Cape Breton University ethnomusicologist, Dr. Chris McDonald will host a book signing for his new work Rush, Rock Music and the Middle Class: Dreaming in Middletown on Thursday, January 14th at CBU’s Royal Bank Lecture Hall.
Canadian progressive rock band Rush was the voice of the suburban middle class. In this book, McDonald assesses the band’s impact on popular music and its legacy for legions of fans.
McDonald explores the ways in which Rush’s critique of suburban life – and its strategies for escape – reflected middle-class aspirations and anxieties, while its performances manifested the dialectic in prog rock between discipline and austerity, and the desire for spectacle and excess. The band’s reception reflected the internal struggles of the middle class over cultural status.
As part of the signing, the film Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey will also be shown.
