Why read Flowers in the Dustbin?

Book cover of Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977

Book description

A prizewinning historian and journalist who has covered the pop music scene for more than three decades, James Miller brings a powerful and challenging intellectual perspective to his recounting of some key turning points in the history of rock. Arguing that the music underwent its full creative evolution in little…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Flowers in the Dustbin as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Bob Beatty

Author

Flowers in the Dustbin uses an approach I dearly love: the vignette. Miller deftly selects stories that tie together a larger narrative of “where rock & roll came from—and what it came to do.”

The book begins with the birth of rhythm & blues through one of its earliest stars, Wynonie Harris. Subsequent stories in chapter one weave together the impacts of technology, the Great Migration, racial dynamics, a booming economy, and an emerging youth culture. It culminates in Elvis’s earliest recordings, the so-called birth of rock & roll. All in the first chapter!

In the story that follows, Miller…

From Bob's list on The best books at the crossroads of music, culture, history, and place.