As someone who feels the emotional power of rock and who writes about it as an art form, Theodore Gracyk has been praised for launching arguments destined to change the future of rock and roll. In I Wanna Be Me, his second book about the music he cares so much about, Gracyk grapples with the ways that rock shapes - limits and expands - our notions of who we can be in the world.

Since the 1950s, writing about popular music has become a staple of popular culture. "Rolling Stone", "Vibe", and "The Source" as well as music columns in major newspapers target consumers who take their music seriously. Rapidly proliferating fanzines, websites, and internet discussion groups enable virtually anyone to engage in popular music criticism. Until now, however, no one has tackled popular music criticism as a genre of journalism with a particular history and evolution. "Pop Music and the Press" looks at the major publications and journalists who have shaped this criticism,...

Sees pop music journalism as a form of cultural criticism.

Fans and detractors of popular music tend to agree on one thing: popular music is a bellwether of an individual's political and cultural values. In the United States, for example, one cannot think of the counterculture apart from its music. For that reason, in virtually every country in the world, some group identifies popular music as a source of potential danger and wants to regulate it. "Policing Pop" looks into the many ways in which popular music and artists around the world are subjected to censorship, ranging from state control and repression to the efforts of special interest or...

Fans of popular music tend to agree on one thing: popular music is a bellweather of an individual's political and cultural values. In the USA, for example, one cannot think of the counterculture apart from its music. For that reason, in virtually every country in the world, some group identifies popular music as a source of potential danger and wants to regulate it. This work looks into the many ways in which popular music and artists around the world are subjected to censorship, ranging from state control and repression to the efforts of special interest or religious groups to limit...

Roy Orbison's musicOCowhether heard in his own recordings or in cover versions of his songsOCois a significant part of contemporary American culture despite the fact that he died almost a generation ago. Few of today's listeners know or remember how startlingly unique he seemed at the height of his career in the early 1960s. In this book, Peter Lehman looks at the long span of Orbison's career and probes into the uniqueness of his songs, singing, and performance style, arguing that singer/songwriters no less than filmmakers can be considered as auteurs.Unlike other pop stars, Orbison was a...

Roy Orbison's music - whether heard in his own recordings or in cover versions of his songs - is a significant part of contemporary American culture despite the fact that he died almost a generation ago. Here, Peter Lehman looks at the long span of Orbison's career and probes into the uniqueness of his songs, singing and performance style, arguing that singer/songwriters no less than filmmakers can be considered as auteurs.