Literary criticism, songwriting analysis, and cultural commentary, Words and Music Into the Future 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.
Whether you agree or disagree with the challenging, even heretical ideas presented in Words and Music Into the Future, it will forever change how you think about and hear popular music.
Sample chapters:
No, Don, the Levee Wasn't Dry-And No One Was Drinking Whiskey and Rye
There Goes The Robert E. Lee?
To What End?
A Personal Remembrance
A Later Kick in the Pants
Don't Shoot, Dammit! I'm Just the Messenger!
Politics? Religion? How About SONGS?!?
Ground Rule Number One
I'm Your Fan! You're My Hero!
Herds of Wildebeests Stampeding Across the Veldt!
Why Peeing Your Pants Beats the Hell Out Of Nostalgia
Madonna, Kanye, Coldplay, Bieber, U2, One Direction-Effluvia, Ephemera, Etcetera, Etcetera
See You at the Grammys!-A Note on Industrial Smarm Festivals
Ethics? In Popular Music...?!?
Dunno Much 'Bout Art, But I Know What I Like
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?
Those Pesky, Over-Idealized Nineteen-Sixties
So Where Are We?
"Yeah, But You Really Hafta See 'Em Live!"
Over the Top? Ya Think?
Yes, We Too Are All So Very Sorry You Weren't Born on a Mississippi Cotton Plantation
Art School Confidential
Dance? Okay, Fine. Dance! Now Go Away.
It's All Greek-French, Swahili, Latin, Klingon-To Me.
Country Music is "Three Chords and the Truth" Computerized Drums, a Catering Truck, and a Smirk
Country's Brainier Half-Sibling: Americana
Tradition and Illusions of Same
The Disarmingly Enabling Inscience of Rap and Hip-Hop
Come to the Cabaret, Old Chum
Under a Stack of Marshall Amplifiers
Ethics? In SONGWRITING ITSELF...?!?
The Twentieth Century Ended Two Decades Ago
The Insolvency of 'Po-Mo'
Song Lyrics vs. Poems
"But It's Poetry!"-Refuge for the Inarticulate
Sincerity Ain't Depth
The Kids Are Alright!
La-Da-Da / Sha-La-Ti-Da
Is 'The Folk Process' an Expired Merchanism?
Lessons from Browne's "These Days" and Kristofferson's "Bobby McGee"
How About That! Some Country Music Is...
Get Me Rewrite!
Bob Dylan: Bad Writer, Bad Influence
Shallowness, Thy Name is Bob
Dying is Easy, Comedy is Hard
If Ya Wanna Send a Message...
McCartney's Song Writing Lesson
Steve Sondheim Desperately Wishes He Were Right
Didn't I Just Hear That Song in a Commercial for Paper Towels? Insurance? Gum?