Summary of Kelefa Sanneh's Major Labels

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Rock stars were extremely popular in the 1960s, and teenage girls like Pamela were obsessed with them. She was especially fond of the Beatles’ Paul McCartney, and she began daydreaming about him sexually.

#2 The rules of this world had been codified by the 1980s, and MTV was thriving. Rock stars outlived the Los Angeles scene that Des Barres chronicled, and they outlived the eighties as well.

#3 The rock-star era began around the time that Des Barres’s diary became more explicit, in the late 1960s. She began throwing her favorite musicians over for others, who were definitely rock stars.

#4 In the 1970s, many musicians and listeners seemed to share Landau’s and Bangs’s sense that rock ’n’ roll was decomposing or disintegrating. And many of them responded by doubling down and insisting that rock ’n’ roll was not just a musical category but an identity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822530614

IRB Media

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Insights on Kelefa Sanneh's Major Labels

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Rock stars were extremely popular in the 1960s, and teenage girls like Pamela were obsessed with them. She was especially fond of the Beatles’ Paul McCartney, and she began daydreaming about him sexually.

#2

The rules of this world had been codified by the 1980s, and MTV was thriving. Rock stars outlived the Los Angeles scene that Des Barres chronicled, and they outlived the eighties as well.

#3

The rock-star era began around the time that Des Barres’s diary became more explicit, in the late 1960s. She began throwing her favorite musicians over for others, who were definitely rock stars.

#4

In the 1970s, many musicians and listeners seemed to share Landau’s and Bangs’s sense that rock ’n’ roll was decomposing or disintegrating. And many of them responded by doubling down and insisting that rock ’n’ roll was not just a musical category but an identity.

#5

The defining attribute of rock ’n’ roll in the seventies was self-consciousness, and in this sense, the seventies never ended. Self-conscious rock ’n’ roll has been surprisingly versatile and durable. Rock ’n’ roll has endured as a musical tradition that successive generations have engaged with.

#6

The band Grand Funk Railroad tried to follow in the footsteps of the Beatles, and in some ways, they succeeded. They sold out Shea Stadium in Queens, New York, in 1972, and became one of the most popular bands in America. But their music was deemed awful by critics.

#7

The rise of Grand Funk Railroad was a sign that in the seventies, rock critics and rock fans were beginning to diverge. The band’s fuzzy, bluesy rock songs sounded exactly the way you might expect them to, and it is not hard to understand why a young listener would have settled on Grand Funk and been satisfied for a time.

#8

In the sixties, writers sometimes used the term acid rock to refer to bands that summoned up a countercultural spirit, often through trippy lyrics and squally electric guitars. The term was regularly affixed to Hendrix, whose playing and persona suggested psychedelic exploration.

#9

The term heavy metal was coined in 1968 by the Canadian band Steppenwolf, in their song Born to Be Wild. It described the sound of bands like Black Sabbath, and became widely used to describe the genre.

#10

The members of Black Sabbath didn’t realize how revolutionary they were, as they were just trying to warn against black magic. But their music seemed to primarily evoke evil and cruelty, rather than condemn it.

#11

Led Zeppelin was a leading light in the 1970s, drawing some of the biggest crowds even while remaining rather uncategorizable. The band’s epic songs and albums were remarkably delicate, lightened by influences from folk music and country blues.

#12

Rock ’n’ roll is a genre that belongs to whoever has the biggest army, and in the seventies, that belonged to teenagers who liked bands like Aerosmith and Kiss.

#13

When MTV was launched in the summer of 1981, it was clear that the network was focused on playing music videos. However, some rock fans were offended by this exclusive posture, and some RB fans were worried about what the network might do to their genre.

#14

MTV helped a generation of flamboyant British pop stars conquer America. However, the network was also obsessed with rock music, which had already become more theatrical during the seventies.

#15

In the early eighties, heavy metal was ruled by bands like AC/DC, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest, who made music that was brisk and exuberant. This was party music, slightly camouflaged. MTV helped a generation of mainstream American kids discover how much fun this music could be.

#16

The band Mötley Crüe, who were inspired by glam rock bands from the 1970s, helped establish the new template. Their look was tough and androgynous, and their attitude hinted at the insanity of their lives.

#17

The 1980s was the era of hair metal, which was a genre of music that was extremely popular among MTV viewers. It was a form of music that seemed to say, You’re not different at all. In fact, you’re extremely popular and totally cool.

#18

The hair-metal movement peaked in 1987, when Guns N’ Roses released Appetite for Destruction, a blockbuster that even hair metal’s detractors could appreciate. The next year, the director Penelope Spheeris released The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, a mesmerizing documentary that captured the glee and desperation of the Los Angeles hair-metal scene.

#19

Rock snobbery is essential to fandom, and Klosterman loves