Experiencing Rush

Few bands have proven as long-standing and experimental as the Canadian rock act Rush, which has successfully survived and adapted like few others by continuing to work in an album-oriented progressive hard rock style. Rush bridged its original blues-rock style with progressive rock and heavy metal in the 1970s, explored new wave and synth rock in the 1980s, and then created a new kind of alternative hard rock in the 1990s and 2000s. Throughout its career Rush has stubbornly remained musically and lyrically individualistic. The band created dozens of albums over its four decadeswith 45 million soldand embarked on major concert tours for millions of fans across the globe.The bands music appeals not just to mainstream rock fans but to those musicians who admire the structural complexity of its music.

InExperiencing Rush: A Listeners Companion, music scholar Durrell Bowman guides readers through Rushs long career, explaining through the artful combination of biography, history, and musical exegesis how to listen to this unique act. From Rushs emergence as an early blues-rock power trio of guitar, bass, and drums into the godfathers of progressive hard rock, Bowman marks the bands first breakthrough with its landmark, sci-fi/individualist album2112. From there, readers explore Rushs movement from prog rock extended compositions into shorter, potential-radio-play post-prog songs, leading to Rushs most successful albumMoving Pictures in 1981. In its later career, Rush adventurously mixed progressive hard rock and music technology, generating a new power trio sound that featured further stylistic evolutions. As Bowman makes clear, it is the bands stalwart path and many influences on fans, musicians, and others that resulted in Rushs induction into the Rock& Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.

Rush is a legendary group, andExperiencing Rush is specially written for music fans seeking a deeper look into the bands work, as well as for new listeners ready to discover the unique and diverse sound of one of rocks greatest acts.

In Experiencing Rush: A Listener¿s Companion, music scholar Durrell Bowman guides readers through Rush¿s long career, explaining through the artful combination of biography, history, and musical exegesis how to listen to this unique act. From Rush¿s emergence as an early blues-rock power trio of guitar, bass, and drums into the godfathers of progressive hard rock, Bowman marks the band¿s first breakthrough with its landmark, sci-fi/individualist album 2112. From there, readers explores Rush¿s movement from "prog rock" extended compositions into shorter, potential-radio-play "post-prog" songs, leading to Rush¿s most successful album Moving Pictures in 1981.In its later career, Rush adventurously mixedprogressive hard rock and music technology, generating a new power trio sound that featured further stylistic evolutions. As Bowman makes clear, it is the band¿s stalwart path and many influences on fans, musicians, and others that resulted in Rush¿s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.

Timeline
Series Editor Foreword
Introduction: Why Rush?
Chapter 1: Finding My Way: From Blues-Rock to Arty Hard Rock, 1968-1975
Chapter 2: Their Own Music
Chapter 3: The Universe Divided: From Progressive Hard Rock to Post-Prog, 1978-1980
Chapter 4: Modern-Day Warrior: User-Friendly Progressive Rock andMoving Pictures, 1981
Chapter 5: Be Cool or Be Cast Out: Fusions with Synth Rock and New Wave, 1982-1984
Chapter 6: Against the Run of the Mill: Rock / Technology Balance, 1985-1988
Chapter 7: Its Hard to Play It Safe: New Approaches to Being a Power Trio, 1989-1995
Chapter 8: To the Margin of Error: Eclectic Rock, Tragedies and Sabbatical, and Return, 1996-2003
Chapter 9: Some Will Be Rewarded: Getting to the Rock& Roll Hall of Fame, 2004-2013
Conclusion: In the Fullness of Time
Selected Reading
Selected Listening