Words and Music – Rock and Roll Writing, Book Project
Words and Music – Rock and Roll Writing
A Book Project
Deadline for proposals: 30 September 2021
Frank Zappa (if indeed it was he— words of music have a notorious life of their own) once said that writing about music is ‘like dancing about architecture.’ This infamous quip sounds clever, but how true is it, how valid? Whatever else it does, music also makes us say— or write— things.
This book project aims to embrace all forms of writing which are inspired by rock and roll, and seeks especially to attract discussions of decentred and untypical forms of writing where rock and roll is the focus. While seeking to be inclusive, the editors will especially welcome proposals on the following topics:
- the rock novel as genre, whether written by novelists or rockers
- obituaries of rock musicians
- gender and rock writing
- rock writing as ‘an action medium that best came to life when the writer was right in the thick of that action.’ (Nick Kent 2010: 149-150)
- ethnicity in/and rock writing
- autobiographies and memoirs by musicians, roadies, publicists
- musicological writing about rock
- rock writing in the margins/in the run-out grooves
- oral stories of rock
- digital writing/social media and rock
- films, for instance Blinded by the Light which uses rock as a peg to hang the story on; spoofs (Spinal Tap, Rutles), rockumentaries (Oasis’s Supernova), fictions (Yesterday): how the image ‘writes’ the music
Scholars, researchers and writers wishing to offer a contribution should provide a title and a brief synopsis (250 words) of their proposed essay, along with a biobiblio (100 words).
Please send submissions by 30 September 2021 to the editors:
Adrian Grafe: adrian.grafe@univ-artois.fr
Andrew McKeown: andrew.mckeown@univ-poitiers.fr