Description: Considers why popular music autobiography has recently become such a widely read genre and a meaningful lens through which popular music may be mediated for its audiences.
Brief description: Dr Tom Attah has published many chapters and journal articles on Popular Music and Popular Culture, and has produced public-facing mainstream broadcast work on blues music for the BBC. He is a creative musician, he has toured internationally and has composed original works for public projects. Recent published chapters include work on Prince (Bloomsbury, 2020), Robert Johnson (2022), Little Richard (Bloomsbury, 2022), and has co-edited a text on popular music narratives (2019).
Review Quotes:
"From Victoria Spivey to John Lennon, from Rob Halford to Camila Cabello and Taylor Swift: much like the diverse artists it examines, this compelling volume on pop music autobiography challenges expectations at every turn. Against the backdrop of digital and social media, it explores self-narration in both traditional forms-books and lyrics-and in emerging, unconventional spaces, such as audio books, social media, and museum exhibits. The result is a vital, timely, and inclusive contribution that compels us to rethink self-representation by musicians and fans alike." --Jeffrey Roessner, Dean of Humanities, Mercyhurst University, USA
"This collection offers a fascinating exploration of how popular musicians shape and challenge their narratives across media, music and pop culture. Featuring musicians like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Stanley and Amy Winehouse, as well as female fandom and self-narrative themes, Rereading Musicians and Their Audiences examines how these stories engage with identity, history and the music industry. It is a must-have resource for scholars interested in the relationship between music, memory and mythmaking." --Shara Rambarran, author of Virtual Music: Sound, Music, and Image in the Digital Era (Bloomsbury, 2021), UK "Offering a refreshing view on diverse roles of the popular music (auto)biography, this collection responds to changes in understanding performing life stories. It is a fascinating read that offers insights into a range of formats and storytelling, from innovative narrative techniques to museum exhibitions and social media, importantly giving voice to marginalized social realities and identities from perspectives that not only include musicians, but also producers and fans." --Hillegonda C. Rietveld, Emeritus Professor of Creative Technologies, London South Bank University, UK "Since Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, the genre of the musical autobiography has vastly expanded, with everyone from Elton John to Questlove penning their life story in recent years. Rereading Musicians and Their Audiences: Popular Music Autobiographies is just the collection that scholars and fans need for understanding the formal and thematic possibilities of this rapidly expanding genre. This smartly edited book not only covers a delightfully diverse range of musicians-the Beatles, Kendrick Lamar, Kim Gordon, and Lady Gaga all receive attention here-but also explores how recent memoirs by musicians have challenged the possibilities of life writing. Taken together, the essays in this collection expand our notion of how we construct cultural history while also bringing much needed attention to a number of under-recognized artists. A vital and exciting collection that will be of value to scholars and music fans." --Matthew Shipe, Senior Lecturer in English, Washington University in St. Louis, USA