Book Review
Dec. 27th, 2012 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariI Shot a Man in Reno: A History of Death by Murder, Suicide, Fire, Flood, Drugs, Disease and General Misadventure, as Related in Popular Song
by Graeme Thomson
This short book is not long on musical analysis, nor is it a rigorous scholarly treatise* on death in popular music. It is instead an entertaining and illuminating meditation on murder, suicide, disease, and death in popular music, mostly of the 20th century, but reaching a little bit beyond in either direction. Thomson ably covers a multitude of genres, from traditional ballads to gangsta rap and emo with insight and admiration. A lot of the songs he discusses are personal favorites of mine, especially the work of Tom Waits and the traditional ballad "O Death". I especially liked the way he connects contemporary genres and trends, particularly gangsta rap, to long standing traditions of death in song. Thomson constructs an endlessly fascinating journey through the way popular music has approached death. His prose style is really engaging, too.
*Not that Thomson didn't do a lot of great research - a lot of the material comes from interviews he personally conducted with a vast array of songwriters and pop artists.
by Graeme Thomson
This short book is not long on musical analysis, nor is it a rigorous scholarly treatise* on death in popular music. It is instead an entertaining and illuminating meditation on murder, suicide, disease, and death in popular music, mostly of the 20th century, but reaching a little bit beyond in either direction. Thomson ably covers a multitude of genres, from traditional ballads to gangsta rap and emo with insight and admiration. A lot of the songs he discusses are personal favorites of mine, especially the work of Tom Waits and the traditional ballad "O Death". I especially liked the way he connects contemporary genres and trends, particularly gangsta rap, to long standing traditions of death in song. Thomson constructs an endlessly fascinating journey through the way popular music has approached death. His prose style is really engaging, too.
*Not that Thomson didn't do a lot of great research - a lot of the material comes from interviews he personally conducted with a vast array of songwriters and pop artists.
