Nothing Has Been Done Before: Seeking the New in 21st-Century American Popular Music [Hardcover]

Is there such a thing today as music that's meaningfully new? In our contemporary era of remixing and retro styles, cynics and romantics alike cry It's all been done before while record labels and media outlets proclaim thateverythingis new. Coded into our daily conversations about popular music, newness as an artistic and cultural value is too often taken for granted.

Nothing Has Been Done Beforeinstigates a fresh debate about newness in American pop, rock 'n' roll, rap, folk, and R&B made since the turn of the millennium. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach that combines music criticism, philosophy, and the literary essay, Robert Loss follows the stories of a diverse cast of musicians who seek the new by wrestling with the past, navigating the market, and speaking politically. The transgressions of Bob Dylan's Love and Theft . The pop spectacle of Katy Perry's 2015 Super Bowl halftime show. Protest songs against the war in Iraq.Nothing Has Been Done Beforeargues that performance heard in a historical context always creates a possibility for newness, whether it's Kendrick Lamar's multi-layeredTo Pimp a Butterfly, the Afrofuturist visions of Janelle Mon?e, or even a Guided By Voices tribute concert in a local dive bar.

Provocative and engaging,Nothing Has Been Done Beforechallenges nothing less than how we hear and think about popular music-its power and its potential.

A counterpoint of sorts to Simon Reynolds' acclaimed book Retromania,Nothing Has Been Done Beforeis a sweeping study of popular music and its innovation, novelty, and originalitynot the retro, but the new.Robert Lossis an assistant professor in Writing, Literature, and Philosophy at Columbus College of Art and Design, USA. Robert Loss's writing is characterized by unstoppable historical curiosity, true storytelling, and the unusual combination of intellectual ambition and modesty--all qualities that play out with incisilÃz