Why Karen Carpenter Matters

A radical, literary and intimate insight into one of the twentieth century's most vital vocalists.

A Pitchfork Music Book of the Year

'Tongson serves up a number of astute observations about fantasy, projection, longing, normalcy, and aberrance.' - Maggie Nelson

'Deftly weaves memoir, history, and cultural criticism to highlight the dynamic relationship between artists and listeners.' - Pitchfork

In the '60s and '70s, America's music scene was marked by raucous excess, reflected in the tragic overdoses of young superstars such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. At the same time, the uplifting harmonies and sunny lyrics that propelled Karen Carpenter and her brother, Richard, to international fame belied a different sort of tragedy - the underconsumption that led to Karen's death at age thirty-two from the effects of an eating disorder.

In Why Karen Carpenter Matters, Karen Tongson (whose parents named her after the pop icon) interweaves the story of the singer's rise to fame in the 1960s and '70s with her own trans-Pacific journey between the Philippines - where imitations of American pop styles flourished - and Karen Carpenter's home ground of Southern California. Tongson reveals why the Carpenters' chart-topping, seemingly white-washed musical fantasies of 'normal love' have profound significance for her - as well as for other people of colour, LGBT+ communities, and anyone outside the mainstream culture usually associated with Karen Carpenter's legacy.

This hybrid of memoir and biography excavates the destructive perfectionism at the root of the Carpenters' sound, while finding the beauty in the singer's all-too-brief life.

About the Author

Karen Tongson is the chair of gender & sexuality studies, and professor of gender & sexuality studies, English and American studies & ethnicity at the University of Southern California. She is the author of Relocations: Queer Suburban Imaginaries, and co-editor of the Postmillennial Pop book series with Henry Jenkins at NYU Press. Her writing and cultural commentary have appeared in NPR, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Los Angeles Times, The AV Club, Entertainment Weekly, L.A. Weekly, BuzzFeed Reader, The Washington Post and Suddeutsche Zeitung among other venues. She co-hosts the podcasts Waiting to X-Hale with Wynter Mitchell-Rohrbaugh, and The Gaymazing Race with Nicole J. Georges.

Dimensions (cm): 1.7 x 12.8  x 19.7