Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 013022636X, Paperback)

The only study of its kind, this well-organized, illustrated volume offers an in-depth examination of the social history of America and Britain through rock-and-roll. Tracing rock from its inception from American blues to the present, the book shows how rock-and-roll has reflected and sometimes changed American and British culture for several generations. It focuses on major music/history connections--e.g., the links between race and the birth of rock and roll; the postwar baby boom and Presleymania; civil rights and Dylan, Motown and soul; the Vietnam War and the shattering blues of Jimi Hendrix; the Me Decade and glam; desperate British economic times and punk; television and the rise of Presley, the Beatles and Michael Jackson; a disillusioned Generation X and grunge, industrial and rap. Features many fascinating photos never previously published. The Blues, Rock-and-Roll, and Racism. Elvis and Rockabilly. Dick Clark, Don Kirshner, and the Teen Market. Surfboards and Hot Rods: California, Here We Come. Bob Dylan and the New Frontier. The British Invasion of America. Motown: The Sound of Integration. Acid Rock. Fire from the Streets. Militant Blues on Campus. Soft Sounds of the Seventies. The Era of Excess. Punk Rock and the New Generation. I Want My MTV. The Promise of Rock-and-Roll. The Generation X Blues. The Rave Revolution. The Many Faces of Hip Hop. For anyone interested in popular American and British music, the interconnection of popular music and recent American history, or the social and historical significance of rock music.