Feedback

In Feedback: The Who and Their Generation, historian Casey Harison offers a cultural and social history of one of the most successful bands of the 1960s British Invasion. In this historically sensitive account of the superband's impact during its first decade, Harison describes the key role played by The Who in the formation of the "Atlantic Generation" of rock and roll fans. When the band first burst on to the scene, they quickly established their reputation for amping up the volume, pushing distortion effects ("feedback"), and destroying instruments on stage at the ends of performances. If The Who did nothing else for their generation, they would have easily secured a place in rock and roll history for high volume, smashed guitars, and kicked over drum sets. Ever since, The Who's stage antics have achieved iconic status in rock and roll. But we should not forget how startling this on-stage violence was and what it signified. Audiences had never experienced music so loud, a band so energetic, and stage destruction so redolent of the frustrations they shared. If anything, who'd have thought the three in combination--with excellent songwriting and studio production--would emerge as a formula for success! Feedback: The Who and Their Generation begins with the historical roots of rock music across the Atlantic in the United States, setting the stage for the evolution of The Who, when the four band members first came together in 1964 to produce their most successful work over the next decade. Throughout, Harison looks at The Who through the lens of the cross-Atlantic feedback that was musical and social in character. From distorted guitars to "big sound" drum solos, The Who mirrored youth culture--its anger, its frustrations, from the class conflicts of England and Europe to the Vietnam protest movements of the United States. The Who, like no other British Invasion band, assumed a signal role in the transatlantic cultural traffic. From the American music traditions they borrowed-rock, blues, R&B-they transformed and returned back to America the very music that served as the source of anger, echoing their audience's angst while developing along the way enormous fan bases in Europe and America.