11-05-2014, 01:22 AM
![[Image: k2-_ae2ec3b6-70c2-4ca7-b78d-f09e1afeb130.v1.jpg]](http://i5.walmartimages.com/dfw/dce07b8c-31c0/k2-_ae2ec3b6-70c2-4ca7-b78d-f09e1afeb130.v1.jpg)
"All stars are celebrities, but not all celebrities are stars," states
David Shumway in the introduction to Rock Star, an informal history of
rock stardom. This deceptively simple statement belies the complex
definition and meaning of stardom and more specifically of rock icons.
Shumway looks at the careers and cultural legacies of seven rock stars
in the context of popular music and culture-Elvis Presley, James Brown,
Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell, and
Bruce Springsteen. Granted, there are many more names that fall into the
rock icon category and that might rightfully appear on this list.
Partly, that is the point: "rock star" is a familiar and desired
category but also a contested one.
Shumway investigates the rock star as a particular kind of cultural
construction, different from mere celebrity. After the golden age of
moviemaking, media exposure allowed rock stars more political sway than
Hollywood's studio stars, and rock stars gradually replaced movie stars
as key cultural heroes. Because of changes in American society and the
media industries, rock stars have become much more explicitly political
figures than were the stars of Hollywood's studio era. Rock stars,
moreover, are icons of change, though not always progressive, whose
public personas read like texts produced collaboratively by the
performers themselves, their managers, and record companies. These stars
thrive in a variety of media, including recorded music, concert
performance, dress, staging, cover art, films, television, video, print,
and others.
Filled with memorable photographs, Rock Star will appeal to anyone
interested in modern American popular culture or music history.
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