossible to get all of the recordings discussed on one set of recordings. The discography at the back of the book shows that most of the songs discussed are on several anthology CDs, but there are many which have to be bought piecemeal. Once again, any textbook on rock will likely have this problem.
I think undergraduate professors should strongly consider this book for their courses, as it takes a straightforward approach to the subject.


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ROCK AND ROLL: AN INTRODUCTION, 2ND EDITION takes advantage of online delivery of recorded music.For your study of a playlist of 115 rock-era songs discussed in the text. The extensive book companion website, includes timed listening guides, a multimedia-enhanced glossary, links to chapter playlists on both iTunes and Rhapsody for those songs not included on the CD set, and clearly organized recommendations for further listening.

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