Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On

by Michael Campbell

Michael Campbell's POPULAR MUSIC IN AMERICA, 5th Edition, follows the evolution of popular music from the mid-19th century to the present with discussions of connections, contrasts, and patterns of influence among artists, styles, and eras. A new, in-depth section on 21st century music connects you to the content through a modern lens. Units are clearly defined by style and timeframe, and chapters feature narrowly focused objectives to keep you on task. This edition also features a vibrant, richly illustrated, magazine-like design, plus numerous online resources. Almost all listening examples are available on Spotify with dedicated unit playlists and/or in YouTube examples which can be found throughout the MindTap version of the text.

Genres: Music, History

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 1996

Reviews

[Acenith Claassen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed the journey through music and time. The only critique I would offer is to the authors fascination and fixation on certain things and therefore his attribution to them for all that is music. This fixation, perhaps inadvertently works to detract from the contributions of certain factions in popular music, and lay the lions share of its development over the decades.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content was interesting, but the text was quite dry, even for a textbook. It also omitted a lot of important content (how can you overlook the impact Johnny Cash had on music at the time?)

Overall it was a good book, but the professor made the class fun, not the textbook.

[Skylar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, comprehensive read on history of music that is quite educational. Some sections too brief for my liking, and there seemed to be a bias between which musicians to reference their controversies. Still, learned far mire than I would have thought I would.