In 1963, America was feeling good. Coming out of the post-war boom years, it was still riding a tide of optimism.
But then a young musician named Bob Dylan stepped up to a microphone in a Greenwich Village nightclub and sang A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall. That moment, according to music historian Ted Gioia, was a clue, a little hint as to what lay ahead for the county in the turbulent decade that would follow. And that's the role that music, especially popular music, has long played, he claims. In his book Music: A Subversive History, Gioia explores the political and cultural power of dance music, pop music and those songs that we can't stop humming. And embedded in his findings, too, are the stories of musical outsiders and the hold that music has over us. (Rebroadcast)
Ted Gioia's book is Music: A Subversive History. [IndieBound|Amazon|Bookshop|Audible].
