Title: Sixty Year Old Shoes: Remembering Carl Perkins and Blue Suede Shoes
Abstract: Many books have been written about alternative rock and culture in recent years.Popular among them is Michael Azerrad's, Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981Underground, -1991, which provides a vivid and entertaining glimpse into the artists, era, and music.Another is Slanted and Enchanted: The Evolution of Indie Culture in which Kaya Oakes explores the influence of indie art and culture on mainstream society.While both of these books and others written about alternative rock and culture can contribute to a music industry curriculum, no other single volume rivals this new work by Adam Caress both in terms of its weight as an important work of music history, and in what it reveals to students of the music business.Much more than a genre survey, The Day Alternative Music Died skillfully places us at a unique vantage point where the tension between art and commerce is brightly illuminated.To accomplish this requires a comprehensive exploration of the topic, encompassing the cultural atmosphere, the musical landscape, as well as the commercial environment.Caress succeeds in delivering this, and does so with compelling narrative.He begins by stating that prior to the mid-1960s, rock and roll was not considered to be a serious art form, even by those creating it.Caress lays this foundation to point to the importance of beginning his story in 1964.…prior to that, there was no tension in rock between the aspirations to substantive artistry and commercial success.Before 1965, none of the major figures in rockfrom Elvis to Chuck Berry to The Beatles-aspired to create substantive art; they all aspired to be commercially popular entertainers.He contends that from this period forward, artistic and commercial aspirations have lived in tension, alternately influencing rock music.More Vol. 15, No. 1 ( 2015