Reviews for The entertainment economy

The average rating for The entertainment economy based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-06-12 00:00:00 Michael Grossi This book is spectacular. It is so good, I married the author. Full disclosure, I was the wife - now the widow - of Steve Redhead. I read this book when I was 21 years old. It changed my entire life. I knew the type of writer - the type of scholar - the type of person that I wanted to be. I wanted to be Steve Redhead. The only problem was that I was young, a woman and had my nose pressed up against the window pane of the Hacienda. From Perth. Western Australia. Not Scotland. I didn't see much. If this was the new, edgy academia, then I wanted to be a part of it. Rankean history had nothing on this. I've read this book probably 100 times since 1990. I've read it 5 times in the last month, as I am about to write an introduction for Manchester University Press's re-issue of the book. What a privilege. What a joy. What sadness that this mind has left us. Every reading of this book reveals new shades and contours. The deep engagement with Adrian Sherwood bounces insights from pop 'at the edge.' The profound reimaging of punk. The desolate boredom with pseudo-authentic rock. If Popular Cultural Studies has an Old Testament, then this is it. Moses is played by Morrissey. Noah is so much more interesting as Bez. And Adam? It has to be Elvis Costello. We know he'd take that apple. With relish. And he'd blame Eve. Melancholy - obviously - punctuates my reading of this astounding book. But this melancholy not only emerges through the loss of Steve, but the loss of the scholarly commitment to be strident, be clever, be naughty and take risks. This book is powerful in its cool, bubbling style, but hot in its crushing argument. To see what we've lost from academic life - particularly radically interdisciplinary life - this book is a fine primary source. Do I recommend it? Yes. I cannot see how it is possible to write about popular culture, let alone popular music, without a drip-feed from this remarkable book. Of its time. And like the best of pop, it transcends its time because of its courage to be defiant.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-02-20 00:00:00 Antonio Cotten I liked this author's approach to the material.