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Summary:

Looks at developments in science fiction and pop music in the 1970s, delving into the ways that the work of many influential performers of the time was heavily informed by science fiction and space exploration.
"A Hugo Award-winning author and music journalist explores the weird and wild story of science fiction's outsize impact on popular music and culture. As the 1960s drew to a close, and old mores were giving way to a new kind of freedom that celebrated sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, David Bowie slipped into the empty balcony of a London cinema to see 2001: A Space Odyssey. He emerged a changed man ... And indeed, as mankind trained its telescopes on distant worlds, Bowie would lead other rock stars to see the world of science fiction, previously dismissed as nerdy fluff, as the catalyst needed to continue the revolution begun in the sixties. In Strange Stars, Jason Heller recasts sci-fi and pop music as parallel forces that depended on each other to expand the horizons of what could be created with words, sounds, and out-of-this-world imagery. He presents a whole generation of revered musicians as the sci-fi-obsessed conjurers they really were: from Sun Ra lecturing on the black man in the cosmos at University of California, Berkeley; to Pink Floyd jamming live over the BBC's Apollo 11 moon landing broadcast; to Jimi Hendrix distilling the 'purplish haze' he discovered in a pulp novel; on to a wave of Star Wars disco chart-toppers and synthesizer-wielding post-punks ... If today's culture of Comic Con fanatics, superhero blockbusters, and classic sci-fi reboots has us thinking that the nerds have won at last, Strange Stars brings to life an era of unparalleled creativity--in magazines, novels, films, records and concerts--to point out that the nerds have been winning all along."--Jacket.

Table of Contents:

• The stars look very different today: the end of the '60s
• Dancing astronauts of renown: 1970
• In search of space: 1971
• I'm the space invader: 1972
• Comet melody: 1973
• Secrets of the circuitry mind: 1974
• Your memory banks have forgotten this funk: 1975
• What can this strange device be?: 1976
• A distant planet from where I come: 1977
• Hit by space junk: 1978
• When the machines rock: 1979
• The planet is glowing: the start of the '80s.

Author/Creator:

Heller, Jason , author

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

English text.

Main Work:

Strange stars: David Bowie, pop music, and the decade sci-fi exploded [by Heller, J.]

Other Related Resources:

Online version: Strange stars [by Heller, J.] (Brooklyn, NY : Melville House Publishing ; London : Blackstock Mews, 2018 — ISBN 9781612196985; LCCN 2018013936)

Subjects:

Popular music — 1971-1980 — History and criticism

Science fiction in music

1971-1980

Popular music

Genres:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references, discography and index.

Physical Description:

xiv, 254 pages ; 24 cm

Call Numbers:

ML3470 .H44 2018

ISBNs:

9781612196978 (hardcover)
1612196977 (hardcover)

Library of Congress Control Numbers:

2018013060

OCLC Numbers:

1003253195