Rereading Musicians and Their Audiences

Using a radical and inclusive definition of the genre, this collection explores musicians' autobiographies as articulated in print, on stage, and through various expressive media as a dynamic factor in contemporary culture. Popular musicians' autobiographies are one of the most important ways that stars create, negotiate and perpetuate the realities and myths of their lived experiences for fans. Autobiographical creations such as Bruce Springsteen's book Born to Run, Kendrick Lamar's lyrics, ABBA's virtual Voyage show, and the reimaginings of Lennon and McCartney's childhood homes have been both critically acclaimed and lucrative, whilst delivering for many fans an apparent insider's understanding of musicians whose work they are invested in. Yet such narratives have many other functions beyond thrilling their consumers with a sense of intimacy. The pop music autobiographies discussed here variously attempt to rewrite social history; to redress gender or racial stereotypes; to question received models of fame; to validate new genres and scenes; to explore complex subjectivities; to justify or atone for transgressive behaviour; and to critique the music industry.

Tom Attah has published many chapters and journal articles on popular music and popular culture, and has produced public-facing mainstream broadcast work on blues music for the BBC. He is a creative musician, he has toured internationally and has composed original works for public projects. Recent published chapters include work on Prince (Bloomsbury, 2020), Robert Johnson (2022), Little Richard (Bloomsbury, 2022), and has co-edited a text on popular music narratives (2019). Kirsty Fairclough is Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange and Reader in Screen Studies at the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She is the co-editor of The Music Documentary: Acid Rock to Electropop (2013), The Arena Concert: Music, Media and Mass Entertainment (Bloomsbury, 2016), Music/Video: Forms, Aesthetics, Media (Bloomsbury, 2017), The Legacy of Mad Men: Cultural History, Intermediality and American Television (2020), Prince and Popular Culture (Bloomsbury, 2020), and author of the forthcoming Beyoncé: Celebrity Feminism and Popular Culture (Bloomsbury). She is the curator of Sound and Vision: Pop Stars on Film and In Her View: Women Documentary Filmmakers film seasons at HOME, Manchester and Chair of Manchester Jazz Festival. Christian Lloyd has taught and published on a wide range of subjects in popular and literary cultures. He was involved in researching the reconstruction of Jimi Hendrix's London flat and wrote the accompanying book: Hendrix at Home: a Bluesman in Mayfair (2016).

Acknowledgements Introduction: New Selves, New Stories, New Scenes Tom Attah (Leeds Arts University, UK), Kirsty Fairclough (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) and Christian Lloyd (Queen's University, Canada) Section I: Navigating Personal and Cultural Histories 1. Remixing Popular Music History: Two Producer Perspectives from 2022 Mike Alleyne (Middle Tennessee State University, USA) 2. 'Frost and Fire': Autobiographical Reticence in The Work of Tracey Thorn and Others Peter Clandfield (MacEwan University, Canada) 3. Rita Lee and the Phantom: Visible Editing and Experimental Technique in Women's Autobiography Ana Leorne (Independent, Paris) 4. Re-evaluating the Past: Reclaiming Oppositional Popular Music Scenes Through Female Musicians' Autobiographical Writing Sini Timonen (Confetti London, UK) 5. Handcuffed to Andy Warhol, Meeting Madonna at LiveAid, Hell Bent for Leather at Fire Island: Considering Queerness in Rob Halford's "Confess" and "Biblical" Autobiographies Mike Wyeld (London College of Communication, UK) Section II: Experimental, Multi-Modal, and Digital Narratives 6. 'We're brown and nobody knows where the Philippines is': Cultural Identity in Fanny's Virtual Autobiography Carljohnson Anacin (Griffith University, Australia) 7. High Blues Fidelity: The Fragmentary Autobiography of 'Queen' Victoria Spivey (1906-1976) Lawrence Davies (University of Huddersfield, UK) 8. A Life Spent Chasing the Band: Female Fans' Autobiographies Mark Duffett (University of Chester, UK) 9. Graphically Speaking: CUD, Graphic Memoir, Indie Authenticity, and Autofiction Robert Edgar (York St John University, UK) 10. 'You'll need a good companion for this part of the ride': Navigating Bruce Springsteen's sonic persona in the Born to Run audiobook Richard Elliott (Newcastle University, UK) 11. 'You are the only one who gets to decide what you will be remembered for': Fan Mediations of Autobiographical Lyrics in the Context of Taylor Swift's Digital Presence Hannah Judson (SUNY Stony Brook, USA) and Nas Ferns (SUNY Stony Brook, USA) Section III: Cultural Memory And Legacy: Musicians And Their Posthumous Or Rematerialised Lives 12. Popular Musicians' Homes as Rematerialised Autobiography: Jones, Jagger, Richards, Phelge, Lennon, McCartney Christian Lloyd (Queen's University, Canada) 13. Gloria, Jennifer, and Camila: The Autobiographical Writing of Latinx pop Divas on Social Media from a Historiographic and Intersectional Perspective Igor Lemos Moreira (Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil) 14. Autobiography, Genealogy, and Anthology: The Beatles and Autobiography - 'The Beat Goes On' Kenneth Longden (University of Salford, UK) 15. Retro-Futuristic 'ABBAtars': Interpreting New Performer-Audience Relationships Abigail May Parker (University of Nottingham, UK) 16. 'You Know I'm No Good': Cultural Memory, Archive, Ephemera, and (Re)writing the Legacy of Amy Winehouse Leanne Weston (Independent, UK) Section IIII: Performance, Identity, and Self-Representation in Music 17. 'A tidal wave of dopesickness': Addiction, Music and Pathography in Mark Lanegan's Sing Backwards and Weep Fraser Mann (York St. John University, UK) 18. 'It's not an imitation, it's a becoming': Lady Gaga's Wildean Self-Representations Victoria Roskams (University of Oxford, UK) 19. Turbulent Flow: Autobiography through Family in the Lyrics of Kendrick Lamar Sameer Thomas (Ashoka University, India) 20. Bob Stanley: I'll be Your Mirror Jason Wood (British Film Institute, UK) List of Contributors Index