{"product_id":"gang-of-fours-entertainment-paperback","title":"Gang of Four's Entertainment! - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eKevin J. H. Dettmar\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFollowing hard on the explosion of British punk, in 1979 Gang of Four produced post-punk's smartest record, \u003ci\u003eEntertainment \u003c\/i\u003e For the first time, a band wedded punk's angry energy to funk's propulsive beats--and used that music to put across lyrics that brought a heady mixture of Marxist theory and situationism to exposing the cultural politics of everyday life. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e But for an American college student from the suburbs--and, one expects, for many, many others, including British youth--Jon King's and Andy Gill's mumbled lyrics were often all but unintelligible. Political rock 'n' roll is always something of an oxymoron: rock audiences by and large don't tune in to be lectured to. But what can it mean that a band that made pop songs as political theory actively resisted making that theory legible? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Coming to terms with the impact of \u003ci\u003eEntertainment \u003c\/i\u003e requires us to take the mondegreen--the misunderstood lyric--seriously. The old joke has it that the title of R.E.M.'s debut album should have been not \u003ci\u003eMurmur\u003c\/i\u003e, but \u003ci\u003eMumble\u003c\/i\u003e: true, so far as it goes. But that's the title, too, of rock 'n' roll's Greatest Hits compilation--and that strategic inarticulateness itself, which creates such an important role for the listener, has an important politics.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eKevin J. H. Dettmar \u003c\/b\u003eis W. M. Keck Professor of English at Pomona College. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eIs Rock Dead?\u003c\/i\u003e, editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan\u003c\/i\u003e, and co-editor of \u003ci\u003eReading Rock \u0026amp; Roll: Authenticity, Appropriation, Aesthetics\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 160\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.6 x 6.5 x 4.7 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e March 27, 2014\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51770564673824,"sku":"9781623560652","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/4d6320f6617dbb79d161dea495a8af17.webp?v=1780374055","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/gang-of-fours-entertainment-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}