Author: Franco Dassisti

Rock & Cinema explores–from Elvis Presley’s rock and roll to the present day–the successful encounters between music and cinema that have given rise to works that have become milestones of contemporary culture.

Much has been written about the mutual influence between rock and the big screen, but little attention has been paid to the impact that certain films and their soundtracks have had on the world of music and on the artists themselves.

There are numerous cases of films that have become true symbols for entire movements or subcultures. Cinema has represented a natural step for many rock stars, and has also become a precious opportunity for underground bands to experiment with new expressive languages.

The main aim of this book is to observe the relationship between rock and cinema from a new perspective: the musical one. It is a journey that traces the history of rock on the big screen, in a passionate project curated down to the smallest detail.

The richest, most updated and comprehensive guide to discover (or rediscover) a legendary period in the history of music, art and culture: the fabulous 1960s.

On 5 October 1962, the first single by the Beatles (Love Me Do) and the first James Bond movie (Dr. No) were simultaneously released. Since that day, global pop culture has never been the same: it was the day on which the “fabulous 1960s” began, the most creative and stimulating decade of the 20th century.

Drawing on that coincidence, this book (enriched by captivating graphics in the style of the period and by historical pictures) retraces the legend of a season that entirely shook up the world of music, cinema, arts, fashion and society. Not by chance, in those days Diana Vreeland, editor-in-chief of Vogue, called London “Swinging”, i.e. trendy, or better: “the most swinging city in the world”.

From the primordial soup of the 1950s until the “end of the dream” in 1970, the book focuses on a journey where music was the catalyst that inspired and received inspiration from other forms of artistic expression, thus creating a revolutionary movement and a counterculture that was able to take over the world.