Words and Music Into the Future

<p>Literary criticism songwriting analysis and cultural commentary <em>Words and Music Into the Future</em> is an uncompromising examination of the current state of popular songs and songwriting in the English-speaking world. Devoid of hero worship and celebrity gossip using mostly well-known songs from recent decades as examples Michael Koppy presents a compelling case that we listeners have been force-fed a steady diet of industrial illiteracy and that the timer has come for songwriting and song criticism to riser to greater heights.</p><p>Whether you agree or disagree with the challenging even heretical ideas presented in <em>Words and Music Into the Future</em> it will forever change how you think about and hear popular music.</p><p>Sample chapters:</p><p>1. No Don the Levee Wasn’t Dry—And No One Was Drinking Whiskey and Rye</p><p>2. There Goes The Robert E. Lee?</p><p>3. To What End?</p><p>4. A Personal Remembrance</p><p>5. A Later Kick in the Pants</p><p>6. Don’t Shoot Dammit! I’m Just the Messenger!</p><p>7. Politics? Religion? How About SONGS?!?</p><p>8. Ground Rule Number One</p><p>9. I’m Your Fan! You’re My Hero!</p><p>10. Herds of Wildebeests Stampeding Across the Veldt!</p><p>11. Why Peeing Your Pants Beats the Hell Out Of Nostalgia</p><p>12. Madonna Kanye Coldplay Bieber U2 One Direction—Effluvia Ephemera Etcetera Etcetera</p><p>13. See You at the Grammys!—A Note on Industrial Smarm Festivals</p><p>14. Ethics? In Popular Music...?!?</p><p>15. Dunno Much ’Bout Art But I Know What I Like</p><p>16. Ever Notice the Worst Writing in an Insightful Pop Music Review—Even a Rave—Usually Shows Up When the Critic Quotes the Band’s Lyrics?</p><p>17. Those Pesky Over-Idealized Nineteen-Sixties</p><p>18. So Where Are We?</p><p>19. “Yeah But You Really Hafta See ’Em Live!”</p><p>20. Over the Top? Ya Think?</p><p>21. Yes We Too Are All So Very Sorry You Weren’t Born on a Mississippi Cotton Plantation</p><p>22. Art School Confidential</p><p>23. Dance? Okay Fine. Dance! Now Go Away.</p><p>24. It’s All Greek—French Swahili Latin Klingon—To Me.</p><p>25. Country Music is <s>“Three Chords and the Truth”</s> Computerized Drums a Catering Truck and a Smirk</p><p>26. Country’s Brainier Half-Sibling: Americana</p><p>27. Tradition and Illusions of Same</p><p>28. The Disarmingly Enabling Inscience of Rap and Hip-Hop</p><p>29. Come to the Cabaret Old Chum</p><p>30. Under a Stack of Marshall Amplifiers</p><p>31. Ethics? In SONGWRITING ITSELF…?!?</p><p>32. The Twentieth Century Ended Two Decades Ago</p><p>33. The Insolvency of 'Po-Mo'</p><p>34. Song Lyrics vs. Poems</p><p>35. “But It’s Poetry!”—Refuge for the Inarticulate</p><p>36. Sincerity Ain’t Depth</p><p>37. The Kids Are Alright!</p><p>38. La-Da-Da / Sha-La-Ti-Da</p><p>39. Is 'The Folk Process' an Expired Merchanism?</p><p>40. Lessons from Browne's "These Days" and Kristofferson's "Bobby McGee"</p><p>41. How About That! Some Country Music Is...</p><p>42. Get Me Rewrite!</p><p>43. Bob Dylan: Bad Writer Bad Influence</p><p>44. Shallowness Thy Name is Bob</p><p>45. Dying is Easy Comedy is Hard</p><p>46. If Ya Wanna Send a Message…</p><p>47. McCartney's Song Writing Lesson</p><p>48. Steve Sondheim Desperately Wishes He Were Right</p><p>49. Didn’t I Just Hear That Song in a Commercial for Paper Towels? Insurance? Gum?</p><p>50. Should We Use A Number 37-A?</p><p>51. On Brightly Wrapped Packages</p><p>52. On Gilded Frames</p><p>53. Making Sausages</p><p>54. Making Music</p><p>55. Sure ‘Authenticity’ is Great—But It Doesn’t Guarantee Good Work</p><p>56. Form Follows Function</p><p>57. Words Seek Music. Object: Matrimony.</p><p>58. Rules Were Made to be Broken. However—</p><p>59. Swan Song</p>