No other instrument has witnessed such a dramatic rise to popularity--and precipitous decline--as the accordion. Squeeze This!
is the first history of the piano accordion and the first book-length
study of the accordion as a uniquely American musical and cultural
phenomenon.
Ethnomusicologist and accordion
enthusiast Marion Jacobson traces the changing idea of the accordion in
the United States and its cultural significance over the course of the
twentieth century. From the introduction of elaborately decorated
European models imported onto the American vaudeville stage and the
instrument's celebration by ethnic musical communities and mainstream
audiences alike, to the accordion-infused pop parodies by "Weird Al"
Yankovic, Jacobson considers the accordion's contradictory status as
both an "outsider" instrument and as a major force in popular music in
the twentieth century.
Drawing on interviews and
archival investigations with instrument builders and retailers, artists
and audiences, professionals and amateurs, Squeeze This! explores
the piano accordion's role as an instrument of community identity and
its varied musical and cultural environments. Jacobson concentrates on
six key moments of transition: the Americanization of the piano
accordion, originally produced and marketed by sales-savvy Italian
immigrants; the transformation of the accordion in the 1920s from an
exotic, expensive vaudeville instrument to a mass-marketable product;
the emergence of the accordion craze in the 1930s and 1940s, when a
highly organized "accordion industrial complex" cultivated a white,
middle-class market; the peak of its popularity in the 1950s,
exemplified by Lawrence Welk and Dick Contino; the instrument's
marginalization in the 1960s and a brief, ill-fated effort to promote
the accordion to teen rock 'n' roll musicians; and the revival beginning
in the 1980s of the accordion as a "world music instrument" and a key
component for cabaret and burlesque revivals and pop groups such as
alternative experimenters They Might Be Giants and polka rockers Brave
Combo.
Loaded with dozens of images of gorgeous instruments and enthusiastic performers and fans, Squeeze This! A Cultural History of the Accordion in America
represents the accordion in a wide range of popular and traditional
musical styles, revealing the richness and diversity of accordion
culture in America.
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