The Song Is You

Let me recommend How The Beatles Destroyed Rock 'N' Roll by Elijah Wald. But first, the awful title. It does the book a disservice. It's not really about the Beatles (and it's not anti-Beatles), who don't make their appearance until the book is 90% over. It's not even about rock 'n' roll. I'm sure they chose the title because it's a grabber, and books about The Beatles sell.

The book should be known by its subtitle: An Alternative History Of American Popular Music. Wald wants you to look at the 20th century differently. Most musical histories are written by fans, and they prefer certain types of music, while ignoring a lot of stuff that was quite popular. Look at the 50s, for example. Elvis may have been the biggest act, but #2 was Pat Boone. Jazz fans today idolize Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, but much more popular in their day were Paul Whiteman and Guy Lombardo. Not only that--Ellington and Armstrong were influenced by Whiteman and Lombardo, though aficionados would like to deny or forget that. For that matter, Armstrong is remembered for his recordings with the Hot Five and the Hot Seven, but that represents several sessions with a group of musician he didn't regularly work with. Armstrong spent most of his time in those days playing dance music with other bands.

Wald's book is helpful is explaining how music went from cakewalks to ragtime to jazz to swing to rock, and how the medium changed from sheet music to recordings to radio. The writing is sometimes a bit dry, and I think Wald is less helpful once the rock era starts, but his book is a useful revision to what's become the conventional view about pop music of the past.