Timothy Gray presents Easy: a hard look at soft rock

An informative and entertaining talk on soft rock music! Come listen to Timothy Gray discuss how Soft Rock and associated genres emerged in the late 1960s and achieved broad recognition in the 1970s. Tracking hundreds of songs, he supplies Billboard’s chart rankings to show how soft music easily crossed over from one fan base to another. Radio formats featuring Funk, Soul, Disco, and Country were obliged to adjust rotations and marketing ploys.

A resident of Plainfield since 1999, Tim Gray is Professor of English at College of Staten Island, City University of New York, where he teaches 20th century American literature. He graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His early books focus on intersections of poetry, painting, religion, and geography. His more recent books address cultural aspects of popular music, especially jazz and rock. Easy is his fourth book with the University of Iowa Press, and his fifth book overall.