{"id":556,"date":"2020-06-12T12:41:14","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T12:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherscholar.com\/cherblog\/new-cher-scholarship-discovered-chers-70s-hits\/"},"modified":"2023-02-20T08:12:51","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T15:12:51","slug":"new-cher-scholarship-discovered-chers-70s-hits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherscholar.com\/cherblog\/2020\/06\/new-cher-scholarship-discovered-chers-70s-hits\/","title":{"rendered":"New Cher Scholarship Discovered: Cher’s 70s Hits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jstor\"<\/a>Because I am a nerd, I am very familiar with the academic essay searching engine Jstor. Two weeks ago I was running a Difficult Book Club<\/a> night on B.S. Johnson's The Unfortunates<\/em> and looking for essays on the book for discussion ideas.  And whenever I go into Jstor I always check for new Cher essays, too. And bingo! This search pulled up Michael Morris\u2019 \u201cCher\u2019s \u201cDark Ladies\u201d Showbiz Liberation" chapter from his book \u201cThe Persistence of Sentiment: Display and Feeling in Popular Music of the 1970s,<\/a>\u201d a book which also has Karen Carpenter and Barry Manilow essays inside. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s awesome is that this writer knows his music AND his pop culture sociology. I bought the book, if only to see his back notes on the Cher article, which weren\u2019t included in the jstor download of the chapter.<\/p>\n

\"Persist\"<\/a>Morris starts by discussing Cher\u2019s longevity during her farewell tour. He goes into detail about the design of the tour logo and the tour book by LA designer Margo Chase, how it \u201creflected an attitude of memory distilled into excess\u2026.the wings symbolize the enduring spirit of Cher\u2019s music, while the cross refers to the religious symbols used in the stage production\u2026the cross also nods to the gothic, Cher\u2019s most recognizable style\u2026the front cover, all blue and platinum blonde to represent the \u2018angel\u2019 Cher, contrasted with the red and green \u2018devil\u2019 Cher on the back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Blue\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Red\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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All that seems a bit much…if not a sales pitch from an ad exec.<\/p>\n

But the essay then starts cooking: <\/p>\n

\u201cit\u2019s the mythology surrounding the incomparable Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPiere that pugs these songs <\/em>[GT&Th, HB and DL]  up into fluffy, airy bits of pop, into songs that continue to soothe and inspire us, not because of the music, but because of who is singing it.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

YES\u2026Cher is bigger somehow or apart from the music. That\u2019s why dressing other women in Mackie costumes and doing Cher karaoke fails to work properly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cult of Cherness is about much more than the lavish goddess worship\u2026.It was the sheer endurance that grounded that delirious hail and farewell of the <\/em>[LIVING PROOF] tour. But it raises the question of what it was, amid all the feathers, the spangles, and the wigs that was supposed to be doing the enduring\u2026.it is worth searching for a few more details concerning its core of resonance.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He then goes on to discuss Cher references in:<\/p>\n