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Easy: A Hard Look at Soft Rock
Not yet published
Expected 28 Apr 26300 pages, Paperback
Expected publication April 28, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
My thanks to NetGalley and University of Iowa Press for an advance copy of this look at the super sounds of the seventies, the rise and merging of different musics to create soft rock, easy rock for those who wanted to hold on to sixteen for as long as they can, but were looking at corner offices, and conspicuous consumption while listening.
I was raised on radio as my parents would spend most weekends on the road bringing us to visit grandparents and relatives all over the tri-state area. My father would start with news radio following the traffic reports, hoping off and on roads as the radio host would warn. After a certain point when bumper-to-bumper was a known deal, he would switch to music channels. Mostly Top 40, mostly the same songs there and the same songs home again. At home my dad listened to jazz, my mom musicals, Irish music, and the Beatles. In the car it was all well, the same. FM radio changed our listening habits, as did tape decks. And Walkman, but the songs I heard have stayed in my mind all these years. Songs that seemed so different from songs of the 60's not so much of rebellion, but of acceptance, love, and life styles. Fine girls, lost loves, sailors, urban cowboys. This book looks at what changed and why. Easy: A Hard Look at Soft Rock by Timothy Gray is the story of changing trends, changing tastes, of limiting rebellion, looking for a peaceful easy feeling, a new musical generation, and of course, the money.
The book begins with a guide to the many trends and genres that were both on radio, and listed on charts of the times. What becomes obvious is that as music went from rebellion and exploration in the 60's and early 70's radio and those that made money on the product, not art, product began to see ways of making more money. Taking rock out of music, going for the country music influence, adding a little white soul. Music that was safe for radio, safe for advertisers, even safe for presidents to bring into the White House. Songs that didn't talk f changing the world, but of driving trucks, sipping tequila, watching sunrises, and thinking about, well not trying to bring down the system. Much has to do with an aging audience, finding out that hippies while cool for a time, lack well money. Gray looks at the trends in music from the beginning when Billboard and others began to chart what was selling, and how to make money on these songs. Easy listening has always been present, in the 70's it became an art form, popular, but lacking the spark of early works.
This is not a book on one's favorite bands. Expect nothing about how Bread or the Eagles wrote their songs, their instruments, even their life on the road. This is about music and chart positions, with an look at what this meant for the business of music. Grey looks at the past, how charts gave radio promoters reasons to play certain songs, and more importantly what kind of songs that could be made to imitate popular songs. Grey looks at the aging of early music fans, wanting to stay cool listening to rock, but not really getting the message anymore. It was easier to seel lifestyles and sunglasses and booze, to this older audience. There is mentions of the songs, and their chart positions, but no behind the scenes info. This is more a cultural study, one that I enjoyed but might not be for all readers.
The book does skip around a bit, but I liked the ideas and the discussions about changing tastes, and of course money, in art. A book that might be more for cultural students, rather than music fans, but one that is interesting and rewarding.
I was raised on radio as my parents would spend most weekends on the road bringing us to visit grandparents and relatives all over the tri-state area. My father would start with news radio following the traffic reports, hoping off and on roads as the radio host would warn. After a certain point when bumper-to-bumper was a known deal, he would switch to music channels. Mostly Top 40, mostly the same songs there and the same songs home again. At home my dad listened to jazz, my mom musicals, Irish music, and the Beatles. In the car it was all well, the same. FM radio changed our listening habits, as did tape decks. And Walkman, but the songs I heard have stayed in my mind all these years. Songs that seemed so different from songs of the 60's not so much of rebellion, but of acceptance, love, and life styles. Fine girls, lost loves, sailors, urban cowboys. This book looks at what changed and why. Easy: A Hard Look at Soft Rock by Timothy Gray is the story of changing trends, changing tastes, of limiting rebellion, looking for a peaceful easy feeling, a new musical generation, and of course, the money.
The book begins with a guide to the many trends and genres that were both on radio, and listed on charts of the times. What becomes obvious is that as music went from rebellion and exploration in the 60's and early 70's radio and those that made money on the product, not art, product began to see ways of making more money. Taking rock out of music, going for the country music influence, adding a little white soul. Music that was safe for radio, safe for advertisers, even safe for presidents to bring into the White House. Songs that didn't talk f changing the world, but of driving trucks, sipping tequila, watching sunrises, and thinking about, well not trying to bring down the system. Much has to do with an aging audience, finding out that hippies while cool for a time, lack well money. Gray looks at the trends in music from the beginning when Billboard and others began to chart what was selling, and how to make money on these songs. Easy listening has always been present, in the 70's it became an art form, popular, but lacking the spark of early works.
This is not a book on one's favorite bands. Expect nothing about how Bread or the Eagles wrote their songs, their instruments, even their life on the road. This is about music and chart positions, with an look at what this meant for the business of music. Grey looks at the past, how charts gave radio promoters reasons to play certain songs, and more importantly what kind of songs that could be made to imitate popular songs. Grey looks at the aging of early music fans, wanting to stay cool listening to rock, but not really getting the message anymore. It was easier to seel lifestyles and sunglasses and booze, to this older audience. There is mentions of the songs, and their chart positions, but no behind the scenes info. This is more a cultural study, one that I enjoyed but might not be for all readers.
The book does skip around a bit, but I liked the ideas and the discussions about changing tastes, and of course money, in art. A book that might be more for cultural students, rather than music fans, but one that is interesting and rewarding.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/
The one good thing I can say about this book is that it is well researched. That said, it was a slog to get through with the most self indulgent painfully constructed wording of a topic that I have read in a long time. The author clearly looks upon the subject with disdain, making most of the book an exploration in thinly disguised disgust. Honestly, it feels like an exercise in author ego boosting by trying to make every sentence as painfully inscrutable as possible by using as many 'big words' as can be looked up in the nearby dictionary.The book follows the decade of 1970 to 1980 and goes through quite a few classifications of the 'easy' soft rock sound - many I had never heard of before and honestly sounded very unnecessary. When talking about individual songs the artists/songwriters are very often either denigrated as sell outs to the genre or as writing songs that are completely uninspired and 'limp.' The Eagles? Their songs were just cash grabs. The Carpenters? Insipid. Honestly, you'd believe most artists had soft songs written just to knowingly pander to adult listeners (usually middle age women, according to the author) who wanted mindless entertainment instead of real music.
Of course, to get to the discussion you have to toil through the tedious rhetoric. This could have been an enjoyable read if written by someone else but half the time I had to stop to try to figure out what what the author was trying to say with the flowery jargon. He might as well have made the foreword to the book, "I'm super smarter than you and if you don't like it, it must be because you are stupid." Nothing flows, the facts are jumbled together, there is no organic growth to the writing, no love or respect for the subject, and the smarmy and often insensitive (so he could make a snarky comment) writing felt like it was just an ego trip for the author.
I really wish someone else had written this so I could have enjoyed an exploration of 70s soft rock. The subject is an interesting one and I'm sure there was so much to learn and enjoy in the process of dissecting it. I still have a headache from trying to get through this ugliness. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I received an advance copy from NetGalley; all opinions are my own.
2.5/5
Soft Rock, MOR, Easy Listening... whatever you call it, it's not meant to be exciting, and neither is this book. It is well researched but messily structured. Also, the focus is on the charts rather than the songs or artists, who are often swatted aside with catty one-liners. More attention is given to individuals in the chapter ending "singles", but even those are often unfocused. Still, the author's voice is always present and they obviously know what they're talking about. It's pretty good, but a bit dry, and doesn't really have a ready audience.
2.5/5
Soft Rock, MOR, Easy Listening... whatever you call it, it's not meant to be exciting, and neither is this book. It is well researched but messily structured. Also, the focus is on the charts rather than the songs or artists, who are often swatted aside with catty one-liners. More attention is given to individuals in the chapter ending "singles", but even those are often unfocused. Still, the author's voice is always present and they obviously know what they're talking about. It's pretty good, but a bit dry, and doesn't really have a ready audience.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews