Popism in Stereo: A Musical Guide to the Warhol Seventies

FAIN: FEL-272717-21

Judith A. Peraino
Cornell University (Ithaca, NY 14850-2820)

Research and writing leading to a book about Andy Warhol and popular music from the 1960s to the 1980s, based on archival research and interviews.

"Popism in Stereo: A Musical Guide to the Warhol Seventies" is the first dedicated study of Andy Warhol’s engagement with popular music beyond the 1960s, based substantially on archival research and new interviews. Chapters focus on musicians within rock (Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Lou Reed), punk (Blondie, Talking Heads), disco (Grace Jones), and hip hop (Fab Five Freddie) whose careers bore the imprint of Warhol’s influence, and who, in turn, left traces in Warhol’s art and archive. In addition to unearthing biographical details about Warhol and the musicians who enter his orbit, this book offers a cultural history of the 1970s, which Tom Wolfe called “The Me Decade.” Through the microcosm of celebrity stories, I investigate the macrocosm of representations of gender, sexuality, race, and class in art and music, and as mediated by technological developments in portable cameras and tape recorders that engendered a culture of self-documentation and curation, which persists to this day.