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Making the Scene in the Garden State: Popular Music in New Jersey from Edison to Springsteen and Beyond

2021; Oxford University Press; Volume: 108; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/jahist/jaab182

1945-2314

Stephen R. Duncan,

Race, History, and American Society

It is a common critique among scholars of New York that studies of the “City” frequently focus on Manhattan at the expense of the other boroughs—not to mention the wider metropolitan area. Dewar MacLeod's Making the Scene in the Garden State helps remedy this blind spot by examining the history of music scenes in New Jersey. In six compact chapters, MacLeod reminds us that the stories of several single-name-level famous figures—Edison, Caruso, Springsteen—are rooted in New York's oft-neglected neighboring state. The result is a solid contribution to the literature on local histories, music, and culture that asks readers to take seriously the stuff of everyday life in sites of leisure and entertainment. After framing his work within the theories of the Birmingham School, MacLeod argues that disparate “scenes” developed in a variety of New Jersey locales: Thomas Edison's early recording studio, as well as Rudy Van Gelder's celebrated jazz studio;...