Coming Soon, on October 1...
The James Bond Songs: Pop Anthems of Late Capitalism
You know the name. You know the number. And, strangely enough, you recognize the songs: "Live and Let Die," "Skyfall," "Nobody Does It Better," and of course, "Goldfinger." Since 1964, every James Bond film has followed the same ritual, and so has its audience: after an exciting action sequence, the screen goes black and the viewer absorbs abstract opening credits and a haunting song featuring puzzling lyrics about diamonds, girls, and guns. In THE JAMES BOND SONGS: Pop Anthems of Late Capitalism, Adrian Daub and Charles Kronengold unpack these Bond songs, using them to trace a changing cultural landscape.
Each chapter discusses a particular segment of the Bond canon, asking how Bond and his music have reflected and influenced our feelings about such topics as race, masculinity, money, and aging. While the Bond songs want to talk about the fulfillment that comes from fast cars, shaken Martinis and mindless sex, Daub and Kronengold show how they actually undercut the logic of the lifestyle Bond is sworn to defend, making the Bond song the perfect anthem of late capitalism. THE JAMES BOND SONGS invites readers to think critically with and about these songs and the story they tell: a story about getting older and about the costs of staying the same, about nostalgia and the promises of capitalism, and about what it means to do a job, be it as a pop singer, a session musician, or a superspy killer, Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.