Product Description

Frank Sinatra was only one of a handful of popular entertainers who dominated Western popular culture for six decades. From his early fame as 'the Voice' in the early 1940s, through to the high rolling, fast living 'Rat Pack' era, to the protracted Lear-like farewell tours of his twilight years, Sinatra was the epitome of cool. This compelling, consistently insightful book portrays Sinatra in his many contradictory hues of ambition, generosity, menace and vituperation. The book asks why Sinatra's public character which mixed insufferable hauteur with soapy populism and nobility with the lowest kind of vindictive violence proved so enduring with the Western public? What model of masculinity was Sinatra projecting? Why did his recordings, concert performances and film work persuade audiences that he was really talking to them alone? What does his career tell us about the relationship between celebrity and popular culture?

Sinatra may not have found his Boswell with this study, but our understanding of him will never be the same again. Rojek's is the first book to take Sinatra's cultural significance seriously. It is a landmark work in our understanding of celebrity and popular culture. The book will be of interest to students of Cultural, Media and Communication Studies, Sociology and, most of all, anyone who has bought a Sinatra recording or seen a Sinatra film.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1735301 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Review
'Chris Rojek's study Frank Sinatra is simply brilliant. It is far and away the best study of Sinatra and a U.S. popular singer that I have read. While there are a small row of classics on the great rock singers, pop performers like Sinatra have mainly received celebrity gossip treatment. Rojek's study however, deeply probes Sinatra's celebrity status, including his singing career, his film work, his nightclub and concert tours, his connections with major politicians, and more notoriously, with the Mafia and a series of highly publicized sex scandals.' Doug Kellner, University of California, Los Angeles

From the Back Cover
Frank Sinatra was only one of a handful of popular entertainers who dominated Western popular culture for six decades. From his early fame as 'the Voice' in the early 1940s, through to the high rolling, fast living 'Rat Pack' era, to the protracted Lear-like farewell tours of his twilight years, Sinatra was the epitome of cool. This compelling, consistently insightful book portrays Sinatra in his many contradictory hues of ambition, generosity, menace and vituperation. The book asks why Sinatra's public character which mixed insufferable hauteur with soapy populism and nobility with the lowest kind of vindictive violence proved so enduring with the Western public? What model of masculinity was Sinatra projecting? Why did his recordings, concert performances and film work persuade audiences that he was really talking to them alone? What does his career tell us about the relationship between celebrity and popular culture?

Sinatra may not have found his Boswell with this study, but our understanding of him will never be the same again. Rojek's is the first book to take Sinatra's cultural significance seriously. It is a landmark work in our understanding of celebrity and popular culture. The book will be of interest to students of Cultural, Media and Communication Studies, Sociology and, most of all, anyone who has bought a Sinatra recording or seen a Sinatra film.

About the Author
Chris Rojek is Professor of Sociology and Culture in the Department of English, Media and Communications at Nottingham Trent University.

Customer Reviews

SINATRA AS AGENT OF AMERICAN IMPERIALISM
ROJEK IS BRITISH AND OBVIOUSLY A LEFT-WING ACADEMIC WITH DEFINITE IDEAS ABOUT THE DANGERS OF WHAT HE SEES AS THE ALLIANCE OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND CORPORATE INTERESTS AND ABOUT HOW SINATRA ULTIMATELY SERVED BOTH IN HIS QUEST TO BE REGARDED AS A 'MAN OF RESPECT'- A MAN WHO IS ABOVE OTHER MEN BY VIRTUE OF HIS SINGULAR TALENT AND WHO USES HIS POWER AND INFLUENCE TO SERVE THE COMMUNITY.
HE SEES SINATRA'S RUTHLESSNESS AND FEROCIOUS AMBITION LURKING BEHIND HIS EARLIEST IMAGES. HE DESCRIBES HOW HE SAW HIMSELF IN THE SICILIAN TRADITION OF THE SELF-MADE MAN INSPIRED BY UPSTART ITALIAN-AMERICAN HEROES IN THE FORM OF THE CASTELLAMARRE MOBSTERS WHO DEFIED CONVENTION AS WELL AS THE LAW.
SINATRA NEVER IS COMFORTABLE WITH HIS CELEBRITY SINCE IT NEVER BRINGS HIM THE RESPECT OF THE BRAHMIN UPPER CLASS AND REMOVES HIM FROM HIS HOBOKEN STREET CORNER ROOTS.
THE READERS OPINION OF ALL THIS WILL OBVIOUSLY BE TIED TO THEIR POLITICS.
THROUGHOUT THE BOOK ROJEK REMARKS ABOUT HOW AMERICANS ARE INTROSPECTIVE ABOUT THE WORLD AND THINK AMERICA IS THE BEST HOPE OF MANKIND. WHAT THE AUTHOR APPARENTLY CANNOT DO IS TO SEE AMERICA AS IMMIGRANTS DID - A LAND OF OPPORTUNITY, OF SELF-INVENTION. HE NEVER POSITS AN ALTERNATIVE MODEL SOCIETY BUT YOU CAN READILY IMAGINE IT WOULD BE SOME SORT OF EUROPEON SOCIALIST CONSTRUCT WHERE OF COURSE A SINGER REGARDLESS OF HIS MUSICAL GENIUS WOULD NEVER REALIZE HIS MAXIMUM POTENTIAL AS A CELEBRITY POWER BROKER AND FIXER.
(ROJEK HIMSELF IS LIKELY QUITE CONTENT AS A TENURED PROFESSOR AND CULTURAL THEORIST WORKING IN THE SHELTERED GROVES OF ACADEME WHERE HE SEES HIS PURPOSE AS GUIDING YOUNG MINDS ALONG WHAT HE REGARDS AS THE RIGHT PATH. HE ADMITS THAT HE WAS ASTONISHED TO FIND THAT HIS STUDENTS VIEWED SINATRA IN A FAR MORE FAVOURABLE LIGHT THAN HIS OWN GENERATION. THEY REGARD HIM AS AN AUTHORATATIVELY MASCULINE ROLE-MODEL, AN INDIVIDUALIST WHO'S MOVIES AFE COOL, FUNNY AND IMPORTANT INFLUENCES.)
IN THE END, THE AUTHOR SEES SINATRA'S WORK FOR THE CIA AS THE ULTIMATE PROOF OF THE HIS THESIS.
AS A POST SCRIPT, I MUST OBSERVE ROJEK'S FAVOURITE SINATRA RECORDINGS HAVE TO BE 'IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS', 'WHERE ARE YOU','NO ONE CARES' AND 'ONLY THE LONELY'SINCE HE MENTIONS THEM SO OFTEN. WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT HIS OWN EMOTIONAL MAKE-UP ONE CAN GUESS. HE HAS LITTLE INTEREST IN THE UPTEMPO ALBUMS.