Awards

• Winner of Certificate of Merit in category Best Historical Research in Record Labels or General Recording Topics, Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence.
• Winner of Winner, Nicholas Bessaraboff Prize, American Musical Instrument Society Certificate of Merit in category Best Historical Research in Record Labels or General Recording Topics, Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence.

Overview

The drum kit has provided the pulse of popular music from before the dawn of jazz up to the present day pop charts. Kick It, a provocative social history of the instrument, looks closely at key innovators in the development of the drum kit: inventors and manufacturers like the Ludwig and Zildjian dynasties, jazz icons like Gene Krupa and Max Roach, rock stars from Ringo Starr to Keith Moon, and popular artists who haven't always got their dues as drummers, such as Karen Carpenter and J Dilla. Tackling the history of race relations, global migration, and the changing tension between high and low culture, author Matt Brennan makes the case for the drum kit's role as one of the most transformative musical inventions of the modern era. Kick It shows how the drum kit and drummers helped change modern music--and society as a whole--from the bottom up.

Full Product Details

9780190683870

Table of Contents

Reviews

Unpitched musical instruments have long been segregated from their pitched cousins. Brennan's exhaustively researched social history explains why this is so and goes a long way to the reinstatement of parity. Compulsory reading for the inquisitive drummer. * Bill Bruford * With a winning mix of erudition and enthusiasm Brennan argues convincingly that drummers are the dynamic core of music history. And in offering an exemplary case study of the drum kit, Brennan shows that musical instrument research should be the dynamic core of music scholarship. Kick It is an enthralling read. * Simon Frith, Emeritus Professor of Music, University of Edinburgh *

Unpitched musical instruments have long been segregated from their pitched cousins. Brennan's exhaustively researched social history explains why this is so and goes a long way to the reinstatement of parity. Compulsory reading for the inquisitive drummer. * Bill Bruford * With a winning mix of erudition and enthusiasm Brennan argues convincingly that drummers are the dynamic core of music history. And in offering an exemplary case study of the drum kit, Brennan shows that musical instrument research should be the dynamic core of music scholarship. Kick It is an enthralling read. * Simon Frith, Emeritus Professor of Music, University of Edinburgh * A remarkable book. Every drummer with a sense of self will enjoy the cultural context this book provides, and every drummer with a collection of books should add this invaluable reference tool. * Rob Cook, author of The Ludwig Book and The Slingerland Book and founder of the Chicago Drum Show * A delight ... Brennan illuminates the undeniable: to talk about the history of contemporary music is to talk about the history of the drum kit. * The Wire * Kick It is an amazing piece of drumming literature that helps us all understand the origins of our amazing instrument! * Bart van der Zee, host of Drum History Podcast *

Author Information

"Matt Brennan is Reader in Popular Music at the University of Glasgow. He has served as Chair of the UK and Ireland branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) and published several books in the field of popular music studies. His previous monograph, When Genres Collide, was named as one of Pitchfork's ""Favourite Music Books of 2017."""

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