ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a historical overview of car songs in popular music, from sheet music incarnations of Tin Pan Alley through to today. Following from Tin Pan Alley, I trace the evolution of car songs through blues and r & b that often saw the car as a symbol of social status but also used the car as a sexual metaphor and a personification of women. The 1950s and 1960s saw a fascination with futuristic technology, and I show how the speed and utopian liberation it represented characterize much of the design and content of both the automotive and rock and roll industries. Singer-songwriters of the 1970s related to the car less as an icon of youthful rock n’ roll rebellion than as a more utilitarian, if somewhat mythologized, vehicle with which to move through everyday life, whereas punk and new wave songs in the 1980s focused on the dystopic effects of the automobile. Finally, the 1990s and 2000s, saw cars prominently featured in hip hop, often as a manifestation of status similar to that previously occurring in blues and r & b. Throughout the chapter I use this evolution to anchor various discussions of identity construction and to provide a nuanced understanding of the interaction of automobiles and popular music in constructing images of femininity, masculinity, and phallic power. The chapter also highlights the sonic influences of the car on popular songs, including the incorporation of engine and horn sounds, and sounds gleaned from the automobile manufacturing process.
