Rock 'n' Roll Movies

"The rock ‘n’ roll movie made its inauspicious debut in 1955 when a second-rate rockabilly record by Bill Haley and the Comets played ironically over the opening credits of the earnest melodrama, Blackboard Jungle. But as David Sterritt thoroughly and engagingly shows us, the movie industry soon produced a kaleidoscopic array of variations on the theme. Rock ‘n’ roll has dominated flashy fan pics, thoughtful documentaries, avant-garde obscurities, and bizarre animated films, but also monuments from auteurs like Martin Scorsese. They’re all here in this highly readable little book." -- Krin Gabbard * author of Jammin’ at the Margins: Jazz and the American Cinema *
"Brandishing expert chops in the rhythms of rock and the grammar of cinema, film critic David Sterritt is uniquely qualified to illuminate the beautiful music made by the merging of two great American art forms.  Never less than fascinating, Rock ‘n’ Roll Movies offers an all-access backstage pass to the production backbeats and cultural meanings of a gleaming motion picture jukebox stacked with pop musicals, band biopics, star vehicles, concert films, rock docs, and mock-rock docs." -- Thomas Doherty * Brandeis University *