Product Description

In the last fifty years, the quest for authenticity, for the 'real', has become a dominant factor in musical taste - whether it be the folklorist's search for forgotten bluesmen, the rock critic's elevation of raw power over sophistication, or the importance of bullet wounds to the careers of hip-hop artists such as 50 Cent. "Faking It" explodes the myth of what it means to be 'real' and 'fake' in pop music. From 30s blues singer Leadbelly to Moby's use of his singing over half a century later, the appropriation of black music by a predominantly white musical fanbase, Pop Idol, the fact that no one in Cuba listens to Buena Vista Social Club to Kurt Cobain's suicide note and the fear it expressed of 'faking it'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #167735 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Hugh Barker edits music books for several UK publishers, and lives in London. Yuval Taylor has published and edited books about music for fifteen years. He lives in Chicago.

Customer Reviews

A superbly written exploration of what it means to 'Keep it real' in popular music.
For any music lover that has argued that their favourite rock artists are realer than say Britney Spears or Take That this book is a must read. Barker and Taylor do a thorough job examining the issues at the heart of the argument. Are artists like Kurt Cobain more 'authentic' than say someone like Moby? And what constitutes 'Authentic'? and is it really attainable? Rather than being just an arbitrary notion. An eclectic range of artists are examined from Elvis to the Sex Pistols to The Beuna Vista Social club. The most interesting chapter is Neil Young's tortuous obsession with 'Keeping it real' and the lengths that he drives himself too in pursuit of that intangible. This is a crisply written and absorbing study of an idea that may well be impossible to achieve - but that won't stop me arguing that Nirvana are more authentic than Britney, whatever that means.Last Train to Memphis: Rise of Elvis PresleyThe Record Men: Chess Records and the Birth of Rock and RollNevermindTonight's the NightPlay