Dissonant Identities: The RocknRoll Scene in Austin, Texas [Paperback]

Music of the bars and clubs of Austin, Texas has long been recognized as defining one of a dozen or more musical scenes across the country. In Dissonant Identities, Barry Shank, himself a musician who played and lived in the Texas capital, studies the history of its popular music, its cultural and economic context, and also the broader ramifications of that music as a signifying practice capable of transforming identities.

While his focus is primarily on progressive country and rock, Shank also writes about traditional country, blues, rock, disco, ethnic, and folk musics. Using empirical detail and an expansive theoretical framework, he shows how Austin became the site for a productive contestation between two forces: the fierce desire to remake oneself through musical practice, and the equally powerful struggle to affirm the value of that practice in the complexly structured late-capitalist marketplace. A fascinating analysis of the music scene in Austin, Texas.The Imaginary Tourist: An Introduction to Austin’s Rock’n’Roll Scene
Constructing the Musicalized Performance of Texan Identity
Desperados Waiting for a Train: The Development of Progressive Country Music
The Collapse of the Progressive Country Alliance
Punk Rock at Raul’s: The Performance of Contradiction
The Performance of Signifying Practice
The Inscription of Identity in the Music Business
The Commodification of Identity
The Coming Importance of Musicalized Experience