A01=David Jenness
A01=Donald Velsey
American Popular Song
American songbook study
Author_David Jenness
Author_Donald Velsey
Bossa Nova
Broadway composers
Cape Verdean
Category=AVLP
Category=GT
Classic American Popular Song
Classic Pop
Classic Pop Song
Classic Popular Song
Country Music
Dan Ce
Dance
dassic
Dorothy Fields
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eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_music
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Evening Primrose
film
Film Song
Fine Day
good
Harmonic Moves
history of post-1950 popular music
Ira Gershwin
line
lyricist analysis
melodie
Melody Line
phrase
postwar musical theater
songs
songwriting evolution
Star Dust
Theater Songs
Tin Pan Alley
title
Title Phrase
twentieth century musicology
Up-tempo Song
van
Vocal Line
voice
Voice Line
Young Men
Product details
- ISBN 9780415970563
- Weight: 910g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 15 Nov 2005
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Classic American Popular Song: The Second Half-Century, 1950-2000 addresses the question: What happened to American popular song after 1950? There are numerous books available on the so-called Golden Age of popular song, but none that follow the development of popular song styles in the second half of the 20th century. While 1950 is seen as the end of an era, the tap of popular song creation hardly ran dry after that date. Many of the classic songwriters continued to work through the following decades: Porter was active until 1958; Rodgers until the later 1970s; Arlen until 1976. Some of the greatest lyricists of the classic era continued to do outstanding and successful work: Johnny Mercer and Dorothy Fields, for example, continued to produce lyrics through the early '70s. These works could be explained as simply the Golden Age's last stand, a refusal of major figures to give in to a new reality. But then, how can we explain the outstanding careers of Frank Loesser, Cy Coleman, Jerry Herman, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, Fred Kander and John Ebb, Jule Styne, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, and several other major figures? Where did Stephen Sondheim come from? For anyone interested in the development of American popular song -- and its survival -- this book will make fascinating reading.
David Jenness has performed as a pianist and singer, has been a music critic, and was president of the Kodaly Institute. As a historian of education, he is the author of Making Sense of Social Studies, among other works. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Donald Velsey is an architect by profession, and an amateur music historian. Beginning as a student at Yale and continuing thereafter, he has collected over 4000 American popular songs, many of them unpublished. He lives in Washington, DC.
