Dancing about Architecture Is a Reasonable Thing to Do : Writing about Music, Meaning, and the Ineffable.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Heng Hartse, Joel.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular music--History and criticism.

Popular music.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Eugene : Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2022.

Summary:

Writing about music, far from being the specialized domain of the rock critic with encyclopedic knowledge of micro-genres or the fancy-pants star journalist flying on private planes with Led Zeppelin, has become something almost any music lover can do--and does. It's been said, however, that writing about music is a difficult, even pointless enterprise--an absurd impossibility, like "dancing about architecture." But aside from the fact that dancing about architecture would be awesome, what is that ineffable something that drives people to write about music at all? In this short, insightful book, Joel Heng Hartse unpacks the rock writer Richard Meltzer's assertion that writing about music should be a "parallel artistic effort" with music itself--and argues that music and the impulse to write about it is part of the eminently mysterious desire for meaning-making that makes us human. Touching on the close resonances between music, language, love, and belief, Dancing about Architecture is a Reasonable Thing to Do is relevant to anyone who finds deep human and spiritual meaning in music, writing, and the mysterious connections between them.

Contents:

On writing about music. Why dancing about architecture is a reasonable thing to do ; (I feel sad that Chris Walla is no longer in Death Cab for Cutie and other emotions) ; What dancing about architecture does, or How words and dreams and a million screams meke Weezer ; (A list of things that might happen when you write about music) ; How dancing about architecture is possible, or What is this, and is it any good? ; (Confession of faith)

Attempts at dancing about architecture. Faith. All things go : how Sufjan Stevens changed what it means to make Christian music ; How not to listen to Sufjan Stevens ; Luxury : transcendence and transgression ; Superfluous beauty : an interview with Slim Moon ; Lament. Old Time Bible House ; Lord have mercy ; the songs and life of Judee Sill ; Ripping through flesh, wailing ; Hope. The Dears : Protest ; There is only one thing : stars and the soft revolution ; Dance dance revolution ; Rocking out with the Weakerthans ; Transcendence. Perfect sound forever ; Groans too deep ; The lemon of Pink ; Self. Invisible balloon ; World wide Pants ; Static waves ; (Coda: Silence).

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781498293839

1498293832

OCLC:

1511109280