Books by Theo Cateforis
The Rock History Reader, Second Edition is a comprehensive collection of readings that tells the ... more The Rock History Reader, Second Edition is a comprehensive collection of readings that tells the history of rock as it has been received and explained as a social and musical practice throughout its six decade history. The readings range from the vivid autobiographical accounts of such rock icons as Ronnie Spector and David Lee Roth to the writings of noted rock critics like Simon Frith and Lester Bangs. It also includes a variety of selections from media critics, musicologists, fanzine writers, legal experts, sociologists and prominent political figures. Many entries also deal specifically with distinctive styles such as Motown, punk, disco, grunge, rap and indie rock. Each entry includes headnotes, which place it in its historical context.
The second edition includes many new readings on the early years of rhythm & blues and rock ‘n’ roll, as well as entries on payola, mods, the rise of FM rock, progressive rock and the PMRC congressional hearings. In addition, there is a wealth of new material on the 2000s that explores such relatively recent developments as emo, mash ups, and the explosion of internet culture and new media, and iconic figures like Radiohead and Lady Gaga.
With numerous readings that delve into the often explosive issues surrounding censorship, copyright, race relations, feminism, youth subcultures, and the meaning of musical value, the Rock History Reader, Second Edition, continues to appeal to scholars and students from a variety of disciplines.
New wave emerged at the turn of the 1980s as a pop music movement cast in the image of punk rock’... more New wave emerged at the turn of the 1980s as a pop music movement cast in the image of punk rock’s sneering demeanor, yet rendered more accessible and sophisticated for a mainstream audience. Artists such as the Cars, Devo, the Knack and the Human League leapt into the Top 40 with a novel sound that broke with the staid rock clichés of the 1970s and pointed the way to a more modern pop style. Three decades later, new wave’s influence looms large over the contemporary pop scene, recycled and celebrated not only in reunion tours, VH-1 nostalgia specials and “80’s night” dance clubs but in the music of newer artists as diverse as Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and the Killers.
Are We Not New Wave? provides the first musical and cultural history of the new wave movement, charting its rise out of mid-1970s punk to its ubiquitous early 1980s MTV presence and downfall in the mid-1980s. It also explores the meanings behind the music’s distinctive traits—its characteristic whiteness and nervousness; its playful irony, electronic melodies and crossover experimentations—through a number of provocative and original case studies of such artists as the Talking Heads, B-52’s, Gary Numan and Adam and the Ants. The book traces new wave’s modern sensibilities back to the modernity of early-twentieth century American urban society as well as the modern space age consumer culture of the late 1950s/early 1960s. At the same time it connects new wave with the modern symbols of its own era, from the stunning rise in popularity of futuristic synthesizer sounds to the emergence of new styles like world beat that marked a global modernity at the turn of the 1980s.
Journal Articles by Theo Cateforis
Current Musicology, 2009
As a “coming of age” genre, teen movies since the early 1980s have depicted their teenaged subjec... more As a “coming of age” genre, teen movies since the early 1980s have depicted their teenaged subjects as liminal entities, cast in various states of social transformation. Looking at films such as 1986’s Pretty In Pink and 1999’s Ten Things I Hate About You and American Pie, this article examines how teen movie directors have utilized compilation scores of pre-recorded popular songs as a way of dramatizing and amplifying these transformations. As I argue, the teen movie marks the teenager’s liminal journey towards adulthood along sharply divided gendered lines. One of the most common teen movie protagonists, the “rebel girl” is closely associated with her alternative musical tastes and connoisseurist knowledge. Paralleling the rise of punk, post-punk and riot grrrl music, we find strong, empowered girls in these films using music to sustain a bravely independent identity amid the trials of adolescence. The relationship between male characters and popular music, however, is much different. Music for them is a performative vehicle, an opportunity to overcome social challenges through the spectacle of public music performance. I label these performances, which typically draw on familiar songs and their established symbols of adult manhood, as a form of “karaoke masculinity.” Taken as a whole, the teen movie’s divide between music consumers and performers offers a window through which we can examine the function of compilation scores in late twentieth and early twenty-first-century film, as well as the differing gendered adolescent roles of this period.
Journal of Popular Music Studies, 2009
For instructors of rock music classes, primary source materials are a valuable pedagogical asset ... more For instructors of rock music classes, primary source materials are a valuable pedagogical asset that can bring the history and context of the music to life in vivid fashion. This article examines both the strategies and potential pitfalls of integrating source materials into the syllabus and classroom. Primary documents can help students see history as a multi-vocal process, and can enliven discussions about controversial topics. But the source materials that we choose are also laden with ideologies and values, and using them to construct a narrative of rock history can serve to reinforce the music’s many entrenched myths. I examine the use of primary sources within a historiographical context, showing how they support the stories that we tell about rock music. I conclude by considering some alternative approaches that circumvent rock’s grand master narratives, and suggest some of the different stories that one might tell about rock.
American Music, 2005
One of the most representative bands of the late 70s new wave rock movement, Devo were hailed by ... more One of the most representative bands of the late 70s new wave rock movement, Devo were hailed by critics for their avant-garde renderings of popular music conventions. This essay examines the group’s subversive tactics through a close reading of one of their early trademark recordings, a 1978 cover version of The Rolling Stones’ 60s classic “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Both the song and its accompanying video foreground Devo’s deliberately “robotic” aesthetic. The band reduces The Stones’ song to a procession of minimalist riffs and stiff, angular bodily gestures. While the group implied through their interviews that their robotic demeanor could be taken as a commentary on American consumer society’s dehumanizing effects, this essay suggests even further that Devo’s robotic re-inventions should be understood specifically within the history of the white body. On the one hand Devo’s anonymous malfunctioning bodies and absurdist musical style lampoon the borrowed black physicality of the heavily sexualized white male rock star. On the other hand, their regimented yet neurotic presentation can be seen as the end result of white culture’s traditionally repressive attitudes towards the body.
Journal of Popular Music Studies, 1993
The song "Total Trash," from Sonic Youth's 1988 album Daydream Nation, calls into question the tr... more The song "Total Trash," from Sonic Youth's 1988 album Daydream Nation, calls into question the traditional analytic dependence on lyrical and music-notational devices. This essay offers an analysis that incorporates insights from linguistics, journalism, literary criticism, performance practice, and musical perception and theory in order to portray the music's functional elements as part of the song's post punk style.
Book Chapters by Theo Cateforis
The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media, eds. Carol Vernallis, John Richardson, Amy Herzog (New York: Oxford University Press), 2013
As the 1997 political satire Wag the Dog demonstrates, in our heavily mediated society it has bec... more As the 1997 political satire Wag the Dog demonstrates, in our heavily mediated society it has become increasingly easy to construct an object that appeals to our sense of the authentic. This article offers close readings of two key moments in the movie – the performances of the songs “The American Dream” and “Good Ol’ Shoe” – each of which reveals the myriad ways in which one can manipulate music to suggest an authentic emotional expression. Such moments, where the artificial and real are blurred beyond recognition, throw the notion of authenticity into doubt. This article suggests an alternative, an authenticity located in the obviously fake and contrived. This ‘inauthentic authenticity’ emerges most noticeably in Wag the Dog’s laughably clichéd political advertisements, which serve as a counterpoint to the movie’s more devious machinations.
Progressive Rock Reconsidered, ed. Kevin Holm-Hudson (New York: Routledge), 2002
The 1990s saw an explosion of various alternative music subgenres, among them "math rock", which ... more The 1990s saw an explosion of various alternative music subgenres, among them "math rock", which has been defined by its stylistic complexity and abstraction. Despite its alternative lineage, math rock aligns itself with the musical practices of progressive rock and heavy metal, often featuring multi-sectional forms and powerful guitar riffs. Focusing on the math rock band Don Caballero, an extended analysis of their song "Stupid puma" is undertaken. Attention is focused on the implied symbolic connections between math rock and mathematics, and the reception of math rock as a cultural phenomenon.
Musics of Multicultural America: A Study of Twelve Musical Communities, eds. Kip Lornell and Anne Rasmussen (New York: Schirmer) , 1997
The riot grrrl movement emerged in the early 1990s in local punk scenes throughout the U.S. as a ... more The riot grrrl movement emerged in the early 1990s in local punk scenes throughout the U.S. as a means of solidifying a community around female issues and carving new creative spaces within the punk lifestyle. From the politics of fanzines to the socially charged statements of riot grrrl bands, the movement profoundly affected alternative musical culture. The initial formation and activities of a regional chapter in New York City are presented through interviews and interpretation, focusing on their negotiations with private and public identity and the media
Selected Conference Presentations by Theo Cateforis
Rhythm has long served as a crucial means of distinguishing popular music’s different movements a... more Rhythm has long served as a crucial means of distinguishing popular music’s different movements and historical eras from one another. The transition from the 1950s to 1960s, for example, saw a move from rhythm and blues’ and rock’n’roll’s shuffle triplet feel to rock’s driving eighth notes. More recently, the ubiquitous thump of four to the floor beats has signaled electronic dance music’s ascension in the 2010s. This paper explores a different, rarely acknowledged, paradigm shift that occurred at the turn of the 1990s with the emergence of alternative rock. Specifically, alternative proved to be the site where rock’s rhythmic structure moved from one of predominantly eighth note subdivisions to sixteenths. While there are many ways to interpret this development, the perception at the time was that rock had moved from a more controlled, regimented feel to one that was looser and more free—one with more groove.
The paper first begins with some empirical observations. Analyzing the songs on Billboard’s alternative “Modern Rock” radio chart (1988-1996) across an eight year span, I locate the point at which this rhythmic paradigm shift truly began to materialize. I then examine the elements that fed into this shift, ranging from changes in performance practice to influences from genres such as hip hop. Lastly, I consider perhaps the most critical question of all: with the move to a sixteenth-based structure, how did groove, an African-American rhythmic quality aligned with participation and pleasure, come in alternative rock to articulate feelings of white alienation and anger.
While indie rock is a genre that has been notoriously difficult to define, from a sociological pe... more While indie rock is a genre that has been notoriously difficult to define, from a sociological perspective it is fair to say that the majority of those involved with the music have been white, middle class twenty-somethings. In many ways indie’s chief demographic—hovering in the post-collegiate years, and engaged in creative, exploratory activities before the onset of full adult and career responsibilities—appears to match what psychologist Jeffrey Jensen Arnett has termed the life stage of “emerging adulthood.” As Arnett shows, the number of Americans dwelling in this inherently liminal space has risen dramatically since the late 1970s, effectively mirroring the ascent of indie rock itself.
This paper examines contemporary indie music through the lens of recent research on emerging adulthood, focusing on two specific manifestations. On the one hand, in songs like MGMT’s 2008 single “Time to Pretend,” one encounters an ambivalence toward the adult and career roles one must assume (in this case the rock star lifestyle); the band highlights this even further in the song’s video, incorporating playful and surrealistic tribal imagery that emphasizes their liminal status. On the other hand, musicians like Ernest Greene of Washed Out and Adam Young of Owl City have written and recorded albums while living at home with their parents, embracing retro 80s electronic and synthesizer styles that offer a certain nostalgic security in a period of life marked by its instability. Taken as a whole, these examples reveal the multifarious nature of both emerging adulthood and indie itself.
From the twelve bar blues to the verse/chorus, the history of rock music has featured various son... more From the twelve bar blues to the verse/chorus, the history of rock music has featured various song forms that have proven to be durable generic types. In recent years one of the most ubiquitous has been the “soft/loud,” which was first popularized with Nirvana’s breakthrough 1991 single “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Since then it has spread to genres as far flung as rap-metal, emo and the power pop of songwriters/producers Max Martin and Luke Gottwald. On the surface the form is little more than a variation of the verse/chorus that amplifies the distinction between the two sections through a dramatic contrast in dynamics. But both the longevity and adaptability of the soft/loud hints that it is more nuanced than this basic definition suggests.
This paper unravels the history and meanings of the soft/loud form from a variety of perspectives. I begin by suggesting a point of origin in the early 1980s hardcore punk of groups like Minor Threat. The boom years of the soft/loud in the 1990s, I argue, should be considered both vis-à-vis the development and marketing of guitar effects pedals and the medicalization and media attention accorded to behavioral disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder that provided an analogue for the soft/loud’s inherent emotional volatility. Lastly, in the 2000s I detail how the soft/loud has surprisingly thrived in the midst of the much-documented “loudness wars,” where the demand for uniformly ‘hot’ recordings has presumably wiped away the distinctions in dynamics so crucial to the song form’s definition.
Few rock styles and eras were more beholden to the suggestive effects of reverb than British post... more Few rock styles and eras were more beholden to the suggestive effects of reverb than British post-punk of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Influential producers like Martin Hannett and Mike Hedges employed both technological and acoustical means to create reverberation in their studio recordings, marking a sharp departure with punk’s live aesthetics. Post-punk’s reverberating soundscapes inflected in various ways. Some found in the music’s grim atmospherics a reflection of England’s Cold War politics. To critics like Jon Savage the music also served as an accurate barometer of Northern urban industrial decay, an evocation of “dark spaces and empty places.” While reverb in this sense evoked specific geographic and physical locales, it could also connote a spatial sense of deep, personal alienation.
Following the lead of Peter Doyle’s study Echo & Reverb, this paper examines reverb in post-punk through a balanced consideration of its recorded properties and its “affective outcome.” The analysis revolves around close readings of two songs: Wire’s “Other Window” (1979) and The Cure’s “All Cats are Grey” (1981). Each song uses the recording studio as a space to create sonic settings of distance and social isolation. But it is not simply the overpowering reverb that contributes to this effect. As I argue, it is the music’s arrangement and melodic content as well. With their preference for sparse melodic lines rather than chords, and an emphasis on harmonic suspensions and wide intervallic leaps, post-punk artists amplified the music’s signification of lyrical, imagistic and geographic space in striking ways
Papers by Theo Cateforis
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Books by Theo Cateforis
The second edition includes many new readings on the early years of rhythm & blues and rock ‘n’ roll, as well as entries on payola, mods, the rise of FM rock, progressive rock and the PMRC congressional hearings. In addition, there is a wealth of new material on the 2000s that explores such relatively recent developments as emo, mash ups, and the explosion of internet culture and new media, and iconic figures like Radiohead and Lady Gaga.
With numerous readings that delve into the often explosive issues surrounding censorship, copyright, race relations, feminism, youth subcultures, and the meaning of musical value, the Rock History Reader, Second Edition, continues to appeal to scholars and students from a variety of disciplines.
Are We Not New Wave? provides the first musical and cultural history of the new wave movement, charting its rise out of mid-1970s punk to its ubiquitous early 1980s MTV presence and downfall in the mid-1980s. It also explores the meanings behind the music’s distinctive traits—its characteristic whiteness and nervousness; its playful irony, electronic melodies and crossover experimentations—through a number of provocative and original case studies of such artists as the Talking Heads, B-52’s, Gary Numan and Adam and the Ants. The book traces new wave’s modern sensibilities back to the modernity of early-twentieth century American urban society as well as the modern space age consumer culture of the late 1950s/early 1960s. At the same time it connects new wave with the modern symbols of its own era, from the stunning rise in popularity of futuristic synthesizer sounds to the emergence of new styles like world beat that marked a global modernity at the turn of the 1980s.
Journal Articles by Theo Cateforis
Book Chapters by Theo Cateforis
Selected Conference Presentations by Theo Cateforis
The paper first begins with some empirical observations. Analyzing the songs on Billboard’s alternative “Modern Rock” radio chart (1988-1996) across an eight year span, I locate the point at which this rhythmic paradigm shift truly began to materialize. I then examine the elements that fed into this shift, ranging from changes in performance practice to influences from genres such as hip hop. Lastly, I consider perhaps the most critical question of all: with the move to a sixteenth-based structure, how did groove, an African-American rhythmic quality aligned with participation and pleasure, come in alternative rock to articulate feelings of white alienation and anger.
This paper examines contemporary indie music through the lens of recent research on emerging adulthood, focusing on two specific manifestations. On the one hand, in songs like MGMT’s 2008 single “Time to Pretend,” one encounters an ambivalence toward the adult and career roles one must assume (in this case the rock star lifestyle); the band highlights this even further in the song’s video, incorporating playful and surrealistic tribal imagery that emphasizes their liminal status. On the other hand, musicians like Ernest Greene of Washed Out and Adam Young of Owl City have written and recorded albums while living at home with their parents, embracing retro 80s electronic and synthesizer styles that offer a certain nostalgic security in a period of life marked by its instability. Taken as a whole, these examples reveal the multifarious nature of both emerging adulthood and indie itself.
This paper unravels the history and meanings of the soft/loud form from a variety of perspectives. I begin by suggesting a point of origin in the early 1980s hardcore punk of groups like Minor Threat. The boom years of the soft/loud in the 1990s, I argue, should be considered both vis-à-vis the development and marketing of guitar effects pedals and the medicalization and media attention accorded to behavioral disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder that provided an analogue for the soft/loud’s inherent emotional volatility. Lastly, in the 2000s I detail how the soft/loud has surprisingly thrived in the midst of the much-documented “loudness wars,” where the demand for uniformly ‘hot’ recordings has presumably wiped away the distinctions in dynamics so crucial to the song form’s definition.
Following the lead of Peter Doyle’s study Echo & Reverb, this paper examines reverb in post-punk through a balanced consideration of its recorded properties and its “affective outcome.” The analysis revolves around close readings of two songs: Wire’s “Other Window” (1979) and The Cure’s “All Cats are Grey” (1981). Each song uses the recording studio as a space to create sonic settings of distance and social isolation. But it is not simply the overpowering reverb that contributes to this effect. As I argue, it is the music’s arrangement and melodic content as well. With their preference for sparse melodic lines rather than chords, and an emphasis on harmonic suspensions and wide intervallic leaps, post-punk artists amplified the music’s signification of lyrical, imagistic and geographic space in striking ways
Papers by Theo Cateforis
The second edition includes many new readings on the early years of rhythm & blues and rock ‘n’ roll, as well as entries on payola, mods, the rise of FM rock, progressive rock and the PMRC congressional hearings. In addition, there is a wealth of new material on the 2000s that explores such relatively recent developments as emo, mash ups, and the explosion of internet culture and new media, and iconic figures like Radiohead and Lady Gaga.
With numerous readings that delve into the often explosive issues surrounding censorship, copyright, race relations, feminism, youth subcultures, and the meaning of musical value, the Rock History Reader, Second Edition, continues to appeal to scholars and students from a variety of disciplines.
Are We Not New Wave? provides the first musical and cultural history of the new wave movement, charting its rise out of mid-1970s punk to its ubiquitous early 1980s MTV presence and downfall in the mid-1980s. It also explores the meanings behind the music’s distinctive traits—its characteristic whiteness and nervousness; its playful irony, electronic melodies and crossover experimentations—through a number of provocative and original case studies of such artists as the Talking Heads, B-52’s, Gary Numan and Adam and the Ants. The book traces new wave’s modern sensibilities back to the modernity of early-twentieth century American urban society as well as the modern space age consumer culture of the late 1950s/early 1960s. At the same time it connects new wave with the modern symbols of its own era, from the stunning rise in popularity of futuristic synthesizer sounds to the emergence of new styles like world beat that marked a global modernity at the turn of the 1980s.
The paper first begins with some empirical observations. Analyzing the songs on Billboard’s alternative “Modern Rock” radio chart (1988-1996) across an eight year span, I locate the point at which this rhythmic paradigm shift truly began to materialize. I then examine the elements that fed into this shift, ranging from changes in performance practice to influences from genres such as hip hop. Lastly, I consider perhaps the most critical question of all: with the move to a sixteenth-based structure, how did groove, an African-American rhythmic quality aligned with participation and pleasure, come in alternative rock to articulate feelings of white alienation and anger.
This paper examines contemporary indie music through the lens of recent research on emerging adulthood, focusing on two specific manifestations. On the one hand, in songs like MGMT’s 2008 single “Time to Pretend,” one encounters an ambivalence toward the adult and career roles one must assume (in this case the rock star lifestyle); the band highlights this even further in the song’s video, incorporating playful and surrealistic tribal imagery that emphasizes their liminal status. On the other hand, musicians like Ernest Greene of Washed Out and Adam Young of Owl City have written and recorded albums while living at home with their parents, embracing retro 80s electronic and synthesizer styles that offer a certain nostalgic security in a period of life marked by its instability. Taken as a whole, these examples reveal the multifarious nature of both emerging adulthood and indie itself.
This paper unravels the history and meanings of the soft/loud form from a variety of perspectives. I begin by suggesting a point of origin in the early 1980s hardcore punk of groups like Minor Threat. The boom years of the soft/loud in the 1990s, I argue, should be considered both vis-à-vis the development and marketing of guitar effects pedals and the medicalization and media attention accorded to behavioral disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder that provided an analogue for the soft/loud’s inherent emotional volatility. Lastly, in the 2000s I detail how the soft/loud has surprisingly thrived in the midst of the much-documented “loudness wars,” where the demand for uniformly ‘hot’ recordings has presumably wiped away the distinctions in dynamics so crucial to the song form’s definition.
Following the lead of Peter Doyle’s study Echo & Reverb, this paper examines reverb in post-punk through a balanced consideration of its recorded properties and its “affective outcome.” The analysis revolves around close readings of two songs: Wire’s “Other Window” (1979) and The Cure’s “All Cats are Grey” (1981). Each song uses the recording studio as a space to create sonic settings of distance and social isolation. But it is not simply the overpowering reverb that contributes to this effect. As I argue, it is the music’s arrangement and melodic content as well. With their preference for sparse melodic lines rather than chords, and an emphasis on harmonic suspensions and wide intervallic leaps, post-punk artists amplified the music’s signification of lyrical, imagistic and geographic space in striking ways