Pulp's This Is Hardcore

Pulp's This Is Hardcore PDF Author: Jane Savidge
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 133

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Book Description
This Is Hardcore is Pulp's cry for help. A giant, sprawling, flawed masterpiece of a record, the 1998 album manages to tackle some of the most inappropriate grown-up issues of the day – fame, ageing, mortality, drugs, and pornography – and still come out crying and laughing on the other side. The subject of pornography dominates the record – from its controversial artwork to the images conjured up by songs like "Seductive Barry" and the title track – after Pulp's main man, Jarvis Cocker – who'd spent most of his teenage and adult life chasing celebrity, only to be cruelly disappointed when it finally arrived in spades – hit upon the grand notion of using pornography as a metaphor for fame. The album's commercial failure as a follow-up to the band's Britpop-defining, Different Class, also symbolizes a death knell for Britpop itself. Dark, right? Except just like Pulp themselves, Jane Savidge's book is playful and sometimes very funny indeed. Kicking off with an imaginary conversation between Jarvis Cocker and the people who run the Total Fame Solutions helpline, Savidge expertly guides us through the trials and tribulations of an album that begins with the so-called Michael Jackson Incident, when Cocker got up on stage at the 1996 Brit Awards and waggled his fully-clothed bum at the King of Pop. Pulp's This Is Hardcore may be a sleazy run through porn and mental demise, and an album that chronicles Cocker's continuing disillusionment with his newfound lot in life, but Savidge's book assesses the cultural and historical context of the album with insider knowledge and a sharp modern lens, ultimately making a case for it as one of the most important albums of the 1990s.

Pulp's This Is Hardcore

Pulp's This Is Hardcore PDF Author: Jane Savidge
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 133

Get Book Here

Book Description
This Is Hardcore is Pulp's cry for help. A giant, sprawling, flawed masterpiece of a record, the 1998 album manages to tackle some of the most inappropriate grown-up issues of the day – fame, ageing, mortality, drugs, and pornography – and still come out crying and laughing on the other side. The subject of pornography dominates the record – from its controversial artwork to the images conjured up by songs like "Seductive Barry" and the title track – after Pulp's main man, Jarvis Cocker – who'd spent most of his teenage and adult life chasing celebrity, only to be cruelly disappointed when it finally arrived in spades – hit upon the grand notion of using pornography as a metaphor for fame. The album's commercial failure as a follow-up to the band's Britpop-defining, Different Class, also symbolizes a death knell for Britpop itself. Dark, right? Except just like Pulp themselves, Jane Savidge's book is playful and sometimes very funny indeed. Kicking off with an imaginary conversation between Jarvis Cocker and the people who run the Total Fame Solutions helpline, Savidge expertly guides us through the trials and tribulations of an album that begins with the so-called Michael Jackson Incident, when Cocker got up on stage at the 1996 Brit Awards and waggled his fully-clothed bum at the King of Pop. Pulp's This Is Hardcore may be a sleazy run through porn and mental demise, and an album that chronicles Cocker's continuing disillusionment with his newfound lot in life, but Savidge's book assesses the cultural and historical context of the album with insider knowledge and a sharp modern lens, ultimately making a case for it as one of the most important albums of the 1990s.

Pulp's This Is Hardcore

Pulp's This Is Hardcore PDF Author: Scarlett Thomas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN: 9780826429490
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
From the AllMusic Guide: This is the sound of someone losing the plot/you're gonna like it, but not a lot. So says Jarvis Cocker on The Fear, the opening track on This Is Hardcore, the ambitious follow-up to Pulp's breakthrough Different Class, thereby providing his own review for the album. Cocker doesn't quite lose the plot on This Is Hardcore, but the ominous, claustrophobic The Fear makes it clear that this is a different band, one that no longer has anthems like Common People in mind. The shift in direction shouldn't come as a surprise Pulp was always an arty band but even the catchiest numbers are shrouded in darkness. This Is Hardcore is haunted by disappointments and fear by the realization that what you dreamed of may not be what you really wanted. Nowhere is this better heard than on This Is Hardcore, where drum loops, lounge piano, cinematic strings, and a sharp lyric create a frightening monument to weary decadence. It's the centerpiece of the album, and the best moments follow its tone. Some, like The Fear, Seductive Barry, and Help the Aged, wear their fear on their sleeves, some cloak it in Bowie-esque dance grooves (Party Hard) or in hushed, resigned tones (Dishes). A few others, such as the scathing I'm a Man or A Little Soul, have a similar vibe without being explicitly dark. Instead of delivering an entirely bleak album, Pulp raise the curtain somewhat on the last three songs, but the attempts at redemption Sylvia, Glory Days, The Day After the Revolution don't feel as natural as everything that precedes them. It's enough to keep the album from being a masterpiece, but it's hardly enough to prevent it from being an artistic triumph.

Mother, Brother, Lover

Mother, Brother, Lover PDF Author: Jarvis Cocker
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571281923
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
Jarvis Cocker is widely regarded as one of the most original and memorable lyricists and performers of the last three decades. Here, for the first time, is a selection of sixty-six lyrics, presented with commentary and an introduction by the man himself. In this volume, readers (and Pulp fans) will find such classic Jarvis lyrics as 'Common People', 'Disco 2000', 'Babies', 'This is Hardcore' and 'Do You Remember the First Time?' The selection, assembled by the author, reveals a sensibility that is unmistakeably Jarvis: a sometimes visceral, sometimes everyday take on love, relationships and the things we do to each other when the lights get low. Mother, Brother, Lover takes the reader on a thirty-year tour into the life, art and preoccupations of one of the great British artists of the late twentieth century. Shocking, sharp, clever and funny, it is a beautiful collection of lyrics and commentary.

Truth And Beauty: The Story Of Pulp

Truth And Beauty: The Story Of Pulp PDF Author: Mark Sturdy
Publisher: Omnibus Press
ISBN: 0857121030
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
Mark Sturdy traces the unlikely saga of Jarvis Cocker and his ever-changing band in meticulous detail, from schoolboy promise to semi-retirement. If Cocker's career was launched by a precocious session on John Peel's show, his stated ambition was always to be on Top Of The Pops... and despite his edgy lyrics and dour manner, he has often seemed more at home as media jester than serious pop performer. Illustrated and including a comprehensive discography.

Freak Out the Squares

Freak Out the Squares PDF Author: Russell Senior
Publisher: Aurum
ISBN: 1781314713
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
Russell Senior is a man too smart to have ever been a pop star. And Pulp were too odd a band ever to have become so big. But we can only be grateful that he was, and they did – and that Freak Out the Squares tells the story in Russell’s inimitable, entertaining and fascinating way. The first account of life inside Pulp, Freak Out the Squares recounts the band’s origins in Sheffield to their glory days at the height of Britpop, revealing the story behind the anthem of a generation, “Common People”. The book gives a glimpse into the world of Britpop luminaries such as Blur, Elastica and Suede and charts Pulp’s 2011 reunion tour, which culminated in a triumphant Glastonbury performance. Freak Out the Squares is Russell’s exceptionally witty, unusual and enlightening account of the heady time of being a key member of Britpop’s best-loved and most enduringly relevant band.

Good Pop, Bad Pop

Good Pop, Bad Pop PDF Author: Jarvis Cocker
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781787330566
Category : Personal belongings
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
When Jarvis Cocker starts clearing out his loft, he finds a jumble of objects that catalogue his story. And this accumulated debris of a lifetime reveals his creative process, writing and musicianship, performance and ambition, style and stagecraft

Pop Music and Easy Listening

Pop Music and Easy Listening PDF Author: Stan Hawkins
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135155378X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 554

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Book Description
What defines pop music? Why do we consider some styles as easier listening than others? Arranged in three parts: Aesthetics and Authenticity - Groove, Sampling and Industry - Subjectivity, Ethnicity and Politics, this collection of essays by a group of international scholars deals with these questions in diverse ways. This volume prepares the reader for the debates around pop's intricate historical, aesthetic and cultural roots. The intellectual perspectives on offer present the interdisciplinary aspects of studying music and, spanning more than twenty-five years, these essays form a snapshot of some of the authorial voices that have shaped the specific subject matter of pop criticism within the broader field of popular music studies. A common thread running through these essays is the topic of interpretation and its relation to conceptions of musicality, subjectivity and aesthetics. The principle aim of this collection is to demonstrate that pop music needs to be evaluated on its own terms within the cultural contexts that make it meaningful.

Your Band Sucks

Your Band Sucks PDF Author: Jon Fine
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 067002659X
Category : Alternative rock music
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
"Jon Fine spent nearly thirty years performing and recording with bands that played various forms of aggressive and challenging underground rock music, and, as he writes in this memoir, at no point were any of those bands 'ever threatened, even distantly, by actual fame.' Yet when members of his first band, Bitch Magnet, reunited after twenty-one years to tour ... diehard longtime fans traveled from far and wide to attend those shows, despite creeping middle-age obligations of parenthood and 9-to-5 jobs, testament to the remarkable staying power of the indie culture that the bands predating the likes of Bitch Magnet--among them Black Flag, Mission of Burma, and Sonic Youth --willed into existence through sheer determination and a shared disdain for the mediocrity of contemporary popular music"--Amazon.com.

SPIN

SPIN PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
From the concert stage to the dressing room, from the recording studio to the digital realm, SPIN surveys the modern musical landscape and the culture around it with authoritative reporting, provocative interviews, and a discerning critical ear. With dynamic photography, bold graphic design, and informed irreverence, the pages of SPIN pulsate with the energy of today's most innovative sounds. Whether covering what's new or what's next, SPIN is your monthly VIP pass to all that rocks.

Listening to the Unconscious

Listening to the Unconscious PDF Author: Kenneth Smith
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1501368486
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
What happens in our unconscious minds when we listen to, produce or perform popular music? The Unconscious – a much misunderstood concept from philosophy and psychology – works through human subjects as we produce music and can be traced through the music we engage with. Through a new collaboration between music theorist and philosopher, Smith and Overy present the long history of the unconscious and its related concepts, working systematically through philosophers such as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, psychoanalysts such as Freud and Lacan, to theorists such as Deleuze and Kristeva. The theories offered are vital to follow the psychological complexity of popular music, demonstrated through close readings of individual songs, albums, artists, genres, and popular music practices. Among countless artists, Listening to the Unconscious draws from Prince to Sufjan Stevens, from Robyn to Xiu Xiu, from Joanna Newsom to Arcade Fire, from PJ Harvey to LCD Sound System, each of whom offer exciting inroads into the fascinating worlds of our unconscious musical minds. And in return, theories of the unconscious can perhaps takes us deeper into the heart of popular music.