Rock, Counterculture and the Avant-Garde, 1966-1970: How the Beatles, Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground Defined an Era - Paperback

by Doyle Greene (Author)

The convergence of rock music, counterculture politics and avant-garde aesthetics in the late 1960s underscored the careers of the Beatles, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, and the Velvet Underground.

This book examines these artists' relationships to the historical avant-garde (Artaud, Brecht, Dada) and neo-avant-garde (Warhol, Pop Art, minimalism), considering their work in light of debates about modernism versus postmodernism.

The author analyzes the performers' use of dissonance and noise within popular music, the role of social commentary and controversial topics in songs, and the experiments with concert and studio performance.

Albums discussed include Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The White Album, Freak Out!, We're Only in It for the Money, The Velvet Underground and Nico and White Light/White Heat, as well as John Lennon's collaborations with Yoko Ono, the Zappa-produced Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, and Nico's The Marble Index.

Author Biography

Independent scholar Doyle Greene is the author of several books and serves on the editorial board of Film Criticism. He lives in Tucson Arizona.