New Van Halen book

[cheekychap]

Hello,

I am the author of a new Van Halen book, Van Halen: The music and the
Fans, 1978-1986, slated for release next week. It is a full academic
study of the group from 1978-1986, much more in depth than any book on
Van Halen ever written. It is not your typical fan book (with gossip)
nor is it just a fact book (dates and the like). This is a full blown
musicology book, and it will be available on Amazon when released

It is approximately 230 pages (it was at that before it went to
editing) and I don't have a copy as of yet. I'm trying to get people
interested in the book before it's released.

As a huge Van Halen fan, this book was blast to write. The research
was completed for my Ph.D. (on Van Halen, no less!). I will use the
book for a class I will be teaching in January at Jacksonville
University in Florida. Yep, a class featuring Van Halen!

Please check out the link, and I hope I've compelled you to consider
buying for your collection.

Thank you,

Tommy Harrison

link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/053...t=true&ie=UTF8

The table of contents:

Introduction

Chapter One- Bottom's Up!: Survey of hard rock and heavy metal
groups and
scholarship

Research on heavy metal and hard rock
The development of heavy metal and hard rock in the 1970s
Subgenres of 80s mainstream rock
European/British heavy metal of the early 1980s
Hard rock in Los Angeles of the early to mid 1980s
Mainstream thrash metal of the 1980s
Pop hard rock of the mid 1980s
Post pop hard rock of the late 1980s

Chapter Two - Dance the Night Away: The music audience aged 13-25
years
old becomes inspired by Van Halen from 1978-1986

Social aspects of teenage Van Halen fans
Preferences on popular music by Van Halen fans
Decisions on popular music consumption by teenagers in 1978
EVH's guitar performance
Live performance and Tours
Van Halen Merchandise
Van Halen becomes part of the MTV generation

Chapter Three - Unchained: An analysis of songs recorded by Van
Halen

Differences between David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar
The Development of Van Halen's Harmonic Writing
Baroque period: songs written for the first album and recorded
on albums released during 1978-1986.
Classical period: The beginning of clear melodic writing
on Van Halen II, Women and Children First, and Fair Warning
Romantic period: the use of the keyboard affects the songwriting
approach
on Diver Down, 1984 and 5150.
Comparisons of songs composed and recorded by other artists
A comparison between two Van Halen songs recorded by different
vocalists
Sexual coding of Van Halen songs

Chapter Four - Hot for Teacher: Edward Van Halen's influence on a

generation of hard rock guitarists.

EVH as guitar hero
EVH expands the use of traditional guitar techniques
EVH incorporates new techniques to make his playing more appealing
to his audience.
Eric Clapton's influence on EVH

Chapter Five - Little Guitars: EVH's innovative use of guitar
technology prompts changes in the design of guitar equipment.

EVH's awareness of electric guitar technology
Amplifier design and electronic effect use
Panning
Epilogue

Appendix A: Survey
Appendix B: Van Halen albums and song lists
Appendix C: Discography
Appendix D: Music videos

[SuckaInA3Piece]

Pretty cool there, Tommy. Hope it sells well for ya.

[MOJODOJO]

Very cool! Any pictures in the book we've never seen???

[sixstring]

Kewl...looking forward to it!

[gradyvanhyman]

Where do i sign up for the Van Halen Class At University Of Jacksonville... I think thats one class we would all ACE!!!!

[vhrocker]

I gotta get that book. The class would be cool too.

[wombattt]

Is it a musicology doctorate?

[Little Dreamer]

I think of all the education that I missed!

[Rovus]

Looks good.

[padraig5150]

Sounds pretty interesting to me!

[cheekychap]

Is it a musicology doctorate?

Yes. University of Salford, located outside of Manchester, England. Derek Scott and Sheila Whiteley, advisors. If you do a amazon search on their names, you will see a handful of books in the field. Salford is considered one of the top schools for popular music study around, in addition to Liverpool, Newcastle in the UK, and UCLA over here in the US (however, apologies to other good schools I'm not mentioning...)

[cheekychap]

Where do i sign up for the Van Halen Class At University Of Jacksonville... I think thats one class we would all ACE!!!!

Well...I am sure that it is a class that many of you would do well in. The class, MU 208: "Interdisciplinary Study of Popular Music" will require non-music students to write a series of papers (and critiques of their fellow students' papers) discussing popular music in their own discipline. The Van Halen study that I have in the book will the model. For example, if you are a sociology major and a fan of, say, Slipknot, you might discuss fan reception of last album (which many hard core Slipknot fans hate). They could doing a survey at a concert and discuss how the group's style changed and related that to my own research on to how VH's style changed.

The class will be filled with a lot of 18-24 year folks, most (not all) of who didn't grow up on VH, but rather Linkin Park, Killswitch Engage, 50 cent, etc... so they learn how to discuss pop music intelligently, and learn about a kiss ass group like VH at the same time.

[Foamfoot]

and learn about a kiss ass group like VH at the same time.

Did you mean ''kick''?.. Points off for spelling, professor!

[cheekychap]

Did you mean ''kick''?.. Points off for spelling, professor!

Oops! Typing too fast this morning...

[wombattt]

Did you mean ''kick''?.. Points off for spelling, professor!

as a associate professor myself...I'd like to point out the fact that...we do not spell well...it is the bane of our careers....thank God for spell check.