Major Labels

Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres by Kelefa Sanneh (2021) 496 pages

This has been on my reading list for a couple years, so I moved it to the top when I saw the Rhythm & Books book group was reading it. I did not finish it in time for the discussion, but I did enjoy it. I learned a lot. The Rock, R&B, and Country chapters were very informative and the most like a broad history. The author was a big fan of Punk and Hip-Hop, so those chapters switch to a more first-person point of view. Then the chapters on Dance music and Pop music are much shorter. Through the author's record store job as a teen, to his college radio DJ experience, to his work as a music critic for a couple different newspapers he shows how deeply he understands the business and art of popular music. The research and analysis is fascinating. My reading pace was a bit slow getting through it, but it could have been even slower if I stopped to make or find a playlist for all the songs mentioned.
 

More fun in the new world

More fun in the new world: the unmaking and legacy of L.A. punk / John Doe with Tom DeSavia and friends, 341 pgs.

Exploring the years 1982 - 1987 and the punk scene in L.A., this book has a host of essays and interviews with people who were on the scene.  I listened to the audio book which was fantastic.  Everyone talking about how they started out, how they got big (or did NOT get big) and how it ended.  Even if you were not a fan of the music, the movement went on to have great influence musically and just as an attitude.  The legacy is interesting but the voices of the people who lived it and their comments are worth a listen.

Every Anxious Wave

Every Anxious Wave by Mo Daviau, 276 pages

If you could go back in time and see one concert, which one would it be? The question is a great conversation starter, and, if you have a music-obsessed crowd, fuel for hours of hypothetical discussions and arguments. But when bartender and former punk guitarist Karl Bender stumbles across a wormhole in his closet (he literally stumbles into it, landing at a years-ago concert), the question moves out of hypothetical and into the possible, and Karl starts earning some extra cash by sending deep-pocketed music fans back in time. But things go awry when Karl's friend Wayne accidentally ends up in 980 instead of 1980, leading Karl to enlist Lena, a tattooed punk physicist, to rescue his friend.

This is a fun book, particularly if you're a music fan and enjoy time travel stories. Daviau raises a lot of questions about how our actions affect others and events in the future. And I certainly spent a lot of time pondering the which bands I would go back in time to see. A good debut novel from Daviau. I look forward to seeing what else she has to offer.

The Scar Boys

The Scar Boys by Len Vlahos, 256 pages
A 2015 Morris Award nominee

Harbinger Robert Francis Jones (Harry for short) hasn't had the best start in life. Recounting his life in an admission essay to get into college, Harry starts at age eight, when a group of neighborhood boys tied him to a tree as part of a game and then left him when a summer thunderstorm rolled in. While bullying is never good, Harry's situation is made worse when lightning strikes the tree he is tied to, causing a chunk of it to hit him on the head and then setting the tree (and him) on fire. Naturally, he comes out of this with an incredible fear of thunderstorms, anxiety around other kids, and a methadone addiction that he has to be weaned off from at the tender age of nine. You might think he would spend the rest of his childhood alone, as his facial scarring keeps a lot of kids away, but that changes when Johnny McKenna decides to be his friend. And things change even more when Johnny decides they should start a punk rock band. Calling themselves the Scar Boys, Harry focuses on the summer they get really good and decide to go on tour. Drawing from his own experience of being in a band, Len Vlahos spins an engaging tale about a boy finding his way through life, despite the cruddy start. Harry is relatable, and just self-deprecating enough to inspire sympathy and not annoyance. It's a great slice-of-life story, one that focuses on one moment in time than it does about a specific conflict (and the song title chapter names are a great touch). Great for fans of underdogs, punk rock, or anyone into an easy story about figuring out who you are and the road to getting there.

(Read as part of YALSA's Morris/Nonfiction Challenge.)