Making the Scene in the Garden State

"An engrossing read for anyone interested in the development of popular media, popular music, and American society as a whole." ~Journal of American Culture

"In many ways, MacLeod hits his finest notes [by] providing readers with useful miniature stories about the lives and times of Jersey Shore musicians and their audiences. Chock-full of new information and helpfully resourced with the fruits of countless interviews, Making the Scene in the Garden State should enjoy a large audience both for the book's scholarly value, as well as for its engaging anecdotes about New Jersey's role in changing American musical culture for all time."

~New Jersey Studies

"MacLeod offers a useful local cultural history that will enrich understanding of twentieth-century America for undergraduates and general audiences alike. Meanwhile, professional scholars can add Making the Scene in the Garden State to their list of works that shine a light into the nation's unjustly overlooked corners."

~Journal of American History

"The New Jersey music stories told in these pages are often punctuated by chance occurrences, dumb luck, unexpected brilliance, and a little magic. They also give us a view into the bigger patterns of cultural and historical change that are far more than a local matter. From MacLeod's 'scenes' come bigger shifts. Read this and be reminded of the ways in which popular (and sometimes unpopular!) music and the people who make it, listen to it, and dream through it do things out there on the margins that, finally, reshape the center." 

~Warren Zanes, author of Petty: The Biography