The 13 essays McParland has gathered look at how rock music icons influenced music and impacted culture. Rock enthusiasts might balk at Bob Marley and Madonna—who are included because they have what Thomas Kitts states in his foreword is “a rock and roll sensibility—but one cannot argue with their contributions to the genre. Also included Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Billy Joel, Roger Waters, Bruce Springsteen, Morrissey, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Ozzy Osbourne, Kurt Cobain, and Metallica. The introduction looks at the “king of rock” himself, Elvis Presley. The contributors to the volume include a high-school teacher; a music journalist; and university-level professors in the fields of English, communications, media and cultural studies, history, and music. All bring their own perspectives on the contributions of the artists they discuss. Scholars and fans of music, culture, and history will surely find this book both enlightening and entertaining. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates; general readers.

Choice Reviews

Rock Music Icons: Musical and Cultural Impacts provides a wide-ranging survey of major musical figures, such as Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, David Bowie, Madonna, and Kurt Cobain. Iconoclasm, nostalgia, authenticity, gender presentation, and humor in rock music are among the significant topics covered. Featuring over a dozen studies of iconic musicians, this book would make excellent reading for an upper-level undergraduate course on rock history or prove rewarding for rock music enthusiasts interested in a scholarly, and sometimes superfan, take on the figures they admire.

David C. Wright, Misericordia University

Rock Music Icons gets to the heart of the matter, bringing our pop idols and our cultural ideals into bold relief. Chock-full of new insights about the music and musicians that make our hearts sing, Rock Music Icons provides us with a powerful window into the high art and artists of the rock music era.

Kenneth Womack, author of John Lennon 1980: The Last Days in the Life

“From the sustained critique of authoritarianism inherent in Pink Floyd's The Wall to the use of nostalgia as a way to construct and critically engage the present in the songs of Billy Joel to the radical interrogations of gender that characterize the musical videos of Madonna and beyond, this collection of essays considers how certain artists become icons of popular culture and why their work is of such enduring and world-wide importance.”

Theodore L. Trost, University of Alabama