Hearing Luxe Pop glorification, glamour, and the middlebrow in American popular music Howland, John 1964- creator author. text bibliography Criticism, interpretation, etc. History. cau 2021 monographic eng print x, 381 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. "Hearing Luxe Pop explores a deluxe-production aesthetic that has long thrived in American popular music. John Howland presents an alternative music history that centers on shifts in timbre and sound through innovative uses of media, orchestration, and arranging. He travels from symphonic jazz to the Great American Songbook; teenage symphonies of the Motown label and 1960s girl groups to the emerging "countrypolitan" sound of Nashville; the sunshine pop and baroque pop of the Beach Boys to the blending of soul and funk into 1970s disco; the hip-hop-with-orchestra events of Jay-Z and Kanye West to indie rock bands with the Brooklyn Philharmonic. The luxe aesthetic merges popular-music idioms with lush string orchestrations, big-band instrumentation, and symphonic instruments. This book attunes readers to hearing the discourses that gathered around the music and its associated images, and in turn examines pop's relations to aspirational consumer culture, spectacle, theatricality, glamour, sophistication, cosmopolitanism, and "classy" lifestyles"-- Introduction : from Paul Whiteman, to Barry White, man -- Hearing Luxe Pop : Jay Z, Isaac Hayes, and the six degrees of symphonic soul -- The (symphonic) Jazz age, musical vaudeville, and "glorified" entertainments -- Jazz with strings : between Jazz and the great American songbook -- Defining populuxe : capitol records and the swinging early Hi-Fi era -- Phil Spector, early 1960s "teenage symphonies," and the fabulous lower middlebrow -- Mining AM (white) gold : the 1960s MOR-pop foundations of 1970s soft rock -- Isaac Hayes and Hot Buttered (Orchestral) Soul, from psychedelic to progressive -- From sophistisoul to disco : Barry White and the fall of Luxe Pop John Howland. Includes bibliographical references and index. n-us--- Popular music United States History and criticism Popular music Production and direction United States History 20th century Popular music United States 20th century Philosophy and aesthetics Instrumentation and orchestration United States History 20th century Arrangement (Music) United States History 20th century Musique populaire États-Unis Histoire et critique Musique populaire États-Unis 20e siècle Philosophie et esthétique Instrumentation et orchestration États-Unis Histoire 20e siècle Arrangement (Musique) États-Unis Histoire 20e siècle MUSIC / History & Criticism Arrangement (Music) Instrumentation and orchestration Popular music Popular music Philosophy and aesthetics United States 1900-1999 fast ML3477 .H68 2021 781.6409730904 Hearing Luxe Pop Howland, John, 1964- Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2021] (DLC) 2020044268 California studies in music, sound, and media ; 2 9780520300101 0520300106 9780520300118 0520300114 9780520971646 2020044267 CU-S/DLC 200928 20220725194335.7 in00004585715 eng