Scan barcode
A review by kleonard
Rise Up! Broadway and American Society from Angels in America to Hamilton by Chris Jones
1.0
I hope that the ARC I just read gets a very, very heavy copyedit before it goes to press. What it really needs is a developmental edit, top to bottom.
Ostensibly a work about "Broadway and American Society from Angels in America to Hamilton," Rise Up! is a collection of anecdotes and trivia with a poor narrative structure. The author has tried to put together a chronological presentation of musicals and politics, but is too often interested in asides and jumps forwards and backwards in time: the result is a book in need of a strong outline and re-writing.
The tone is casual, aimed at a general readership, and apparently the author is a professional critic. The author's bona fides come into question, however, with a number of examples in which he appears not to actually know much about music, the study of music and ethnography, or other extant studies about the arts, society, and politics. Even for a broad audience, the book's sources display a superficiality that is also obvious in the text. Jones provides a lot of facts, but little linking them together, and even less interpretation or insight. In regard to the musical literacy issue, here's a sample: "Their [Green Day's] music may have been dominated by thrashing downward guitar strokes but is also far more melodic than their inherently atonal British ancestors [referring to the Sex Pistols] [...] Green Day did not run a-feared of major keys. They made more ample use of arpeggios--and keyboards in general--than either their predecessors or their peers." Does Jones know what atonality is? Does he know what an arpeggio is? Does he think it's an instrument? Or that an arpeggio can only be played on a keyboard?
Other issues:
--The frequent use of "a person called X" as in: "an intern named Monica Lewinsky;" a [....] taxi-driver named Rodney G. King;" A man named George Holliday;" "an [...] actress named Anna Deavere Smith;" "a solo artist named Lily Tomlin," and countless more.
--Grammar errors. Here's my favorite: "...a fantastical adventure by an unknown writer called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." The WRITER is called Harry Potter?
--Numerous typos. "Taylor" for "Taymor;" and others.
--Too much passive voice. "In 2017, an 18-year-old man named Michael Brown (there's that"named" thing again) was short 12 times by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri...." No. "A police officer shot 18-year old Michael Brown...."
--Poor organization even on the paragraph/section level. Jones writes about American Idiot for four pages before mentioning the album/show's creators (..."an American punk band called Green Day...")
I'd hoped this would be a smart book appropriate for music history and music and politics courses, but alas, it is most definitely not. In fact, I'd be loath to recommend it even to the most die-hard fan of American musicals: they can find all of the info in this book elsewhere (and easily) and make their own observations and analyses.
Ostensibly a work about "Broadway and American Society from Angels in America to Hamilton," Rise Up! is a collection of anecdotes and trivia with a poor narrative structure. The author has tried to put together a chronological presentation of musicals and politics, but is too often interested in asides and jumps forwards and backwards in time: the result is a book in need of a strong outline and re-writing.
The tone is casual, aimed at a general readership, and apparently the author is a professional critic. The author's bona fides come into question, however, with a number of examples in which he appears not to actually know much about music, the study of music and ethnography, or other extant studies about the arts, society, and politics. Even for a broad audience, the book's sources display a superficiality that is also obvious in the text. Jones provides a lot of facts, but little linking them together, and even less interpretation or insight. In regard to the musical literacy issue, here's a sample: "Their [Green Day's] music may have been dominated by thrashing downward guitar strokes but is also far more melodic than their inherently atonal British ancestors [referring to the Sex Pistols] [...] Green Day did not run a-feared of major keys. They made more ample use of arpeggios--and keyboards in general--than either their predecessors or their peers." Does Jones know what atonality is? Does he know what an arpeggio is? Does he think it's an instrument? Or that an arpeggio can only be played on a keyboard?
Other issues:
--The frequent use of "a person called X" as in: "an intern named Monica Lewinsky;" a [....] taxi-driver named Rodney G. King;" A man named George Holliday;" "an [...] actress named Anna Deavere Smith;" "a solo artist named Lily Tomlin," and countless more.
--Grammar errors. Here's my favorite: "...a fantastical adventure by an unknown writer called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." The WRITER is called Harry Potter?
--Numerous typos. "Taylor" for "Taymor;" and others.
--Too much passive voice. "In 2017, an 18-year-old man named Michael Brown (there's that"named" thing again) was short 12 times by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri...." No. "A police officer shot 18-year old Michael Brown...."
--Poor organization even on the paragraph/section level. Jones writes about American Idiot for four pages before mentioning the album/show's creators (..."an American punk band called Green Day...")
I'd hoped this would be a smart book appropriate for music history and music and politics courses, but alas, it is most definitely not. In fact, I'd be loath to recommend it even to the most die-hard fan of American musicals: they can find all of the info in this book elsewhere (and easily) and make their own observations and analyses.