{"product_id":"gang-of-fours-entertainment-9781623560652","title":"Gang of Four's Entertainment!","description":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing hard on the explosion of British punk, in 1979 Gang of Four produced post-punk's smartest record, \u003ci\u003eEntertainment \u003c\/i\u003e For the first time, a band wedded punk's angry energy to funk's propulsive beats--and used that music to put across lyrics that brought a heady mixture of Marxist theory and situationism to exposing the cultural politics of everyday life. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e But for an American college student from the suburbs--and, one expects, for many, many others, including British youth--Jon King's and Andy Gill's mumbled lyrics were often all but unintelligible. Political rock 'n' roll is always something of an oxymoron: rock audiences by and large don't tune in to be lectured to. But what can it mean that a band that made pop songs as political theory actively resisted making that theory legible? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Coming to terms with the impact of \u003ci\u003eEntertainment \u003c\/i\u003e requires us to take the mondegreen--the misunderstood lyric--seriously. The old joke has it that the title of R.E.M.'s debut album should have been not \u003ci\u003eMurmur\u003c\/i\u003e, but \u003ci\u003eMumble\u003c\/i\u003e: true, so far as it goes. But that's the title, too, of rock 'n' roll's Greatest Hits compilation--and that strategic inarticulateness itself, which creates such an important role for the listener, has an important politics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Bloomsbury Academic\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/27\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781623560652\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 160\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 6.50h x 4.70w x 0.60d","brand":"Kevin J. H. Dettmar","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43096246026421,"sku":"9781623560652","price":12.71,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_30ab32a9-85d5-4c8b-9065-4c4ec4be69b3.jpg?v=1692804220","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/gang-of-fours-entertainment-9781623560652","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}