RIP Andrew Goodwin, author of _Dancing in the Distraction Factory_

Strong book -- popism avant la lettre to a degree, also a good early appreciation of MTV and videos published in early 1993. Also coedited On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written Word with Simon Frith. Sadly he passed due to a house fire in Berkeley.

Via Eric Harvey on Twitter:

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I found a section of Goodwin's chapter (from 1991) "From Anarchy to Chromakey," about MTV/punk/New Pop. http://www.sendspace.com/file/r7gsiz

very sad. it's been a while since i read it but i remember this essay http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8705.1988.tb00315.x/abstract being very good (requires a subscription, sorry).

From the SF Weekly, 1998:
"University of San Francisco professor Andrew Goodwin understands the ephemeral nature of pop. And in January of 1996, when he started the 3 p.m. Saturday KUSF radio show Britpop, he knew the trendy name used to tag acts like Blur, Pulp, Oasis, and Elastica would go fast out of fashion. He didn't care -- it wasn't going to be a show about that fab four anyway. 'I wanted to explode the category,' Goodwin says, 'take it back to Dennis Potter pieces, vaudeville. And take it to the future too -- the new dance music. I wanted to situate the moment in history.' For 100 shows he's done just that. Britpop works because it's smart. Goodwin researches and plots each show beforehand. Clerks at the Mod Lang record store in Berkeley help keep him up to date. Goodwin also taps his students, other KUSF DJs, his family in England (who send videotapes of Top of the Pops and the British music papers), and listeners who occasionally send taped John Peel shows. A music critic and an author (of among other things a book about music videos and MTV called Dancing in the Distraction Factory), Goodwin always looks beyond simple -- and not so simple -- pop songs. 'We accept that there is a plastic, inauthentic aspect to pop music,' he says. 'The show does not have an expat-Union-Jack-flag-waving superiority complex. [It's about] what British music means here, in the Bay Area, in a multicultural environment.' Last weekend's show -- the 100th installment -- broached that subject, what Goodwin likes to call 'mapping transnational space.' This weekend, he marks the occasion with the first of a two-part, two-hour show called 'Britpop 101.' Like all installments, the songs and the dialogue will be meticulously plotted. Goodwin promises two hours of original material, remixes, comedy, philosophy, and commentary. And if he's up to it, he'll play 'Being British,' one of his own songs. The chorus: 'Being British/ Being British/ It's bloody boring/ Being British.'"
http://www.sfweekly.com/1998-04-29/music/riff-raff/full/

this fire was right up the street from my house. sad.