| Abstract |
"A Kiss across the Ocean examines an array of interactions and exchanges between British musicians catalyzed by the early punk movement and Latinas and Latinos in the United States. Spotlighting a host of influential performers like Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam Ant, Bauhaus, Soft Cell, Blue Rondo A La Turk, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Pet Shop Boys, and The Specials, Richard T. Rodr iguez reframes our understanding of fandom to alternatively cast light on how U.S. Latinx culture touches and is touched by the histories and expressive work of these post-punk artists with regard to musical collaboration, personal association, cultural identification, and imaginative inspiration. By exploring the reciprocal touches of seemingly dissimilar groups, the book traces analogous and convergent networks that link working-class Latina/o/x and British youths across spatial and temporal boundaries to make sense of the way popular music established-and continues to facilitate-intimate relations across the Atlantic divide. Drawing from an innovative archive of materials while adopting memoir to capture and blend his youthful and current status as a devotee of British popular culture, Rodr iguez shows how the music and styles that have come to define the 1980s hold significant sway for younger generations equally enthused by their matchlessly pleasurable and political reverberations"-- Provided by publisher. |
