Persistence of Sentiment: Display and Feeling in Popular Music of the 1970s

by Mitchell Morris

How can we account for the persistent appeal of glossy commercial pop music? Why do certain performers have such emotional power, even though their music is considered vulgar or second rate? In The Persistence of Sentiment, Mitchell Morris gives a critical account of a group of American popular music performers who have dedicated fan bases and considerable commercial success despite the critical disdain they have endured. Morris examines the specific musical features of some exemplary pop songs and draws attention to the social contexts that contributed to their popularity as well as their dismissal. These artists were all members of more or less disadvantaged social categories: members of racial or sexual minorities, victims of class and gender prejudices, advocates of populations excluded from the mainstream. The complicated commercial world of pop music in the 1970s allowed the greater promulgation of musical styles and idioms that spoke to and for exactly those stigmatized audiences. In more recent years, beginning with the “Seventies Revival” of the early 1990s, additional perspectives and layers of interpretation have allowed not only a deeper understanding of these songs' function than when they were first popular, but also an appreciation of how their significance has shifted for American listeners in the succeeding three decades.

Genres: Music

264 pages, Paperback

First published March 26, 2013

Reviews

[Fi]

didnt get to the chapter on Karen Carpenter before having to return it (started with Cher and made my way around like some kind of monster) and unfortunately my local library doesn't seem to have a copy but i do love to take pop music too seriously so the book was a fun read, even if i didn't agree with everything said. I do think Morris should have been harsher on Cher for her racism in the "dark ladies" trilogy, and I'm not sure he's forgiven for making me read the phrase "phallic shaved head" but, with a pinch of salt here and there, i'd say its worth the read

[Joe Matson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but somewhat unfocused, the real strength of the book is that it functions both as a book and as a collection of separate essays. My full review will be published in Notes in 2014.

[musa b-n · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think if I had been reading this book not for class, I would have enjoyed it more thoroughly. Some parts I thought were really clever and fun to read (particularly the Introduction), but overall I didn't feel like there was an over-arching thesis that coherently brought the chapters together or made sense of the entire phenomenon. It was well written, though, and kept me engaged.