Driving Identities examines long-standing connections between popular music and the automotive industry and how this relationship has helped to construct and reflect various socio-cultural identities.

Ken McLeod is an Associate Professor of Music History at the University of Toronto. He has published widely on identity politics in popular music, and the intersections between technology, science fiction, and rock music. His first book, We Are The Champions: The Politics of Sports and Popular Music (Ashgate, 2011), examines the interconnection of sport and popular music in constructing racial, gender, socio-economic, and national identities.

Introduction: Revving Up

1 "Come Away With Me, Lucille": A Brief History of Popular Song and Automobiles

2 "No Particular Place to Go": Cars, Music, and African American Identity

3 "Gotta Feel for My Automobile": Cars, Music, Gender, and Sexuality

4 If This Brand Were a Band: Sound and Music in Automotive Branding

5 The Sound of Cars as Musical Objects: Tuning, Engine Sound Enhancement, and the Quest for Quiet

6 Sound Systems, Sonic Performance, and the Car as Instrument of Identity

7 Spare Parts: Cars and Soundtracks, Spiritual Connections, Location, and Theoretical Musings

Conclusion: Shut Down

Bibliography

Index