Into the Groove

Hurley displays the most thorough knowledge of his subject in all its complexities and equally of the large corpus of secondary literature. Furthermore, he combines his exemplary scholarship with a readable style. [.] Hurley is to be congratulated on a volume, which is suitable for all those interested in the subject. Even those already knowledgeable are likely to discover something new and worthwhile. -- Stuart Parkes * JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN STUDIES *
[O]ffers a lucid and compelling account of the symbiotic relation between written literature and popular music [..] a complex and wide-ranging study. This reader is already finding references to Hurley's study in the footnotes of scholars and research students working on this topic. As such it will and should be seen as an important contribution to an increasingly important field. * JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES *
[A] good introduction for English-speaking readers interested in the intersections between German literature and conceptualizations of 'pop.' . . . The book is well researched and successfully situates Popliteratur in the context of word-and-music studies. It is a serious study of a phenomenon that has not received enough attention, at least in English-language scholarship. Hurley firmly establishes fruitful connections between literary studies and popular music studies and provides a nuanced discussion of post-1960s and post-reunification national identity in Germany. * MONATSHEFTE *
Andrew Wright Hurley's Into the Groove provides a substantial and comprehensive account of the intersecting spheres of popular music and contemporary German literature. . . . The most interesting chapter describes attempts of several writers to transfer formal principles of electronic music to literary writing by, for example, writing as if using a mixing desk, 'sampling' and manipulating textual material from the historical archive, or trying to render verbally minimal techno's repetitive, nonlinear, and non-teleological structure. . . . Hurley has compiled a wealth of primary and secondary literature on the subject, [yielding] a thorough, knowledgeable, detailed, well organized, and highly readable account of current German pop-musico-literary relations. -- Karoline Johanna Baumann * MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW *