Geek Rock

Geek Rock: An Exploration of Music and Subculture examines the relationship between geek culture and popular music, tracing a history from the late 1960s to the present day. The term "geek rock" refers to forms of popular music that celebrate all things campy, kitschy, and quirky. In this collection of essays, contributors explore the evolution of this music genre, from writing songs about poodles, girls, monster movies, and outer space to just what it means to be "white and nerdy."
Editors Alex DiBlasi and Victoria Willis have gathered eleven essays from across the world, covering every facet of geek culture from its earliest influences, includingFrank ZappaCaptain BeefheartDevoThey Might Be GiantsWeird Al YankovicPresent-day advocates of "Nerdcore"Geek Rock offers a working history of this subgenre, which has finally begun to come under academic study. The essays take a variety of scholarly approaches, encompassing musicology, race, gender studies, sociology, and Lacanian psychoanalysis.
Geek Rock will be of interest to readers of all backgrounds: music scholars, college and university professors, sociologists, and die-hard fans.

Alex DiBlasi has done extensive research on The Kinks, The Who, The Monkees, Frank Zappa, and the influences of Eastern religion in popular music. His other fields of research include experimental film, Czech New Wave cinema, and east European History.
Victoria Willis, Ph.D., is a research analyst in the Office of Institutional Research at Georgia State University. Her research interests revolve around the intersections of rhetoric, music, and popular culture.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: "Q: Are We Not Geeks? A: We Are Geek Rock!"
Chapter 1 "Frank Zappa: Godfather of Geek Rock"
Alex DiBlasi, independent scholar
Chapter 2 "Taste, Kitsch, and Geek Rock: A Multiple Modernities View"
Martina Topic, University of Zagreb
Chapter 3 "Futurists and New Traditionalists: The Antagonistic Critique of Devo and Italian Futurism"
Ian Steinberg, Wilfrid Laurier University
Chapter 4 "Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Geek Rock: Haustor and Darko Rundek"
Julijana Zhabeva-Papazova, DMBUC Ilija Nikolovski-Luj
Chapter 5 "They Might Be Lacanian: They Might Be Giants, Jacques Lacan, and the Rhetoric of Geek Rock"
Victoria Willis, Georgia State University
Chapter 6 "'A Very Subtle Joke': T.S. Eliot, J. D. Salinger, and the Puer Aeternus in God Shuffled His Feet"
Paul Alexander Cantrell, independent scholar
Chapter 7 "'Fuck Me, I'm Twee': Performing Gender and Age in Twee Pop
Caroline Gates-Shannon, independent scholar
Chapter 8 "Man [Seeking] Asto-man?: Nouveau Surf Rock and the Futuristic-Past Nostalgic"
Shannon Finck, Georgia State University
Chapter 9 "The Geek's Guide to Love: Knowledge and Failure in the Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs"
Nadav Appel, Bar-Ilan University
Chapter 10 "'My God, What an Infantile Gesture': The Mountain Goats as Emblematic of Geek Rock's Relationship with the Authentic"
Taylor Peters, independent scholar
Chapter 11 "'Now It's Time for a Little Braggadocio': Nerdcore Rap, Race, and the Politics of
Appropriation"
Christopher Russell, Northwestern University
Appendix 1: Contributor Biographies
Appendix 2: Suggested Listening