Rereading Musicians and Their Audiences: Popular Music Autobiographies: Tom Attah: Bloomsbury Academic

Rereading Musicians and Their Audiences

Popular Music Autobiographies

Rereading Musicians and Their Audiences

Popular Music Autobiographies

Description

Using a radical and inclusive definition of the genre, this collection explores musicians' autobiographies as articulated in print, on stage, and through various expressive media as a dynamic factor in contemporary culture.

Popular musicians' autobiographies are one of the most important ways that stars create, negotiate and perpetuate the realities and myths of their lived experiences for fans. Autobiographical creations such as Bruce Springsteen's book Born to Run, Kendrick Lamar's lyrics, ABBA's virtual Voyage show, and the reimaginings of Lennon and McCartney's childhood homes have been both critically acclaimed and lucrative, whilst delivering for many fans an apparent insider's understanding of musicians whose work they are invested in. Yet such narratives have many other functions beyond thrilling their consumers with a sense of intimacy. The pop music autobiographies discussed here variously attempt to rewrite social history; to redress gender or racial stereotypes; to question received models of fame; to validate new genres and scenes; to explore complex subjectivities; to justify or atone for transgressive behaviour; and to critique the music industry.

Acknowledgements
Introduction: New Selves, New Stories, New Scenes
Tom Attah (Leeds Arts University, UK), Kirsty Fairclough (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) and Christian Lloyd (Queen's University, Canada)

Section I: Navigating Personal and Cultural Histories
1. Remixing Popular Music History: Two Producer Perspectives from 2022
Mike Alleyne (Middle Tennessee State University, USA)
2. 'Frost and Fire': Autobiographical Reticence in The Work of Tracey Thorn and Others
Peter Clandfield (MacEwan University, Canada)
3. Rita Lee and the Phantom: Visible Editing and Experimental Technique in Women's Autobiography
Ana Leorne (Independent, Paris)
4. Re-evaluating the Past: Reclaiming Oppositional Popular Music Scenes Through Female Musicians' Autobiographical Writing
Sini Timonen (Confetti London, UK)
5. Handcuffed to Andy Warhol, Meeting Madonna at LiveAid, Hell Bent for Leather at Fire Island: Considering Queerness in Rob Halford's “Confess” and “Biblical” Autobiographies
Mike Wyeld (London College of Communication, UK)

Section II: Experimental, Multi-Modal, and Digital Narratives
6. 'We're brown and nobody knows where the Philippines is': Cultural Identity in Fanny's Virtual Autobiography
Carljohnson Anacin (Griffith University, Australia)
7. High Blues Fidelity: The Fragmentary Autobiography of 'Queen' Victoria Spivey (1906-1976)
Lawrence Davies (University of Huddersfield, UK)
8. A Life Spent Chasing the Band: Female Fans' Autobiographies
Mark Duffett (University of Chester, UK)
9. Graphically Speaking: CUD, Graphic Memoir, Indie Authenticity, and Autofiction
Robert Edgar (York St John University, UK)
10. 'You'll need a good companion for this part of the ride': Navigating Bruce Springsteen's sonic persona in the Born to Run audiobook
Richard Elliott (Newcastle University, UK)
11. 'You are the only one who gets to decide what you will be remembered for': Fan Mediations of Autobiographical Lyrics in the Context of Taylor Swift's Digital Presence
Hannah Judson (SUNY Stony Brook, USA) and Nas Ferns (SUNY Stony Brook, USA)

Section III: Cultural Memory And Legacy: Musicians And Their Posthumous Or Rematerialised Lives
12. Popular Musicians' Homes as Rematerialised Autobiography: Jones, Jagger, Richards, Phelge, Lennon, McCartney
Christian Lloyd (Queen's University, Canada)
13. Gloria, Jennifer, and Camila: The Autobiographical Writing of Latinx pop Divas on Social Media from a Historiographic and Intersectional Perspective
Igor Lemos Moreira (Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil)
14. Autobiography, Genealogy, and Anthology: The Beatles and Autobiography – 'The Beat Goes On'
Kenneth Longden (University of Salford, UK)
15. Retro-Futuristic 'ABBAtars': Interpreting New Performer-Audience Relationships
Abigail May Parker (University of Nottingham, UK)
16. 'You Know I'm No Good': Cultural Memory, Archive, Ephemera, and (Re)writing the Legacy of Amy Winehouse
Leanne Weston (Independent, UK)

Section IIII: Performance, Identity, and Self-Representation in Music
17. 'A tidal wave of dopesickness': Addiction, Music and Pathography in Mark Lanegan's Sing Backwards and Weep
Fraser Mann (York St. John University, UK)
18. 'It's not an imitation, it's a becoming': Lady Gaga's Wildean Self-Representations
Victoria Roskams (University of Oxford, UK)
19. Turbulent Flow: Autobiography through Family in the Lyrics of Kendrick Lamar
Sameer Thomas (Ashoka University, India)
20. Bob Stanley: I'll be Your Mirror
Jason Wood (British Film Institute, UK)

List of Contributors
Index

Product details

Published	Jul 10 2025
Format	Hardback
Edition	1st
Extent	304
ISBN	9798765108413
Imprint	Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions	9 x 6 inches
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

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