The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll out of the Spirit of Myth: Salman Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Abstract

Rushdie's 1999 novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet is a 20th century version of the myth of Orpheus (Ormus Cama) and Eurydike (Vina Apsara) and the rise and fall of the fictional rock band VTO. The amalgamation of myth and rock 'n' roll is closely connected with the novel's emphasis on the necessity of keeping the ground beneath our feet, i.e. that which we think of as real and true, in motion. By showing how rock 'n' roll, in spite of all its negative aspects, has been driven by the need to shake what is all too stable and to cross boundaries of all kinds, the novel suggests a more positive evaluation of rock music than is common in many academic discussions of the subject today.