'Thomas Crow's book challenges existing narratives about the rise of Pop Art by situating it within larger, shifting cultural tides. While American Pop was indebted to its British predecessor's insistence that all creative pursuits merit respectful attention, Crow demonstrates that this inclusive attitude had strong American roots as well. Folk, a genre that embraces the vernacular, becomes Crow's starting point in the advance of Pop. The fold revival occurred in both art and music during the 1930s and 1940s, with the inheritance of folk art surfacing a decade later in the work of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, who prepared the ground for the Pop artists who followed. Crow eloquently examines the new consciousness of commercial imagery in the visual arts, alongside its repercussions in popular music and graphic design. Pop's practitioners captured feelings and perceptions stirring amongst a broad public, beginning with young participants in the politicized 1960s counter-culture from San Francisco to Paris.' - excerpted from back cover.

Including an index.