'Rock On': Women, Ageing and Popular Music

Ros Jennings and Abigail Gardner, both at University of Gloucester, UK Ros Jennings,Abigail Gardner, Lucy O'Brien, Delia Poey, Norma Coates, Paula Hearsum, Catherine Strong, Paul Watson, Diane Railton.

• Contents: Introduction: women, ageing and popular music, Ros Jennings and Abigail Gardner; Part I 'Renewal, Recycling and Renegotiation': Madonna: like a crone, Lucy O’Brien; It’s all just a little bit of history repeating: pop-stars, audiences, performance and ageing - exploring the performance strategies of Shirley Bassey and Petula Clark, Ros Jennings; Long live the Queen!: Celia Cruz’s longevity as a counterpoint of tradition and change, Delia Poey; Framing Grace: shock and awe at the ageless black body, Abigail Gardner. Part II 'It’s Not Over...': Mom rock? Media representations of ’mothers who rock’, Norma Coates; 27 for ever: Kristen Pfaff and the coverage of death as the re-presentation of a gendered musical life, Paula Hearsum; ’I’d stage-dive, but I’m far too elderly’: Courtney Love and expectations of femininity and ageing, Catherine Strong; Rebel without a pause: the continuity of controversy in Madonna’s contemporary music videos, Paul Watson and Diane Railton; Bibliography; Index.

'... female performers are often marginalised in music literature and this is especially so of older female performers. Academic work which highlights their lives and experiences is vital.' The F-Word 'Timely and pertinent, the collection successfully opens up a space where the ageing female body traverses musical discourses of identity and subjectivity, always and already marked by gender, sexuality and ethnicity'. Popular Music