Overview

This exploration of rock ’n’ roll music and culture in Birmingham, Alabama, is based on the oral histories of musicians, their fans and professionals in the popular music industry. Collected over a twenty-year period, their stories describe the coming of rock ’n’ roll in the 1950s, the rise of the garage bands in the 1960s, of southern rock in the 1970s, and of alternative music in the 1980s and 1990s. Told in the words of the musicians themselves, Magic City Nights provides an insider’s view of the dramatic changes in the business and status of popular music from the era of the vacuum tube to twenty-first-century digital technology. These collective memories offer a unique perspective on the impact of a subversive and racially integrated music culture in one of the most conservative and racially divided cities in the country.

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9780819576989

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Reviews

""With a wealth of recollections and insights from the musicians themselves, Magic City Nights is an engaging work that uncovers an important part of American musical history.""--Charles L. Hughes, author of Country Soul ""With a wealth of recollections and insights from the musicians themselves, Magic City Nights is an engaging work that uncovers an important part of American musical history.""--Charles L. Hughes, author of Country Soul ""Andre Millard has written a highly informative and entertaining book abou the rich musical legacy of Birmingham, from the sock hops to southern rock. One of the finest music history tomes of the year!""--Michael Buffalo Smith, author of Capricorn Rising: Conversations in Southern Rock

With a wealth of recollections and insights from the musicians themselves, Magic City Nights is an engaging work that uncovers an important part of American musical history. --Charles L. Hughes, author of Country Soul

Author Information

ANDRE MILLARD is a historian of popular culture and professor of history at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. He is the author of Edison and the Business of Innovation, America on Record: A History of Recorded Sound, The Electric Guitar: A History of an American Icon, and Beatlemania.

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