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Contemporary Music and Spirituality
by Sander Van Maas Robert ShollThe flourishing of religious or spiritually-inspired music in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries remains largely unexplored. The engagement and tensions between modernism and tradition, and institutionalized religion and spirituality are inherent issues for many composers who have sought to invoke spirituality and Otherness through contemporary music. Contemporary Music and Spirituality provides a detailed exploration of the recent and current state of contemporary spiritual music in its religious, musical, cultural and conceptual-philosophical aspects. At the heart of the book are issues that consider the role of secularization, the claims of modernity concerning the status of art, and subjective responses such as faith and experience. The contributors provide a new critical lens through which it is possible to see the music and thought of Cage, Ligeti, Messiaen, Stockhausen as spiritual music. The book surrounds these composers with studies of and by other composers directly associated with the idea of spiritual music (Harvey, Gubaidulina, MacMillan, Pärt, Pott, and Tavener), and others (Adams, Birtwistle, Ton de Leeuw, Ferneyhough, Ustvolskaya, and Vivier) who have created original engagements with the idea of spirituality. Contemporary Music and Spirituality is essential reading for humanities scholars and students working in the areas of musicology, music theory, theology, religious studies, philosophy of culture, and the history of twentieth-century culture.
Contemporary Music: Theoretical and Philosophical Perspectives
by Irène DeliègeThis collection of essays and interviews addresses important theoretical, philosophical and creative issues in Western art music at the end of the twentieth- and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries. Edited by Max Paddison and Irène Deliège, the book offers a wide range of international perspectives from prominent musicologists, philosophers and composers, including Célestin Deliège, Pascal Decroupet, Richard Toop, Rudolf Frisius, Alastair Williams, Herman Sabbe, François Nicolas, Marc Jimenez, Anne Boissière, Max Paddison, Hugues Dufourt, Jonathan Harvey, and new interviews with Pierre Boulez, Brian Ferneyhough, Helmut Lachenmann, and Wolfgang Rihm. Part I is mainly theoretical in emphasis. Issues addressed include the historical rationalization of music and technology, new approaches to the theorization of atonal harmony in the wake of Spectralism, debates on the 'new complexity', the heterogeneity, pluralism and stylistic omnivorousness that characterizes music in our time, and the characterization of twentieth-century and contemporary music as a 'search for lost harmony'. The orientation of Part II is mainly philosophical, examining concepts of totality and inclusivity in new music, raising questions as to what might be expected from an autonomous contemporary musical logic, and considering the problem of the survival of the avant-garde in the context of postmodernist relativism. As well as analytic philosophy and cognitive psychology, critical theory features prominently, with theories of social mediation in music, new perspectives on the concept of musical material in Adorno's late aesthetic theory, and a call for 'an aesthetics of risk' in contemporary art as a means 'to reassert the essential role of criticism, of judgment, and of evaluation as necessary conditions to bring about a real public debate on the art of today'. Part III offers creative perspectives, with new essays and interviews from important contemporary composers who have mad
Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada
by Anna Hoefnagels Sherry Johnson Judith KlassenMusic and dance in Canada today are diverse and expansive, reflecting histories of travel, exchange, and interpretation and challenging conceptions of expressive culture that are bounded and static. Reflecting current trends in ethnomusicology, Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada examines cultural continuity, disjuncture, intersection, and interplay in music and dance across the country. Essays reconsider conceptual frameworks through which cultural forms are viewed, critique policies meant to encourage crosscultural sharing, and address ways in which traditional forms of expression have changed to reflect new contexts and audiences. From North Indian kathak dance, Chinese lion dance, early Toronto hip hop, and contemporary cantor practices within the Byzantine Ukrainian Church in Canada to folk music performances in twentieth-century Quebec, Gaelic milling songs in Cape Breton, and Mennonite songs in rural Manitoba, this collection offers detailed portraits of contemporary music practices and how they engage with diverse cultural expressions and identities. At a historical moment when identity politics, multiculturalism, diversity, immigration, and border crossings are debated around the world, Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada demonstrates the many ways that music and dance practices in Canada engage with these broader global processes. Contributors include Rebecca Draisey-Collishaw (Queen's University), Meghan Forsyth (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Monique Giroux (University of Lethbridge), Ian Hayes (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Anna Hoefnagels (Carleton University), Judith Klassen (Canadian Museum of History), Chris McDonald (Cape Breton University), Colin McGuire (University College Cork), Marcia Ostashewski (Cape Breton University), Laura Risk (McGill University), Neil Scobie (University Western Ontario), Gordon Smith (Queen's University), Heather Sparling (Cape Breton University), Jesse Stewart (Carleton University), Janice Esther Tulk (Cape Breton University), Margaret Walker (Queen's University), and Louise Wrazen (York University).
Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada
by Anna Hoefnagels Sherry Johnson Judith KlassenMusic and dance in Canada today are diverse and expansive, reflecting histories of travel, exchange, and interpretation and challenging conceptions of expressive culture that are bounded and static. Reflecting current trends in ethnomusicology, Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada examines cultural continuity, disjuncture, intersection, and interplay in music and dance across the country. Essays reconsider conceptual frameworks through which cultural forms are viewed, critique policies meant to encourage crosscultural sharing, and address ways in which traditional forms of expression have changed to reflect new contexts and audiences. From North Indian kathak dance, Chinese lion dance, early Toronto hip hop, and contemporary cantor practices within the Byzantine Ukrainian Church in Canada to folk music performances in twentieth-century Quebec, Gaelic milling songs in Cape Breton, and Mennonite songs in rural Manitoba, this collection offers detailed portraits of contemporary music practices and how they engage with diverse cultural expressions and identities. At a historical moment when identity politics, multiculturalism, diversity, immigration, and border crossings are debated around the world, Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada demonstrates the many ways that music and dance practices in Canada engage with these broader global processes. Contributors include Rebecca Draisey-Collishaw (Queen's University), Meghan Forsyth (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Monique Giroux (University of Lethbridge), Ian Hayes (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Anna Hoefnagels (Carleton University), Judith Klassen (Canadian Museum of History), Chris McDonald (Cape Breton University), Colin McGuire (University College Cork), Marcia Ostashewski (Cape Breton University), Laura Risk (McGill University), Neil Scobie (University Western Ontario), Gordon Smith (Queen's University), Heather Sparling (Cape Breton University), Jesse Stewart (Carleton University), Janice Esther Tulk (Cape Breton University), Margaret Walker (Queen's University), and Louise Wrazen (York University).
Contemporary Musical Virtuosities (Routledge Research in Music)
by Louise DevenishContemporary notions of musical virtuosity redevelop historic concepts and demonstrate that our present understanding of virtuosity in western art music has shifted from what seemed, for a time, to be a relatively clear and stable definition. In the field and the academy, lively debates around the definition and/or value of virtuosity have always elicited strong and varied ideas. In the twenty-first century, frictions have emerged between traditional definitions of virtuosity and contemporary practices that emphasise collaboration and blur roles between performers, composers, and improvisers. Contemporary Musical Virtuosities embraces the evolving processes, practitioners, and presentation models within twenty-first century art music. This edited collection explores recent insights into the experience and role of virtuosity in different contexts, via contributions from an intergenerational group of artists, academics, and artist-academics. Their writing highlights current themes in contemporary western art music and intersecting musical and performing arts genres such as dance, sound art, improvisation, jazz, trans-traditional collaborations, and Australian Indigenous music. It offers models for supporting and recognising a plurality of musical virtuosities typically excluded from traditional definitions and examines implications for musical practice today. Chapters take the form of academic essays, artist reflections, interviews, personal letters, and a manifesto, reflecting the range of approaches and contexts covered. The collection includes first writings on practices that have been present in the industry for some time not yet documented or examined in detail until now, and thus offers a vision for the future that prioritises inclusive and overlapping practices and processes in music.
Contemporary Orchestration: A Practical Guide to Instruments, Ensembles, and Musicians
by R.J. MillerContemporary Orchestration: A Practical Guide to Instruments, Ensembles, and Musicians teaches students how to orchestrate for a wide variety of instruments, ensembles, and genres, while preparing them for various real-world professional settings ranging from the concert hall to the recording studio. Unlike most orchestration texts, it includes coverage of contemporary instruments and ensembles alongside traditional orchestra and chamber ensembles. Features Practical considerations: Practical suggestions for choosing a work to orchestrate, and what to avoid when writing for each instrument. Pedagogical features In the Profession: Professional courtesies, considerations and expectations. Building the Score: Step-by-step construction of an orchestration. Scoring Examples: Multiple scoring examples for each instrument. Exercises: Analyzing, problem solving, and creating orchestration solutions. Critical Thinking: Alternate approaches and solutions.
Contemporary Research in Music Learning Across the Lifespan: Music Education and Human Development (Routledge Studies in Music Education)
by Jennifer BugosThis book examines contemporary issues in music teaching and learning throughout the lifespan, illuminating an emerging nexus of trends shaping modern research in music education. In the past, most music learning opportunities and research were focused upon the pre-adult population. Yet, music education occurs throughout the lifespan, from birth until death, emerging not only through traditional formal ensembles and courses, but increasingly through informal settings as well. This book challenges previous assumptions in music education and offers theoretical perspectives that can guide contemporary research and practice. Exploring music teaching and learning practices through the lens of human development, sections highlight recent research on topics that shape music learning trajectories. Themes uniting the book include human development, assessment strategies, technological applications, professional practices, and cultural understanding. The volume deconstructs and reformulates performance ensembles to foster mutually rewarding collaborations across miles and generations. It develops new measures and strategies for assessment practices for professionals as well as frameworks for guiding students to employ effective strategies for self-assessment. Supplemental critical thinking questions focus the reader on research applications and provide insight into future research topics. This volume joining established experts and emerging scholars at the forefront of this multifaceted frontier is essential reading for educators, researchers, and scholars, who will make the promises of the 21st century a reality in music education. It will be of interest to a range of fields including music therapy, lifelong learning, adult learning, human development, community music, psychology of music, and research design.
Contemporary Worship Music and Everyday Musical Lives (Congregational Music Studies Series)
by Mark PorterWhilst Contemporary Worship Music arose out of a desire to relate the music of the church to the music of everyday life, this function can quickly be called into question by the diversity of musical lives present in contemporary society. Mark Porter examines the relationship between individuals’ musical lives away from a Contemporary Worship Music environment and their diverse experiences of music within it, presenting important insights into the complex and sometimes contradictory relationships between congregants’ musical lives within and outside of religious worship. Through detailed ethnographic investigation Porter challenges common evangelical ideals of musical neutrality, suggesting the importance of considering musical tastes and preferences through an ethical lens. He employs cosmopolitanism as an interpretative framework for understanding the dynamics of diverse musical communities, positioning it as a stronger alternative to common assimilationist and multiculturalist models.
Contextualizing Melodrama in the Czech Lands: In Concert and on Stage (Ashgate Interdisciplinary Studies in Opera)
by Judith A. MabaryThe mention of the term "melodrama" is likely to evoke a response from laymen and musicians alike that betrays an acquaintance only with the popular form of the genre and its greatly heightened drama, exaggerated often to the point of the ridiculous. Few are aware that there exists a type of melodrama that contains in its smaller forms the beauty of the sung ballad and, in the larger-scale works, the appeal of the spoken play. This category of melodrama is one that surfaced in many cultures but was perhaps never so enthusiastically cultivated as in the Czech lands. The melodrama varied greatly at the hands of its Czech advocates. While the works of Zdeněk Fibich and his contemporary Josef Bohuslav Foerster, a composer best known for his songs, remained closely bound to the text, those of conductor/composer Otakar Ostrčil reveal a stance that privileged the music and, given their creator’s orchestral experience, are more reminiscent of the symphonic poem. Fibich in his staged works and Josef Suk (composer/violinist and Dvořák’s son-in-law), in his incidental music reflect variously late nineteenth-century Romanticism, the influence of Wagner, and early manifestations of Impressionism. In its more recent guise, the principles of the staged melodrama reside quite comfortably in the film score. Judith A. Mabary’s important volume will be of interest not only to musicologists, but those working in Central and East European studies, voice studies, European theatre, and those studying music and nationalism.
Contracts, Patronage and Mediation: The Articulation of Global and Local in the South African Recording Industry (Pop Music, Culture and Identity)
by Tuulikki PietiläThis book studies the long-term developments in the South African recording industry and adds to the existing literature an understanding of the prevalence of informal negotiations over rights, rewards and power in the recording industry. It argues that patronage features often infiltrate the contractual relationships in the industry.
Convent Music and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Vienna
by Janet K. PageJanet Page explores the interaction of music and piety, court and church, as seen through the relationship between the Habsburg court and Vienna's convents. For a period of some twenty-five years, encompassing the end of the reign of Emperor Leopold I and that of his elder son, Joseph I, the court's emphasis on piety and music meshed perfectly with the musical practices of Viennese convents. This mutually beneficial association disintegrated during the eighteenth century, and the changing relationship of court and convents reveals something of the complex connections among the Habsburg court, the Roman Catholic Church, and Viennese society. Identifying and discussing many musical works performed in convents, including oratorios, plays with music, feste teatrali, sepolcri, and other church music, Page reveals a golden age of convent music in Vienna and sheds light on the convents' surprising engagement with contemporary politics.
Conventional Wisdom: The Content of Musical Form (Ernest Bloch Lectures #12)
by Susan McClary<p>With her usual combination of erudition, innovation, and spirited prose, Susan McClary reexamines the concept of musical convention in this fast-moving and refreshingly accessible book. Exploring the ways that shared musical practices transmit social knowledge, Conventional Wisdom offers an account of our own cultural moment in terms of two dominant traditions: tonality and blues.McClary looks at musical history from new and unexpected angles and moves easily across a broad range of repertoires--the blues, eighteenth-century tonal music, late Beethoven, and rap. As one of the most influential trailblazers in contemporary musical understanding, McClary once again moves beyond the borders of the "purely musical" into the larger world of history and society, and beyond the idea of a socially stratified core canon toward a musical pluralism. <p>Those who know McClary only as a feminist writer will discover her many other sides, but not at the expense of gender issues, which are smoothly integrated into the general argument. In considering the need for a different way of telling the story of Western music, Conventional Wisdom bravely tackles big issues concerning classical, popular, and postmodern repertoires and their relations to the broader musical worlds that create and enjoy them.</p>
Conversaciones en la calle de los pianistas: Tiempo, Lechner, Binder, Weiss, Peña, Mogilevsky, Zaichkina, Maisky, Vallina, Petra, Kweik y Sakai
by Sandra De La FuenteComo parte de su trabajo habitual, una periodista argentina descubre que en una calle de Bruselas se concentran los mejores intérpretes argentinos de música clásica. Allí, en la rue Bosquet, viven Martha Argerich, Lyl Tiempo y sus hijos Karin y Sergio, pianistas y prodigios a nivel mundial. Hasta la calle de los pianistas viajó Sandra de la Fuente, crítica del diario Clarín, para realizar una serie de reportajes que primero conformaron un documental que cerró el Bafici en el Teatro Colón y ahora, en formato libro, proponen otra mirada sobre esta singular vecindad. «Hoy -dice Sandra de la Fuente-, con todas las entrevistas realizadas en diferentes viajes, se me ocurre volver al punto de partida: intentar describir ese ecosistema pianístico, con su semillero, sus pianistas por arte u oficio, coronados todos por Martha Argerich, esa intérprete que dio el piano a mediados del siglo XX y que todavía sorprende ya bien entrado el XXI».
Conversations
by Steve ReichA surprising, enlightening series of conversations that shed new light on the music and career of &“our greatest living composer&” (New York Times)Steve Reich is a living legend in the world of contemporary classical music. As a leader of the minimalist movement in the 1960s, his works have become central to the musical landscape worldwide, influencing generations of younger musicians, choreographers and visual artists. He has explored non-Western music and American vernacular music from jazz to rock, as well as groundbreaking music and video pieces. He toured the world with his own ensemble and his compositions are performed internationally by major orchestras and ensembles.Now Reich speaks with collaborators, fellow composers and musicians as well as visual artists influenced by his work to reflect on his prolific career as a composer as well as the music that inspired him and that has been inspired by him, including:David LangBrian EnoRichard SerraMichael GordonMichael Tilson ThomasRussell HartenbergerRobert HurwitzStephen SondheimJonny GreenwoodDavid HarringtonElizabeth Lim-DuttonDavid RobertsonMicaela HaslamAnne Teresa de KeersmaekerJulia WolfeNico MuhlyBeryl KorotColin CurrieBrad LubmanThrough this series of insightful, wide-ranging conversations starting from his student days to the present pandemic, we gain a compelling glimpse into the mind of &“the most original musical thinker of our time&” (The New Yorker).
Conversations in Jazz: The Ralph J. Gleason Interviews
by Ted Gioia Ralph J. Gleason Toby GleasonDuring his nearly forty years as a music journalist, Ralph J. Gleason recorded many in-depth interviews with some of the greatest jazz musicians of all time. These informal sessions, conducted mostly in Gleason's Berkeley, California, home, have never been transcribed and published in full until now. This remarkable volume, a must-read for any jazz fan, serious musician, or musicologist, reveals fascinating, little-known details about these gifted artists, their lives, their personas, and, of course, their music. Bill Evans discusses his battle with severe depression, while John Coltrane talks about McCoy Tyner's integral role in shaping the sound of the Coltrane quartet, praising the pianist enthusiastically. Included also are interviews with Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Quincy Jones, Jon Hendricks, and the immortal Duke Ellington, plus seven more of the most notable names in twentieth-century jazz.
Conversations with Greil Marcus (Literary Conversations Series)
by Joe BonomoGreil Marcus once said to an interviewer, “There is an infinite amount of meaning about anything, and I free associate.” For more than four decades, Marcus has explored the connections among figures, sounds, and events in culture, relating unrelated points of departure, mapping alternate histories and surprising correspondences. He is a unique and influential voice in American letters. Marcus was born in 1945 in San Francisco. In 1968 he published his first piece, a review of Magic Bus: The Who on Tour, in Rolling Stone, where he became the magazine’s first records editor. Renowned for his ongoing “Real Life Top Ten” column, Marcus has been a writer for a number of magazines and websites and is the author or editor of over fifteen books. His critique is egalitarian: no figure, object, or event is too high, low, celebrated, or obscure for an inquiry into the ways in which our lives can open outward, often unexpectedly. In Conversations with Greil Marcus, Marcus discuses in lively, wide-ranging interviews his books and columns as well as his critical methodology and broad approach to his material, signaled by a generosity of spirit leavened with aggressive critical standards.
Conversations with McCartney
by Paul Du NoyerIn June 1989, Paul Du Noyer was contacted by Paul McCartney's office in London and asked to interview the star as they had met once before and enjoyed a good raport. In the years that followed, Paul Du Noyer continued to meet, interview and work for Paul McCartney on a regular basis, producing magazine articles, tour programmes, album liner notes, press materials and website editorial. It's likely that Du Noyer has spent more hours in formal, recorded conversation with McCartney than any other writer. Conversations with McCartney is the culmination of Du Noyer's long association with McCartney and his music. It draws from their interview sessions across 35 years, coupling McCartney's own, candid thoughts with his observations and analysis.
Conversations with McCartney
by Paul Du NoyerIn June 1989, Paul Du Noyer was contacted by Paul McCartney's office in London and asked to interview the star as they had met once before and enjoyed a good raport. In the years that followed, Paul Du Noyer continued to meet, interview and work for Paul McCartney on a regular basis, producing magazine articles, tour programmes, album liner notes, press materials and website editorial. It's likely that Du Noyer has spent more hours in formal, recorded conversation with McCartney than any other writer. Conversations with McCartney is the culmination of Du Noyer's long association with McCartney and his music. It draws from their interview sessions across 35 years, coupling McCartney's own, candid thoughts with his observations and analysis.
Conversations with McCartney
by Paul Du NoyerIn June 1989, Paul Du Noyer was contacted by Paul McCartney's office in London and asked to interview the star as they had met once before and enjoyed a good raport. In the years that followed, Paul Du Noyer continued to meet, interview and work for Paul McCartney on a regular basis, producing magazine articles, tour programmes, album liner notes, press materials and website editorial. It's likely that Du Noyer has spent more hours in formal, recorded conversation with McCartney than any other writer. McCartney on McCartney is the culmination of Du Noyer's long association with McCartney and his music. It draws from their interview sessions across 35 years, coupling McCartney's own, candid thoughts with his observations and analysis.(P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton
Conversations with McCartney
by Paul Du NoyerThe intimate portrayal of one of the most famous men in music, more than half of which is in McCartney's own words. In June 1989, Paul Du Noyer was contacted by Paul McCartney's office in London. They asked him to interview the star; McCartney and Du Noyer had met once before and enjoyed a good rapport. In the years that followed, Paul Du Noyer continued to meet, interview and work for Paul McCartney on a regular basis, producing magazine articles, tour programs, album liner notes, press materials, and editorial content for McCartney's website. Du Noyer has spent more hours in formal, recorded conversation with McCartney than any other writer. Conversations with McCartney is the culmination of Du Noyer's long association with McCartney and his music. Drawing from their interview sessions across 35 years and coupling McCartney's own, candid thoughts with Du Noyer's observations and analysis, Conversations with McCartney is beautifully written--a sensitive, shrewd portrait of one of the most accomplished artists of our time.
Conversations with the Dead: The Grateful Dead Interview Book
by David GansA collection of interviews-some vintage, some recent, and some brand-new-Conversations with the Dead is the first (and only) book in which the Grateful Dead speak in their own words about their music and their lives. David Gans, a self-professed Deadhead and host of "The Grateful Dead Hour," asked Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, and the rest of the band the questions their fans would have asked if given the chance. And Gans reaches far beyond the musicians, talking with such often-overlooked key players as the recording engineer, sound man, and road crew-those who have had the coveted opportunity to witness the Dead's decades of music-making. This updated and expanded edition includes a rare, never-before-published interview with Seastones composer Ned Lagin and a new introduction by the author. With a readable combination of intensity, inquisitiveness, and candor, Gans has created an unprecedented portrait of a band who, after more than thirty years of music-making, has earned a unique place in American culture.
Conversing with Cage
by Richard KostelanetzFirst Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Cookin': Hard Bop and Soul Jazz 1954-65
by Kenny MathiesonThe music journalist and author of Giant Steps offers a history of modern jazz evolutions pioneered by Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon and other greats.Following his earlier volume, Giant Steps, which gives readers a comprehensive overview of Bebop and free jazz from the mid-40s to the mid-60s, Kenny Mathieson now explores the later years of the modern jazz era in greater depth. In Cookin', Mathiesonexamines the birth and development of two of the most enduring and influential jazz styles of the post-war era: hard bop and its related offshoot, soul jazz. Hard bop was the most exciting jazz style of its day and remains at the core of the modern jazz mainstream even now. It drew on the twin poles of bebop and the blues for its foundation, spiced up with gospel, Latin and R&B influences. Mathieson looks at the founding fathers of the form, Art Blakey and Horace Silver, and goes on to trace the music through its peak decade. This updated edition of Cookin’ includes a new chapter devoted to saxophonist and composer Jackie McLean.“Mathieson’s descriptions of what they brought to the bandstand and the recording studio are fondly graphic, in well-chosen phrases… It is extremely readable.”—Jazz Review
Cool Daddy Rat
by Kristyn CrowEvery night, Cool Daddy Rat takes his bass case and goes out to play jazz and scat around the city. But one night he hears something strange: Peeky squeaky who dat? It's his son, Ace, hiding in the bass case! After a reassuring call to Mama, the pair go all over the city together, filling the streets with his sweet beat. And when Ace can't contain himself any longer, Cool Daddy Rat finds out he's the best scatter in the family. Image descriptions present.
Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture (A Ferris and Ferris Book)
by Grace Elizabeth HaleIn the summer of 1978, the B-52's conquered the New York underground. A year later, the band's self-titled debut album burst onto the Billboard charts, capturing the imagination of fans and music critics worldwide. The fact that the group had formed in the sleepy southern college town of Athens, Georgia, only increased the fascination. Soon, more Athens bands followed the B-52's into the vanguard of the new American music that would come to be known as "alternative," including R.E.M., who catapulted over the course of the 1980s to the top of the musical mainstream. As acts like the B-52's, R.E.M., and Pylon drew the eyes of New York tastemakers southward, they discovered in Athens an unexpected mecca of music, experimental art, DIY spirit, and progressive politics--a creative underground as vibrant as any to be found in the country's major cities. In Athens in the eighties, if you were young and willing to live without much money, anything seemed possible. Cool Town reveals the passion, vitality, and enduring significance of a bohemian scene that became a model for others to follow. Grace Elizabeth Hale experienced the Athens scene as a student, small-business owner, and band member. Blending personal recollection with a historian's eye, she reconstructs the networks of bands, artists, and friends that drew on the things at hand to make a new art of the possible, transforming American culture along the way. In a story full of music and brimming with hope, Hale shows how an unlikely cast of characters in an unlikely place made a surprising and beautiful new world.