Pop When the World Falls Apart

Hearing Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan once said, was "like busting out of jail." But what happens when popular music isn't as simple as rock-and-roll rebellion? How does pop respond to such events as a decade-long war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina? In Pop When the World Falls Apart, a diverse array of music writers, scholars, and enthusiasts reflect on popular music's role - as commentary, as refuge, and as rallying cry - in times of military conflict, social upheaval, and cultural crisis. Drawn from presentations at the annual Experience Music Project Pop Conference - hailed by Robert Christgau as "the best thing that's ever happened to serious consideration of pop music" - the essays in this book include inquiries into the sonic dimension of war in Iraq; the cultural life of jazz in post-Katrina New Orleans; Isaac Hayes's re-appropriation of a country song, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," as a symbol of black nationalism; and punk rock pranks played on record execs looking for the next big thing in central Virginia. Offering a diverse range of voices, perspectives, and approaches, this volume mirrors the eclecticism of pop itself.