Sociologist Eric Klinenberg’s Going Solo is garnering well-deserved attention in venues ranging from Fortune to Slate to This American Life, but his Rolling Stone article today is my favorite thus far.
Eric has assembled a terrific playlist for his new book — everything from Billy Idol’s Dancing with Myself to Beyonce’s Single Ladies. And you know that a researcher like Professor Klinenberg wouldn’t limit himself to the obvious hits. He unearthed nuggets like Tom Waits‘ “Better Off without a Wife” and Loudon (via Rufus) Wainwright’s One Man Guy, Morrissey’s “I’m OK by Myself” and Uggen’s “One-Way Love Dirge.”
OK, OK, I’m kidding about that last one. The spotify list makes for good fun and a great argument-starter (e.g., I’ve got a different take on “No Woman No Cry”), but the article and the book make a much bigger sociological argument. Eric is really telling a story of massive social change — the extraordinary rise of living along alone:
Until the middle of the 20th century, no society in human history had sustained large numbers of singletons. In 1950, for instance, only 4 million Americans lived alone, and they accounted for less than 10 percent of all households. Today, more than 32 million Americans are going solo. They represent 28 percent of all households at the national level; more than 40 percent in cities including San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Denver, and Minneapolis; and nearly 50 percent in Washington D.C. and Manhattan, the twin capitals of the solo nation.
Check out the playlist and stay tuned (so to speak) for an upcoming office hours podcast with our own Arturo Baiocchi.
*photo by Tor Kristensen
Comments 7
Arturo — February 14, 2012
wow, I'm impressed, a Rolling Stone's music list for a sociology book!...I have to take some notes here....
also impressed with the good music tastes: "Me, Myself and I" ala De La Sol, the Vapers, Rufus...
Letta Page — February 16, 2012
Don't forget, too, to check out Nathan Palmer's new project, SociologySounds.com, which helps profs. find great songs (and youtube videos for those songs) to open classroom discussions. For some reason, my recent suggestions of Johnny Cash's "Man in Black" (for inequality, law, crime, and deviance, etc.) and The White Stripes' cover of "Jolene" (for sexuality and gender) from the way-back-machine (De Stijl) haven't yet made the list, but hopefully they're still being curated!
dusty cole — February 20, 2012
cool piece. typo on the last word in the third paragraph "along:", instead of "alone."
:)
Jenn Lena — March 2, 2012
And not to steal Eric's thunder, but his idea to put together a book playlist came (in part) from seeing the one I put together on spotify for my recently published book Banding Together: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9617.html
You can find the spotify playlist by searching for my username (lenajc) and find the track narrative at the Princeton UP blog: http://press.princeton.edu/blog/2012/01/23/so-what-kind-of-music-do-you-like/
Jenn Lena — March 2, 2012
Thanks, Chris! That means a lot, coming from someone with your love of music.