Berk concludes that our understanding of historical political economy must take markets, technologies, and organizational forms as the contingent outcomes of such constitutional politics, rather than as premeditated contexts for state and economic development.

Covers those bands and artists who have rejected the mainstream in favor of innovation, originality and the pursuit of their own unique musical identity.

In the summer of 1978, the B-52's conquered the New York underground. A year later, the band's self-titled debut album burst onto the Billboard charts, capturing the imagination of fans and music critics worldwide. The fact that the group had formed in the sleepy southern college town of Athens, Georgia, only increased the fascination. Soon, more Athens bands followed the B-52's into the vanguard of the new American music that would come to be known as "alternative," including R.E.M., who catapulted over the course of the 1980s to the top of the musical mainstream. As acts like the B-52's, R.E.M., and Pylon drew the eyes of New York tastemakers southward, they discovered in Athens an unexpected mecca of music, experimental art, DIY spirit, and progressive politics--a creative underground as vibrant as any to be found in the country's major cities. In Athens in the eighties, if you were young and willing to live without much money, anything seemed possible. Cool Town reveals the passion, vitality, and enduring significance of a bohemian scene that became a model for others to follow. Grace Elizabeth Hale experienced the Athens scene as a student, small-business owner, and band member. Blending personal recollection with a historian's eye, she reconstructs the networks of bands, artists, and friends that drew on the things at hand to make a new art of the possible, transforming American culture along the way. In a story full of music and brimming with hope, Hale shows how an unlikely cast of characters in an unlikely place made a surprising and beautiful new world.

Music's top journalists celebrate "Spin" magazine's 20th anniversary with original essays tracing the history of alternative rock.

At once a groundbreaking cultural history of rock music and an impassioned defense of the unique value of art, The Day Alternative Music Died is a timely and essential addition to the cultural discourse. Featuring a meticulously researched and eminently readable narrative that will appeal to both casual and diehard music fans, The Day Alternative Music Died tells the fascinating story of the tensions between artistic and commercial aspirations throughout the history of rock music. Author Adam Caress grafts the vital and untold story of the rise and fall of the alternative music scene in the 1980s and 90s into a larger rock music narrative that spans half a century, shedding light on a number of crucial developments in rock and popular music which remain widely misunderstood, even as they continue to have far-reaching implications for the future of music creation, consumption, and criticism. With a scope that encompasses everything from Bob Dylan's arrival on the rock scene in the mid-1960s through Spotify's recent attempts to establish a new model for music distribution, The Day Alternative Music Died provides engaging and valuable insight into what it means to be a music fan, artist, and critic here in the 21st Century.

Looks at the careers and musical contributions of alternative rock musicians who are writing and recording songs in Spanish.

The Rise and Fall of Alternative Rock in the Nineties In 1990 alternative music was where it belonged - underground. It left the business of rock stardom to rock stars. But by 1992 alternative rock had spawned a revolution in music and style that transformed youth culture and revived a moribund music industry. Five years later, alternative rock was over, leaving behind a handful of dead heroes, a few dozen masterpieces, and a lot more questions than answers. What, if anything, had the alternative revolution meant? And had it been possible - as so many of its heroes had insisted - for it to be both on MtV and under the radar? Had it used the machinery of corporate rock to destroy corporate rock? In ENtERtAIN US! Craig Schuftan takes you on a journey through the nineties - from Sonic Youth's 'Kool thing' to Radiohead's 'Kid A', NEVERMIND to ODELAY, Madchester to Nu-Metal, Lollapalooza to Woodstock '99 - narrated in the voices of the decade's most important artists. this is the story of alternative rock - the people who made it, the people who loved it, the industry that bought and sold it, and the culture that grew up in its wake - in the last decade of the twentieth century.