ABSTRACT

The Routledge Handbook of Pink Floyd is intended for scholars and researchers of popular music, as well as music industry professionals and fans of the band. It brings together international researchers to assess, evaluate and reformulate approaches to the critical study and interpretation of one of the world’s most important and successful bands. For the first time, this Handbook will ‘tear down the wall,’ examining the band’s collective artistic creations and the influence of social, technological, commercial and political environments over several decades on their work. Divided into five parts, the book provides a thoroughly contextualised overview of the musical works of Pink Floyd, including coverage of performance and sound; media, reception and fandom; genre; periods of Pink Floyd’s work; and aesthetics and subjectivity. Drawing on art, design, performance, culture and counterculture, emergent theoretical resources and analytical frames are evaluated and discussed from across the social sciences, humanities and creative arts. The Handbook is intended for scholars and researchers of popular music, as well as music industry professionals. It will appeal across a range of related subjects from music production to cultural studies and media/communication studies.

chapter |24 pages

Introduction

'What happened to the post-war dream?' The story of Pink Floyd

part I|92 pages

Performance and sound

chapter 2|16 pages

A Saucerful of Secrets

Pink Floyd, free improvisation and collective composition

chapter 3|22 pages

David Gilmour

Defining the 'melodic' guitarist

chapter 4|14 pages

Planet Floyd

The evolution of Pink Floyd's live performances

chapter 5|14 pages

Back to the UFO

Pink Floyd, The Division Bell tour (1994) and the retrofied aesthetics of psychedelia

part II|69 pages

Media, reception and fandom

chapter 6|16 pages

Original Soundtracks

Pink Floyd in the movies

chapter 7|15 pages

'Us and Them'

Pink Floyd and the British music media

chapter 8|19 pages

Visual Coverscapes

Why Pink Floyd album covers don't have types

chapter 9|17 pages

Pink Floyd Memories and Memorability

'A personal essay on fandom and collecting'

part III|63 pages

Genre

chapter 10|15 pages

In Search of Space (Rock)

Pink Floyd and genre formation in popular music

chapter 11|16 pages

'On the Run'

The birth of electronic dance music?

chapter 12|15 pages

More Punk than Pink

Pink Floyd's relationship with 1970s UK punk

chapter 13|15 pages

Pink Floyd

The musical elements

part IV|127 pages

Periods of Pink Floyd's work

chapter 14|18 pages

The Psychedelic Self at Play

Re-reading whimsy in the early music of Pink Floyd

chapter 15|13 pages

Legacy Recre/Ation

Mining the elements in the archive of The Early Years box set

chapter 16|12 pages

'Cruising for a Bruising'

How The Dark Side of the Moon made Pink Floyd successful beyond their wildest dreams and instigated their downfall

chapter 18|13 pages

'A Certain Unease in the Air'

Transitional aspects of Pink Floyd's Animals

chapter 19|18 pages

Behind The Wall

A tool for condemning totalitarianism

part V|91 pages

Aesthetics and Subjectivity