ABSTRACT
Through an extensive discussion of a celebrated sequence from Alain Tanner's 1976 film Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000, this chapter identifies a vivid visual metaphor for the formation of historical narratives and notes the often-arbitrary manner with which chronology can be channeled into convenient chunks of time. A further consideration of narratives of American popular music can then occur: what are the coordinates of examples of an “exclusionary approach” that can be uncovered and often are passed off as the “official” history of popular music?
