"No writer is better equipped than Ann Powers to clarify and dissect the fundamental American myths that power our popular music. She understands-as a critic, and just as importantly, as a fan-how big ideas about sex and race have informed and directed the last two hundred years of pop music. Good Booty is an expansive, electrifying, and important book. It changed the way I listen." - Amanda Petrusich, author of Do Not Sell At Any Price "No writer is better equipped than Ann Powers to clarify and dissect the fundamental American myths that power our popular music. Good Booty is an expansive, electrifying, and important book. It changed the way I listen." - Amanda Petrusich, author of Do Not Sell At Any Price "No writer on music has as keen a mind or as great a heart as Ann Powers.
Sex is the subject, but Good Booty is really a tour-de-force history of an entire century of pop, rich in feeling and fierce in insight. It's a dazzling achievement." - Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise "No writer on music has as keen a mind or as great a heart as Ann Powers. Sex is the subject, but Good Booty is really a tour-de-force history of an entire century of pop, rich in feeling and fierce in insight. It's a dazzling achievement." - Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise "A revelatory road trip through the erotic fever dreams of American culture. Ann Powers tells the whole epic saga of how music became the confessional where we go to share our deepest secrets and desires--from the folkways to the pop raves, from New Orleans ballrooms to MTV visions, from the Summer of Love to the riot-grrrl explosion. Only Ann Powers could make this story so head-spinning--and often heartbreaking.
" - Rob Sheffield, author of Dreaming the Beatles "A revelatory road trip through the erotic fever dreams of American culture . tells the whole epic saga of how music became the confessional where we go to share our deepest secrets and desires . Only Ann Powers could make this story so head-spinning--and often heartbreaking." - Rob Sheffield, author of Dreaming the Beatles "No writer on music has as keen a mind or as great a heart as Ann Powers. Sex is the subject, but Good Booty is really a tour-de-force history of an entire century of pop, rich in feeling and fierce in insight. It's a dazzling achievement." - Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise "Monumental . takes us on an epic journey through the evolution of American popular music culture with sex at its center.
By way of offering a boldly revisionist, feminist, racially and culturally expansive history of pop, one of our greatest rock critics offers a thrilling, sophisticated and beautifully rendered tale of the longing, desire and pleasure that drives the performances, recordings, and fan cultures that shape our modern lives." - Daphne Brooks, author of Bodies in Dissent "Informative and entertaining. Powers reveals an extraordinary breadth of knowledge and insight and has produced an absolutely essential addition to any pop-culture collection." - Booklist (starred review) "Stirring." - O, the Oprah Magazine "Both an indispensable guide to American pop music and a damned fine read . The best thing about Good Booty is that it reminds us that the right song shows us how to be somebody in a way that's not possible with any other art form." - Wall Street Journal "If for no other reason--though there are lots of other reasons--the book is worth a read for its mapping of the way hope and joy are present even in the darkest times. Powers' writing is deeply compassionate and nuanced.
" - Chapter 16.