Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Introduction: Steely Dan at 50

2021; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 9; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/19401159.2022.2008165

1940-1167

Michael Borshuk,

Theater, Performance, and Music History

This essay provides an overview of the many themes that Steely Dan at 50 observes by revisiting the group’s history and distinct musical concept as crafted by Steely Dan’s architects, songwriters Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. Considering Steely Dan’s music and its wide-ranging effects, I historicize their relationship to other genres and their legendary fixation on recording perfection, while I also draw connections to other aspects of the 1970s American culture in which they attained fame. Finally, I contemplate Steely Dan’s relationship to audience across identities, thinking intersectionally to interrogate the slipperiness of their ongoing engagement with race and gender.