Woodstock Scholarship: An Interdisciplinary Annotated Bibliography/Preface
Preface[edit | edit source]
Since August 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair looms large when recounting the history and impact of the baby boom generation and the societal upheavals of the Sixties. Scholars study the sociological, political, musical, and artistic impact of the event and use it as a cultural touchstone when exploring alternative perspectives or seeking clarity.
Scholarship is defined here as any work providing a serious treatment of the subject with the intent to inform, enlighten, educate, or add to a body of knowledge. Readers will find most items included are primarily interpretive and analytical, rather than merely descriptive. This, then, excludes most news publications tending to report on current events without attempting in-depth analysis (e.g., Time, Newsweek, People), popular reading materials (e.g., Rolling Stone), and reviews. Dissertations have been excluded due to being unpublished works. However, in an attempt to be more inclusive than exclusive, notable exceptions have been made in almost every genre. The Woodstock legacy continues and has a direct lineage manifested through anniversary events: Woodstock ’79, Woodstock ’89, Woodstock ’94, and Woodstock ’99. Therefore, selected scholarship on these happenings can be found within this work.
Chapters are organized into subject disciplines. Books, book chapters, journal articles, proceedings, videos, websites, transcriptions, and sound recordings are included when appropriate. Each entry contains bibliographic information applicable to the physical/digital format. Annotations are written to provide clear descriptive explanations of content. Each entry is numbered sequentially and identified in the authors/editors/directors and subject indexes by the entry number. The detailed indexes are designed to serve as the primary locating tools for this publication.
Woodstock scholarship does not stand alone as field of study, but it is at the cross-roads of a number of disciplines — music, history, cultural studies, sociology, arts and literature, media studies, politics and economics. This interdisciplinary annotated bibliography should facilitate research and study by students, scholars, teachers, and librarians in all these areas, as well as anyone seeking a deeper understanding of both the Woodstock Music and Art Fair phenomenon and the confluence of music, commerce and politics.
Bibliographies are works in progress which need constant updating as new resources become available. Therefore, in parallel with this edition is issued a free, socially enhanced version of Woodstock Scholarship. This socially editable version of the work is available on Wikiversity, a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to educational resources. You are encouraged to help develop this collaborative edition by adding new entries and creating links to existing resources.
I want to acknowledge and thank the libraries at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and Loyola Marymount University for providing access to many of these resources and for their overall efforts and support. This book is dedicated to Raida Gatten for her unwavering encouragement of anything and everything I undertake.