Apocalypse Jukebox: The End of the World in American Popular Music

by David Janssen, Edward Whitelock

From its indefinite beginnings through its broad commercialization and endless reinterpretation, American rock-and-roll music has been preoccupied with an end-of-the-world mentality that extends through the whole of American popular music.

In Apocalypse Jukebox, Edward Whitelock and David Janssen trace these connections through American music genres, uncovering a mix of paranoia and hope that characterizes so much of the nation's history.

From the book's opening scene, set in the American South during a terrifying 1833 meteor shower, the sense of doom is both palpable and inescapable; a deep foreboding that shadows every subsequent development in American popular music and, as Whitelock and Janssen contend, stands as a key to understanding and explicating America itself.

Whitelock and Janssen examine the diversity of apocalyptic influences within North American recorded music, focusing in particular upon a number of influential performers, including Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, John Coltrane, Devo, R.E.M., Sleater-Kinney, and Green Day. In Apocalypse Jukebox, Whitelock and Janssen reveal apocalypse as a permanent and central part of the American character while establishing rock-and-roll as a true reflection of that character.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

334 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Aether Real · Rating 2 out of 5]

Writing style was entertaining and engaging.
It was a lot of opinions being stated as facts, surrounded by actual facts from history, and a bit repetitive in a lot of areas.
Needles to say, it was interesting, but not for me.

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have literally agonized over whether I wanted to give this book one star or two. I came very, very close to giving it just one star. It's very rare for me to give a one star rating, however, because I generally find something redeemable in nearly every book I finish. I found three in this book.

My first problem with Apocalypse Jukebox is that it is NOT about what the title says it's about. I thought this would be a funny little book about how the concept of the end of the world has made it into popular music. That held true for the first chapter (I have to admit that the thought of apocalyptic country music of the late 1940s gave me a good, long chuckle). After that, this book flew way off the mark. It turned into music interpretation and had very little to do with the end of the world. Instead, it covered such topics as "spiritual apocalypse" and man's own "internal apocalypse." This was very cerebral and philosophical stuff, which I'm not opposed to in general, but is not what the book claims to be about.

This book was a long, painful slog. I will admit that I didn't exactly finish it. Of the last 4 chapters, I skipped one completely, skimmed two, and read only the very last chapter in its entirety. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was the authors' chapter about R.E.M. In it, they specifically cover the band's album Murmurs. They spend much of the chapter talking about how the album's lyrics are nonsensical, how the band refuses to even publish them (I've since heard that Michael Stipe has admitted that they weren't even really sure what their own lyrics were), and how lyric interpretation is entirely subjective. Then they proceed to interpret the lyrics to fit in with the theme of their book. I mean, come on, really? You can't do that. You can't say lyric meanings are in the eye of the beholder and then try to make a point with lyric meanings. That's just stupid. It made me angry.

In fact, I thought most of their interpretations throughout the book were kind of silly. I kept thinking to myself, "I don't get how you got that out of that lyric AT ALL." After I finished the book, I looked at the authors' credentials (I usually do this beforehand) to discover that they're both English professors. That has left me scratching my head. So this is basically an opinion book? Because it's not like they have a background in music theory or even religion. I really don't understand how I ended up buying this book. I must have been distracted.

I scorn this book.

Here are the reasons I give it two stars rather than one:

1. It introduced me to Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, which I'm still trying to decide if I want to buy for $50 on Amazon. It sounds completely and utterly awesome.

2. It turned me on to the song "Alone Again Or" by Love, now my new favorite song.

3. Oddly, I really loved the chapter about Devo, a band that I have neutral feelings for (I own none of their songs). It was actually pretty fascinating.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting points in here, and it's a worthy thesis, but all you really need to know is that it was published by PopMatters -- meaning it's much, much more dense and wordy than it needs to be. As much as I appreciated the book's ambition, it's just too tedious to recommend.

[Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This told me stuff about the history of Rock and/or Roll that I didn't already know, so that's a plus to start with.

It begins though with reference to the Great Disappointment - a period of American history that was unaccountably missed from my American History A'level course because Mr Duke felt that John C Calhoun, the Missouri Compromise and the presidency of Andrew Jackson were more important than a widespread belief in the end of the world.

After that, it puts a group of musical visionaries in the place of the Reverend Miller and showed their interest in apocalypse, from Harry Smith's transformation of society through the forgotten songs of the working class, through Bob Dylan's hard rain and Devo's personal de-evolution and even includes some attempts at interpreting the words in the works of REM.

And then, at the end, it educates me again, with Sleater-Kinney's anti-apocalyptic feminism and the grown up Green Day, who I had learned not to appreciate but will now give another go.

It's not really about the music though. It's about producing a coherent narrative using the tools of cultural theory to make a case for an apocalyptic thread in rock and roll that, while I find it overblown, is explained coherently and persuasively.

And add to that, it was a good read as well.

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating look at the history of the apocalypse in American music. While not being overly familiar with the works of Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen led to me skipping some chapters, the chapters on the Millerities, Elvis, and especially Green Day made this a book worth reading.

[Du · Rating 2 out of 5]

With a title like this, the book must be great, right? Unfortunately not. I couldn't get into it, fought liking it the while time. It is very academic and didn't have a smooth read. The chapters are organized well, but really didn't excite me with the content.