The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area. It may be a residential area of a city (such as in Australia and New Zealand), or a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city (as in the United States and Canada). Some suburbs have a degree of political autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods. Suburbs grew in the 19th and 20th century as a result of improved rail and later road transport and an increase in commuting. Suburbs tend to proliferate around cities that have an abundance of adjacent flat land. Any particular suburban area is referred to as a suburb, while suburban areas on the whole are referred to as the suburbs or suburbia, with the demonym being a suburbanite. Colloquial usage sometimes shortens the term to burb.

Etymology and usage

The word is derived from the Old French subburbe and ultimately from the Latin suburbium, formed from sub, meaning "under", and urbs, meaning "city". In Rome, important people tended to live within the city hills. "Under" in later usage sometimes referred variously to lesser wealth, political power, population, or population density. The first recorded usage, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, comes from Wycliffe in 1380, where the form subarbis is used.

The word suburb is used a variety of ways around the world.

United States and Canada

In the United States and Canada, suburb can refer either to an outlying residential area of a city or town or to a separate municipality, borough, or unincorporated area outside a town or city. The latter definition is evident in the title of David Rusk's book Cities Without Suburbs (ISBN 0-943875-73-0), which promotes metropolitan government. Note, however, that this definition is not universal. In fact, many of the classic streetcar suburbs are within the political boundaries of their respective cities, such as West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a part of which has is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the West Philadelphia Streetcar Suburb Historic District. American journalist and social commentator Joel Garreau criticized the common use of the term solely to areas outside the political boundaries of major cities in his 1991 book Edge City: Life on the New Frontier when he discussed the phenomenon of edge cities in Atlanta (emphasis added): }}

For its part, the Canadian national statistical agency, Statistics Canada, uses a variety of definitions of "suburban" and "urban" depending of the context:

United Kingdom and Ireland

In Ireland and the United Kingdom, suburb merely refers to a residential areas outside the city center, regardless of administrative boundaries. Suburbs in this sense can be separated by open countryside from the city center. In large cities such as London, suburbs include formerly separate towns and villages which have been gradually absorbed during a city's growth and expansion.

Australia and New Zealand

In Australia and New Zealand, suburbs have become formalised as geographic subdivisions of a city and are used by postal services in addressing. In rural areas of Australia their equivalents are called localities (see suburbs and localities). In Australia, the terms inner suburb and outer suburb are used to differentiate between the higher-density suburbs in proximity to the city center, and the lower-density suburbs on the outskirts of the urban area. Inner suburbs, such as Te Aro in Wellington, Prahran in Melbourne and Ultimo in Sydney, are usually characterised by higher density apartment housing and greater integration between commercial and residential areas.

History

While suburbs had originated far earlier; the suburban population in North America exploded during the post-World War II economic expansion. Returning veterans wishing to start a settled life moved en masse to the suburbs. Levittown developed as a major prototype of mass-produced housing. At the same time, African Americans were rapidly moving north for better jobs and educational opportunities than were available to them in the segregated South. Their arrival in Northern cities en masses – in addition to race riots in several large cities such as Detroit, Chicago, and Philadelphia – further stimulated white suburban migration.

De-investment in American cities was rampant during the time of mass suburbanization. Aging cities were left to fall apart, during the time when the country was experiencing tremendous prosperity. Industrial factories that were once the heart of the city were now being abandoned and jobs were shifting to the service sector jobs. In the U.S, the development of the skyscraper and the sharp inflation of downtown real estate prices also led to downtowns being more fully dedicated to businesses, thus pushing residents outside the city center.

The history of suburbia is a subfield of urban history and enlists scholars across the world. Most published work looks at the origins, growth, diverse typologies, culture, and politics of suburbs, as well as to the gendered and family-oriented nature of suburban space. Many people have assumed that early-20th-century suburbs were enclaves for middle-class whites, a concept that carries tremendous cultural influence yet is actually stereotypical. Many suburbs are based on a heterogeneous society of working-class and minority residents, many of whom share the American Dream regarding home ownership as defined by developers and the power of advertising. Sies (2001) argues that it is necessary to examine how "suburb" is defined as well as the distinction made between cities and suburbs, geography, economic circumstances, and the interaction of numerous factors that move research beyond acceptance of stereotyping and its influence on scholarly assumptions.

Suburbia worldwide

United States

In the United States, suburbs have a prevalence of usually detached single-family homes. thumb|right|Suburban Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Many post-World War II American suburbs are characterized by: Lower densities than central cities, dominated by single-family homes on small plots of land, surrounded at close quarters by very similar dwellings.

Zoning patterns that separate residential and commercial development, as well as different intensities and densities of development. Daily needs are not within walking distance of most homes.

Subdivisions carved from previously rural land into multiple-home developments built by a single real estate company. These subdivisions are often segregated by minute differences in home value, creating entire communities where family incomes and demographics are almost completely homogeneous..

Shopping malls and strip malls behind large parking lots instead of a classic downtown shopping district.

A road network designed to conform to a hierarchy, including culs-de-sac, leading to larger residential streets, in turn leading to large collector roads, in place of the grid pattern common to most central cities and pre-World War II suburbs.

A greater percentage of one-story administrative buildings than in urban areas.

A greater percentage of Whites and less percentage of citizens of other ethnic groups than in urban areas. Black suburbanization grew between 1970 and 1980 by 2.6% as a result of central city neighborhoods expanding into older neighborhoods vacated by whites.

Compared to rural areas, suburbs usually have greater population density, higher standards of living, more complex road systems, more franchised stores and restaurants, and less farmland and wildlife.

By 2010 suburbs increasingly gained people in racial minority groups as White Americans moved back to city centers. Many major city downtowns (such as Downtown Miami, Downtown Detroit, or Downtown Los Angeles) are experiencing a renewal, with large population growth, residential apartment construction, and increased social, cultural, and infrastructural investments. Better public transit, proximity to work and cultural attractions, and frustration with suburban life and gridlock have attracted young Americans to the city centers.

History

Prior to the 19th century, suburb often correlated with the outlying areas of cities where work was most inaccessible; implicitly, where the poorest people had to live. The modern American usage of the term came about during the course of the 19th century, as improvements in transportation and sanitation made it possible for wealthy developments to exist on the outskirts of cities, for example in Brooklyn Heights.

The growth of suburbs was facilitated by the development of zoning laws, redlining and numerous innovations in transport. After World War II availability of FHA loans stimulated a housing boom in American suburbs. In the older cities of the northeast U.S., streetcar suburbs originally developed along train or trolley lines that could shuttle workers into and out of city centers where the jobs were located. This practice gave rise to the term bedroom community, meaning that most daytime business activity took place in the city, with the working population leaving the city at night for the purpose of going home to sleep.

Economic growth in the United States encouraged the suburbanization of American cities that required massive investments for the new infrastructure and homes. Consumer patterns were also shifting at this time, purchasing power was becoming stronger and more accessible to a wider range of families. Suburban houses also brought about needs for products that were not needed in urban neighborhoods, such as lawnmowers and automobiles. During this time commercial shopping malls were being developed near suburbs to satisfy consumer needs and their car dependent lifestyle..

Long Island, New York in the United States became the first large scale suburban area in the world to develop, thanks to William Levitt's Levittown, New York which is widely considered to be the archetype of Post-WWII suburbia. Long Island's significance as a suburb derived mostly from the upper-middle-class development of entire communities in the late nineteenth century, and the rapid population growth that occurred as a result.

As car ownership rose and wider roads were built, the commuting trend accelerated as in North America. This trend towards living away from towns and cities has been termed the urban exodus.

Zoning laws also contributed to the location of residential areas outside of the city center by creating wide areas or "zones" where only residential buildings were permitted. These suburban residences are built on larger lots of land than in the urban city. For example, the lot size for a residence in Chicago is usually deep, while the width can vary from wide for a row house to wide for a large standalone house. In the suburbs, where standalone houses are the rule, lots may be wide by deep, as in the Chicago suburb of Naperville. Manufacturing and commercial buildings were segregated in other areas of the city.

Increasingly, more people moved out to the suburbs, known as suburbanization. Moving along with the population, many companies also located their offices and other facilities in the outer areas of the cities. This has resulted in increased density in older suburbs and, often, the growth of lower density suburbs even further from city centers. An alternative strategy is the deliberate design of "new towns" and the protection of green belts around cities. Some social reformers attempted to combine the best of both concepts in the garden city movement.

In the United States, since the 18th century urban areas have often grown faster than city boundaries. Until the 1900s, new neighborhoods usually sought or accepted annexation to the central city to obtain city services. In the 20th century, however, many suburban areas began to see independence from the central city as an asset. In some cases, white suburbanites saw self-government as a means to keep out people who could not afford the added suburban property maintenance costs not needed in city living. Federal subsidies for suburban development accelerated this process as did the practice of redlining by banks and other lending institutions. Some cities such as Miami and San Francisco, the main city is much smaller than the surrounding suburban areas, leaving the city proper with a small portion of the metro area's population and land area. Cleveland, Ohio is typical of many American central cities; its municipal borders have changed little since 1922, even though the Cleveland urbanized area has grown many times over. Several layers of suburban municipalities now surround cities like Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Dallas, Denver, Fort Worth, Houston, San Francisco, Sacramento, Atlanta, Miami, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia.

Canada

In determining which areas are considered "urban" and which are "suburban", the national statistical agency, Statistics Canada, has examined a number of potential methods for drawing the distinction, including municipal boundaries, age of the housing stock, distance from city hall or the central business district, and housing (but not population) density. It considers the last two, distance from center and housing density, the best measures of suburban or urban identity. Suburbs are defined as primarily single-family housing located at distance from the center of the city, while urban areas are primarily multi-family buildings near the center.

Canada is an urbanized nation where over 80% of the population live in urban areas (loosely defined), and roughly two-thirds live in one of Canada's 33 census metropolitan areas (CMAs) with a population of over 100,000. However, of this metropolitan population, in 2001 nearly half lived in low-density neighborhoods, with only one in five living in a typical "urban" neighborhood. The percentage living in low-density neighborhoods varied from a high of nearly two-thirds of Calgary CMA residents (67%), to a low of about one-third of Montreal CMA residents (34%).

The history of urban development in Canada is comparable to that in the United States: after World War II, large bedroom communities of single-family homes and shopping malls sprouted on the outskirts of Canadian cities. However, there are number of differences. A major difference between the suburban / urban divides in Canada and the United States, is the greater relevance of the concept of white flight in explaining demographic patterns in the United States. Furthermore, compared to the United States, since 1971 Canadian core cities have not experienced as much population decline, have been allowed to annex more outlying areas, and have enacted zoning policies that are more tolerant of density.

Despite these caveats, the trend in Canada has been of steady suburbanization. Population and income growth in Canadian suburbs has tended to outpace growth in core urban or rural areas. The suburban population increased 87% between 1981 and 2001, well ahead of urban growth. The majority of recent population growth in Canada's three largest metropolitan areas (Greater Toronto, Greater Montreal, and Greater Vancouver) has occurred in non-core municipalities, although this is not the same as total suburban growth, which often occurs within core cities' boundaries, particularly in geographically large cities like Calgary and Edmonton.

Transportation in Canadian suburbs is dominated by private automobiles. Between 1992 and 2005, automobile dependence rose in Canadian suburbs, while bicycle usage declined.

The political independence of suburban municipalities from the nearby city is a sensitive political issue, since provincial governments have the power to rewrite municipal boundaries at will, and they have often dictated mergers without input from residents (recently in Nova Scotia in 1996, Ontario in 1997 and Quebec in 2002). The percenage of a CMA's population located in the core municipality varies substantially. For this reason, Statistics Canada does not use municipal boundaries to delineate "suburbs" from "cities".

Canada's largest administratively independent suburban municipalities are those surrounding the four largest cities. Montreal is neighbored both by municipalities that lie on the same island in the St. Lawrence River, as well as "off-island suburbs" including the two largest, Laval (located on a neighboring island) and Longueuil (on the mainland), as well as a "ring" of smaller municipalities on the South and North shores of the river. From 2002 to 2006 the entire Island of Montreal was merged into one city, but this policy was partly reversed when a different party captured the provincial government. Ottawa and its large neighbor of Gatineau—both expanded greatly by city-suburb mergers in the early 2000s—face one another on the Ottawa River; the two, together with neighboring suburban towns in both Ontario and Quebec, form the National Capital Region. Toronto annexed many of the outlying suburbs in 1998. The Greater Toronto Area has many large suburban cities with its two largest being Mississauga and Brampton. Greater Vancouver has seven suburban municipalities with at least 100,000 people, with the largest being Surrey and Vancouver's direct neighbors Burnaby and Richmond. Edmonton is neighbored by St. Albert and Sherwood Park among others.

History

In the 1890–1930 era part of Toronto' east-end district now known as "the Beach" changed from a "cottage colony" of summer second-homes into a metropolitan suburb dominated by the middle classes. The Beach is a representative type of pre-World War II suburban growth since it emerged slowly and piecemeal, and was inconsistent in pattern and form with a mix of housing types. The Beach exemplifies how social classes sorted themselves by income level and neighborhood. The Beach was dominated by the middle classes, with some working-class areas.

In sharp contrast to the haphazard development of "the Beach" stands the elaborately designed Montréal suburb of Mount Royal. The Canadian Northern Railway built Mount Royal northwest of Montréal in 1910 to 1925. It was a corporate suburb that was planned, designed, and developed as a real estate venture to help offset the costs of building a railway tunnel into the center of Montreal. Its main designer was Frederick Todd, a protégé of the junior Olmsted and Canada's most prominent landscape architect of the early 20th century. His design was influenced by the City Beautiful ideals of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and the Garden City Movement principles of Henry Vivian.

After the Second World War, a serious housing shortage and the return of large numbers of veterans led the national government, through the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), to promote suburbs by offering very low cost mortgages, with small down payments and easy terms.

Other countries

In many parts of the developed world, suburbs are different from the American suburb, both in terms of population and in terms of what they represent. In some cases suburbs of cities outside of North America are economically distressed areas, inhabited by higher proportions of recent immigrants, with higher delinquency rates and social problems. Sometimes the notion of suburb may even refer to people in real misery, who are kept at the limit of the city borders for economic, social, and sometimes ethnic reasons. An example in the developed world would be the banlieues of France, or the concrete suburbs of Sweden, even if the suburbs of these countries also include middle-class and upper-class neighborhoods that often consist of single-family houses. Thus some of the suburbs of most of the developed world are comparable to several inner cities of the U.S. and Canada.

The growth in the use of trains, and later automobiles and highways, increased the ease with which workers could have a job in the city while commuting in from the suburbs. In the United Kingdom, railways stimulated the first mass exodus to the suburbs. The Metropolitan Railway, for example, was active in building and promoting its own housing estates in the north-west of London, consisting mostly of detached houses on large plots, which it then marketed as "Metro-land".he Australian and New Zealand usage came about as outer areas were quickly surrounded in fast-growing cities, but retained the appellation suburb; the term was eventually applied to the original core as well.

In Mexico, suburbs are generally similar to their United States counterparts. Houses have much different architecture which is a mix of Spanish, Aztec and American architecture, and are generally bigger or smaller and called lomas (literally Spanish for hills). Suburbs can be found in Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey, and most major cities. Lomas de Chapultepec is an example of an affluent suburb. In the rest of Latin America, the situation is that similar to Mexico, with many suburbs being built, most notably Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, which have experienced a boom in the construction of suburbs since the late 70s and early 80s. As the growth of middle-class and upper-class suburbs increased, low-class squatter areas have increased, most notably "lost cities" in Mexico, barriadas in Peru, villa miserias in Argentina, asentamientos in Guatemala and favelas of Brazil.

In Africa, since the beginning of the 1990s, the development of middle-class suburbs boomed. Due to the industrialization of many African countries, particularly in cities such as Cairo, Johannesburg and Lagos, the middle class has grown. In an illustrative case of South Africa, RDP housing has been built. In much of Soweto, many houses' architecture are American in appearance, but are smaller, and often consist of a kitchen and living room two or three bedrooms, and a bathroom. However, more affluent neighborhoods more comparable to American suburbs, particularly east of the FNB Stadium. In Cape Town there is a distinct European style which is due to the European influence during the mid-1600s when the Dutch conquered the area. Houses like these are called Cape Dutch Houses and can be found in the affluent suburbs of Constantia and Bishopscourt.

thumb|left|Houses in Kensington, a wealthy suburb of London In the UK, the government is seeking to impose minimum densities on newly approved housing schemes in parts of southeast England. The goal is to 'build sustainable communities' rather than housing estates. However, commercial concerns tend to retard the opening of services until a large number of residents have occupied the new neighborhood. In the illustrative case of Rome, Italy, in the 1920s and 1930s, suburbs were intentionally created ex novo in order to give lower classes a destination, in consideration of the actual and foreseen massive arrival of poor people from other areas of the country. Many critics have seen in this development pattern (which was circularly distributed in every direction) also a quick solution to a problem of public order (keeping the unwelcome poorest classes together with the criminals, in this way better controlled, comfortably remote from the elegant "official" town). On the other hand, the expected huge expansion of the town soon effectively covered the distance from the central town, and now those suburbs are completely engulfed by the main territory of the town. Other newer suburbs (called exurbs) were created at a further distance from them.

In Russia, the term suburb differs from the American term, but also differ from the Western European term. In North America, suburbs often refer to residential areas that house the middle and high class and are made up of single-family homes. In Russia however, a suburb refers to high-rise residential apartments which usually consist of two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen and a living room. These suburbs, however are usually not in poor neighborhoods, as with the banlieues of France.

In China, the term suburb is new, although suburbs are already being constructed rapidly. Many new suburban homes are similar to their equivalents in the United States, primarily outside Beijing and Shanghai, which also mimic Spanish and Italian architecture. In Hong Kong, however, suburbs are mostly government-planned new towns containing numerous public housing estates. New Towns such as Tin Shui Wai may gain notoriety as a slum. However, other new towns also contain private housing estates and low density developments for the upper classes.

In Japan, the construction of suburbs have boomed since the end of World War II. They are very similar to their US counterparts, and many cities are experiencing the urban sprawl effect.

In Malaysia, suburbs are common, especially in areas surrounding the Klang Valley, which is the largest conurbation in the country. These suburbs also serve as major housing areas and commuter towns. Terraced houses, semi-detached houses and shophouses are common concepts in suburbs. In certain areas such as Klang, Subang Jaya and Petaling Jaya, suburbs form the core of these places. The latter one has been turned into a satellite city of Kuala Lumpur. Suburbs are also evident in other smaller conurbations including Ipoh, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching and Penang.

Traffic flows

Suburbs typically have more traffic congestion and longer travel times than traditional neighborhoods. Only the traffic within the short streets themselves is less. This is due to three factors: almost-mandatory automobile ownership due to poor suburban bus systems, longer travel distances and the hierarchy system, which is less efficient at distributing traffic than the traditional grid of streets.

In the suburban system, most trips from one component to another component requires that cars enter a collector road, no matter how short or long the distance is. This is compounded by the hierarchy of streets, where entire neighborhoods and subdivisions are dependent on one or two collector roads. Because all traffic is forced onto these roads, they are often heavy with traffic all day. If a traffic accident occurs on a collector road, or if road construction inhibits the flow, then the entire road system may be rendered useless until the blockage is cleared. The traditional "grown" grid, in turn, allows for a larger number of choices and alternate routes.

Suburban systems of the sprawl type are also quite inefficient for cyclists or pedestrians, as the direct route is usually not available for them either. This encourages car trips even for distances as low as several hundreds of yards or meters (which may have become up to several miles or kilometers due to the road network). Improved sprawl systems, though retaining the car detours, possess cycle paths and footpath connecting across the arms of the sprawl system, allowing a more direct route while still keeping the cars out of the residential and side streets.

Cultural depictions

Suburbia was the subject matter for the American photojournalist Bill Owens, whose books documented the culture of suburbia in the 1970s, most notably his book Suburbia.

The 1962 song "Little Boxes" by Malvina Reynolds lampoons the development of suburbia and its perceived bourgeois and conformist values.

In Britain, television series such as The Good Life, Butterflies and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin depicted suburbia as well-manicured but relentlessly boring, and its residents as either overly conforming or prone to going stir crazy. Contrastingly, U.S. shows – such as Desperate Housewives or Weeds - portray the suburbs with perfectly manicured lawns, friendly people, and beautifully up-kept houses. However, shows from both countries depict the suburbs as being full of drama, secrets, and hidden motivations amongst its residents.

See also

Boomburbs

Developed Environments

Ethnoburb

Faubourg

Levittown, Pennsylvania

List of largest suburbs by population

London commuter belt (Stockbroker belt)

Microdistrict

Penurbia

Settlement types

*Hamlet

*Megalopolis

Suburbia bashing

Urban rural fringe

References

Bibliography

Baumgartner, M. P. The Moral Order of a Suburb. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Baxandall, Rosalyn and Elizabeth Ewen. Picture Windows: How the Suburbs Happened. New York: Basic Books, 2000.

Blakely, Edward J. and Mary Gail Snyder. Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1997.

Bruegmann, Robert. Sprawl: A Compact History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

Duany, Andrés and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. New York: North Point Press, 2000.

England, Robert E. and David R. Morgan. Managing Urban America, 1979.

Fava, Sylvia Fleis. "Suburbanism as a Way of Life." American Sociological Review 21 no. 1 (February 1956): 34–37.

Fishman, Robert. Bourgeois Utopia: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia. New York: Basic Books, 1987.

Fogelson, Robert M. Bourgeois Nightmares: Suburbia, 1870–193'. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.

Gans, Herbert J. The Levittowners: Ways of Life and Politics in a New Suburban Community. New York: Pantheon, 1967.

Gruenberg, Sidonie Matsner. "The Challenge of the New Suburbs." Marriage and Family Living 17 no. 2 (May 1955): 133–137.

Hanlon, Bernadette. Once the American Dream: Inner ring Suburbs in the Metropolitan United States. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2010

Hayden, Dolores. Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1920–2000. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003.

Hope, Andrew. "Evaluation the Significance of San Lorenzo Village, A Mid-20th Century Suburban Community." CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship 2 (Summer 2005): 50–61.

Katz, Peter, ed. The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community. New York: McGraw–Hill, 1994.

Kelly, Barbara. Expanding the American Dream: Building and Rebuilding Levittown. Albany, NY: State University of Albany Press, 1993.

Kruse, Kevin M, and Thomas J. Sugrue, editors. The New Suburban History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Kunstler, James Howard. The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Lewis, Robert (2001) "Manufacturing Montreal: The Making of an Industrial Landscape, 1850 to 1930" Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Lukez, Paul. "Suburban Transformations." New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007.

McKenzie, Evan. Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994.

Morton, Marian. "The Suburban Ideal and Suburban Realities: Cleveland heights, Othio, 1860–2001." Journal of Urban History 28 no. 5 (September 2002) 671–698,

Muller, Peter O. Contemporary Suburban America. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice–Hall, 1981.

Mumford, Lewis. The Culture of Cities. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1938.

Oliver, J. Eric. "Democracy in Suburbia." Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.

O'Toole, Randall. "The Vanishing Automobile and Other Urban Myths" The Thoreau Institute.

Putman, Robert D. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Rybczynski, Witold. "How to Build a Suburb." The Wilson Quarterly 19 no. 3 (Summer 2005): 114–126.

Rybczynski, Witold (November 7, 2005). "Suburban Despair". Slate.

Smith, Albert C. & Schank, Kendra (1999). "A Grotesque Measure for Marietta". Journal of Urban Design 4 (3).

Vicino, Thomas J. Transforming Race and Class in Suburbia: Decline in Metropolitan Baltimore. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

Warner, Sam Bass. Streetcar Suburbs: The Process of Growth in Boston, 1870–1890. Cambridge. Mass., 1962.

Winkler, Robert. Going Wild: Adventures with Birds in the Suburban Wilderness. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2003.

Winkler, Robert. "All the World's a Mall: Reflections on the Social and Economic Consequences of the American Shopping Center." The American Historical Review 101 no. 4 (October 1996): 1111–1121.

Further reading

Allen, Frederick Lewis. “The Big Change in Suburbia, Part I.” Harper’s Magazine 208, no. 1249 (June 1954): 21–28.

Archer, John. “Country and City in the American Romantic Suburb.” The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 42, no. 2 (May 1983): 139–56.

________. Architecture and Suburbia: From English Villa to American Dream House, 1690–2000. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005.

Avila, Eric. Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.

Baldassare, Mark. Trouble in Paradise: The Suburban Transformation in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.

Baker, Kevin. “The Improved Man.” Harper’s 300 (June 2000): 126–34.

Baumgartner, M. P. The Moral Order of a Suburb. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Baxabdall, Rosalyn and Elizabeth Ewen. Picture Windows: How the Suburbs Happened. New York: Basic Books, 2000.

Beauregard, Robert A. When America Became Suburban. New York: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.

Binford, Henry C. The First Suburbs: Residential Communities on the Boston Periphery, 1815–1860. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.

Blake, Robert. God’s Own Junkyard: The Planned Deterioration of America’s Landscape. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964.

Blakely, Edward J. and Mary Gail Snyder. Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1997.

Blauvelt, Andrew, ed. Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 2008.

Bruegmann, Robert. Sprawl: A Compact History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

Clark, Jr., Clifford Edward. The American Family Home, 1800–1960. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.

Conn, Steven and Max Page, editors. Building the Nation: Americans Write About Their Architecture, Their Cities, and Their Landscape. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003.

Crawford, Margaret. Building the Workingman’s Paradise: The Design of American Company Towns. New York: Verso, 1995.

Davis, Mike. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. London: Verso, 1990.

Donoghue, John. Alexander Jackson Davis, Romantic Architect, 1803–1892. New York: Arno Press, 1977.

Downs, Jr., Arthur Channing. “Downing’s Newburgh Villa.” Bulletin of the Association for Preservation Technology 4, nos. 3–4 (1972): 1–113.

Douglass, Harlan Paul. The Suburban Trend. 1925. Reprint, New York, Johnson Reprint Corp., 1970.

Dreir, Peter, John Mollenkopf, and Todd Swanstrom. Place Matters: Metropolitics for the Twenty-first Century. Topeka: University of Kansas Press, 2002.

Duany, Andres, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, editors. Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. New York: North Point Press, 2000.

Ebner, Michael H. Creating Chicago’s North Shore: A Suburban History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

Fishman, Robert. Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia. New York: Basic Books, 1987.

Flint, Anthony. This Land: The Battle Over Sprawl and the Future of America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.

Fogelson, Robert M. Bourgeois Nightmares: Suburbia, 1870–1930. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005.

Fong, Timothy P. The First Suburban Chinatown: The Remaking of Monterey Park, California. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994.

Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: Norton, 1963.

Gans, Herbert J. The Levittowners: Ways of Life and Politics in a New Suburban Community. New York: Pantheon, 1967.

Gruenberg, Sidonie Matsner. "The Challenge of the New Suburbs." Marriage and Family Living 17, no. 2 (May 1955): 133–37.

Gardner, Todd. “The Slow Wave: The Changing Residential Status of Cities and Suburbs in the United States, 1850–1949.” Journal of Urban History 27, no. 3 (March 2001): 293–312.

Garreau, Joel. Edge City: Life on the New Frontier. New York: Doubleday, 1991.

Hanlon, Bernadette.Once the American Dream: Inner ring Suburbs of the Metropolitan United States. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2010.

Hanlon, Bernadette, John Rennie Short and Thomas J. Vicino. Cities and Suburbs: New Metropolitan Realities in the U.S. New York: Routledge, 2010.

Harris, Richard and Robert Lewis. “Constructing a Fault(y) Zone: Misrepresentations of American Cities and Suburbs, 1900–1950.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 88, no. 4 (1998): 622–41.

________. “The Geography of North American Cities and Suburbs, 1900–1950: A New Synthesis.” Journal of Urban History 27, no. 3 (March 2001): 262–92.

Harris, Richard. Unplanned Suburbs: Toronto’s American Tragedy, 1900 to 1950. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

Hayden, Dolores. Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820–2000. New York: Vintage Books, 2003.

Haynes, Bruce D. Red Lines, Black Spaces: The Politics of Race and Space in a Black Middle-Class Suburb. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.

Henderson, Susan. “Llewellyn Park, Suburban Idyll.” Journal of Garden History 7, no. 3 (July–September 1987): 221–43.

Hise, Greg. Magnetic Los Angeles: Planning the Twentieth-Century Metropolis. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.

Hope, Andrew. "Evaluation the Significance of San Lorenzo Village, A Mid-20th Century Suburban Community." CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship 2 (Summer 2005): 50–61.

Jackson, John Brinckerhoff. Discovering the Vernacular Landscape. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984.

Jackson, Kenneth T. Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.

Jacobs, Jane. Dark Age Ahead. New York: Random House, 2004.

Johnson, Ronald M. “From Romantic Suburb to Racial Enclave: LeDroit Park, Washington, D.C., 1880–1920.” Phylon 45, no. 4 (4th Quarter 1984): 264–70.

Kalita, S. Mitra. Suburban Sahibs: Three Immigrant Families and Their Passage from India to America. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2003.

Kargon, Robert Hugh and Arthur P. Molella. Invented Edens: Techno-Cities of the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008.

Katz, Bruce and Robert E. Lang, editors. Redefining Urban and Suburban America: Evidence from Census 2000. Washington, D.C.: Brookings, 2003.

Kay, Jane Holtz. Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile took over America, and How We Can Take it Back. New York: Crown Publishers, 1997.

Katz, Peter, editor. The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community. Afterward by Vincent Scully. New York: McGraw–Hill, 1994.

Keating, Ann Durkin. Building Chicago: Suburban Developers and the Creation of a Divided Metropolis. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1988.

Kelly, Barbara. Expanding the American Dream: Building and Rebuilding Levittown. Albany, NY: State University of Albany Press, 1993.

Kirp, David L., John P. Dwyer, and Larry A. Rosenthal. Our Town: Race, Housing, and the Soul of Suburbia. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1995.

Kruse, Kevin M. White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Kruse, Kevin M. and Thomas J. Sugrue, editors. The New Suburban History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Kunstler, James Howard. The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.

Lassiter, Matthew D. “The New Suburban History II: Political Culture and Metropolitan Space.” Journal of Planning History 4, no. 1 (February 2005): 75–88.

________. The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2006.

________. “Suburban Strategies: The Volatile Center in Postwar Politics.” In The Democratic Experiment: New Directions in American Political History, edited by Meg Jacobs, William J. Novak, and Julian E. Zelizer, 327–49. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.

Lewis, Robert. Manufacturing Montreal: The Making of an Industrial Landscape, 1850 to 1930. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.

________, editor. Manufacturing Suburbs: Building Work and Home on the Metropolitan Fringe. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004.

Li, Wei. “Building Ethnoburbia: The Emergence and Manifestation of the Chinese Ethnoburb in Los Angeles’ San Gabriel Valley.” Journal of Asian American Studies 2, no. 1 (February 1999): 1–29.

Lipsitz, George. The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.

Low, Setha. Behind the Gates: Life, Security, and the Pursuit of Happiness in Fortress America. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Lukez, Paul. Suburban Transformations. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007.

Marsh, Margaret. Suburban Lives. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990.

________. “Suburban Men and Masculine Domesticity.” American Quarterly 40, no. 2 (June 1988): 165–86.

Mattingly, Paul H. Suburban Landscapes: Culture and Politics in a New York Metropolitan Community. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.

McGirr, Lisa. Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.

McKenzie, Evan. Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994.

Moore, Shirley Ann Wilson. To Place Our Deeds: The African American Community in Richmond, California, 1910–1963. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.

Morton, Marian. "The Suburban Ideal and Suburban Realities: Cleveland Heights, Ohio, 1860–2001." Journal of Urban History 28, no. 5 (September 2002) 671–98.

Muller, Robert O. Contemporary Suburban America. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice–Hall, 1981.

Mumford, Lewis. “Suburbia — and Beyond.” In The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects, by Lewis Mumford, 483-503. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1961.

Murray, Sylvie. The Progressive Housewife: Community Activism in Suburban Queens. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

“The New Suburban History.” H-Urban. Available online at http://www.h-net.org/~urban. H-Urban discussion sparked by Amanda I. Seligman’s December 2003 comments on her fall 2003 course.

Nicolaides, Becky M. My Blue Heaven: Life and Politics in the Working-Class Suburbs of Los Angeles, 1920–1965. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.

Nicolaides, Becky M. and Andrew Weise, editors. The Suburb Reader. New York: Routledge, 2006.

O’ Mara, Margaret Pugh. “Suburbia Reconsidered: Race, Politics, and Prosperity in the Twentieth Century.” Journal of Social History 39, no. 1 (Fall 2005): 229–44.

Oliver, J. Eric. Democracy in Suburbia. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.

Orfield, Myron. American Metropolitics: The New Suburban Reality. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2002.

Orser, W. Edward. “Secondhand Suburbs: Black Pioneers in Baltimore’s Edmondson Village, 1955-1980.” Journal of Urban History 10, no. 3 (May 1990): 227–62.

Palen, J. John. The Suburbs. New York: McGraw–Hill, 1995.

Pattillo-McCoy, Mary. Black Pickett Fences: Privilege and Peril among the Black Middle Class. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Putman, Robert D. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Riesman, David. The Lonely Crowd. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1961.

Rome, Adam Ward. The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Russell, James S. “When Suburbs Become Mega-Suburbs.” Architectural Record 191, no. 8 (August 2003): 76–81.

Rybczynski, Witold. "How to Build a Suburb." The Wilson Quarterly 19 no. 3 (Summer 2005): 114–26.

Salamon, Sonya. Newcomers to Old Towns: Suburbanization of the Heartland. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Schuyler, David. Apostle of Taste: Andrew Jackson Downing, 1815–1852. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

________. The New Urban Landscape: The Redefinition of Form in Nineteenth-Century America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.

Self, Robert O. American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003.

Seligman, Amanda I. “The New Suburban History.” Journal of Planning History 3, no. 4 (November 2004): 312–33.

Sies, Mary Corbin. “The City Transformed: Nature, Technology, and the Suburban Ideal, 1877–1917.” Journal of Urban History 14, no. 1 (November 1987): 81–111.

________. “Moving Beyond Scholarly Orthodoxies in North American Suburban History.” Journal of Urban History 27, no. 3 (March 2001): 355–61.

________. “North American Urban History: The Everyday Politics and Spatial Logics of Metropolitan Life.” Urban History Review/Revue d’histoire 32, no. 1 (Fall 2003): 28–42.

________. “Paradise Retained: An Analysis of Persistence in Planned, Exclusive Suburbs, 1880–1980.” Planning Perspectives 12 (1997): 165–91.

Stevens, William K. “Beyond the Mall: Suburbs Evolving into ‘Outer City.’” New York Times, November 8, 1987, E5.

Stilgoe, John R. Borderland: Origins of the American Suburb, 1820–1939. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.

Sugrue, Thomas J. The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. Princeton University Press, 1996.

Sweeting, Adam W. Reading Houses and Building Books: Andrew Jackson Downing and the Architecture of Popular Antebellum Literature, 1835–1855. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1996.

Tatum, George B. and Elisabeth Blair MacDougall, editors. Prophet with Honor: The Career of Andrew Jackson Downing, 1815–1852. Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1989.

Taylor, Jr., Henry L. “The Building of a Black Industrial Suburb: The Lincoln Heights, Ohio.” Thesis, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1979.

Teaford, Jon C. The American Suburb: The Basics. New York: Routledge, 2008.

________. City and Suburb: The Political Fragmentation of Metropolitan America, 1850–1970. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979.

Vicino, Thomas J. Transforming Race and Class in Suburbia: Decline in Metropolitan Baltimore. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

von Hoffman, Alexander. Local Attachments: The Making of an American Urban Neighborhood, 1850–1920. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.

Walker, Richard and Robert Lewis. “Beyond the Crabgrass Frontier: Industry and the Spread of North American Cities, 1850–1950.” Journal of Historical Geography 27, no. 1 (January 2001): 3–19.

Warner, Jr., Sam Bass. Streetcar Suburbs: The Process of Growth in Boston, 1870–1900. 1962. Reprint, New York: Athenaeum, 1976.

Weise, Andrew. “Black Housing, White Finance: African American Housing and Home Ownership in Evanston, Illinois, before 1940.” Journal of Social History 33, no. 2 (Winter 1999): 429–60.

________. “Places of Our Own: Suburban Black Towns before 1960.” Journal of Urban History 19, no. 3 (1993): 30–54.

________. Places of Their Own: African American Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004.

Whyte, Jr., William H. The Organization Man. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956.

Wilson, Richard Guy. “Idealism and the Origin of the First American Suburb: Llewellyn Park, New Jersey.” American Art Journal (October 1979): 79–90.

Wilson, William H. Hamilton Park: A Planned Black Community in Dallas. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.

Winkler, Robert. Going Wild: Adventures with Birds in the Suburban Wilderness. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2003.

Wright, Gwendolyn. Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America. New York: Pantheon Books, 1981.

________. Moralism and the Model Home: Domestic Architecture and Cultural Conflict in Chicago, 1870–1913. Chicago, Ill.: The University of Chicago Press, 1980.

External links

A Future Vision for the North American Suburb

Centre for Suburban Studies

Images of a mature north London suburb illustrating a wide range of domestic architecture

The end of suburbia (documentary film)

Category:City Category:Populated places by type *

ang:Underburg ar:ضاحية be-x-old:Прадмесьце bg:Предградие ca:Raval (urbanisme) cs:Předměstí da:Forstad de:Vorort el:Προάστιο es:Suburbio fr:Banlieue ko:교외 is:Úthverfi it:Suburbio he:פרוור kn:ಬಡಾವಣೆ ht:Fobou lt:Priemiestis nl:Buitenwijk new:उपनगरम्‌ ja:郊外 nn:Forstad pl:Suburbia pt:Subúrbio ru:Пригород simple:Suburb sk:Predmestie sr:Предграђе fi:Esikaupunki sv:Förort uk:Передмістя zh:郊區

name	Ben Folds
background	solo_singer
birth name	Benjamin Scott Folds
birth date	September 12, 1966
origin	Winston-Salem, North Carolina
instrument	Vocals, piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums, keytar, melodica, Synthesizer
genre	Piano rock, rock
occupation	Musician, composer, arranger, bandleader
years active	1988–present
label	Attacked By Plastic, Epic
associated acts	Ben Folds FiveThe BensFear of PopMajoshaPomplamooseJulia NunesCharlie McDonnellRegina SpektorAmanda PalmerAngela AkiKate Miller-Heidke
spouse	Anna Goodman (1987–1992)Kate Rosen (1995–1996)Frally Hynes (1999–2007(Fleur Folds 2007-present
website	benfolds.com }}

Benjamin Scott "Ben" Folds (born September 12, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and the former frontman and pianist of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. He now performs as a solo artist and collaborates with many other musicians such as William Shatner, Regina Spektor and Weird Al Yankovic. Ben has also contributed to the soundtrack of Dreamsworks animated film Over the Hedge.

Early life and career

Folds became attracted to piano at age nine. His father, a carpenter, brought one home through a barter trade with a customer who was unable to pay. During this time, Folds listened to songs by Elton John and Billy Joel on AM radio, and learned them by ear. During his years at R.J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Folds played in several bands as the pianist, bassist, or drummer.

In the late 1980s, Folds (as a bassist) and longtime friend Millard Powers formed the band Majosha. The group released several locally produced records. They played their first gig at Duke University's Battle of the Bands in 1988, and won. They played at bars and fraternity parties, and eventually put out a self-produced EP, which was sold at a few local stores called Party Night: Five Songs About Jesus (1988). The record featured only four songs, with none of them actually being about Jesus. They recorded Shut Up and Listen to Majosha in 1989. It contains, among other tracks, the four songs from Party Night (remixed and/or re-recorded) and what Folds would later record with his own band ("Emaline" and "Video"). At about the same time, they did a dance mix of "Get That Bug" that was released in Japan.

Majosha broke up in early 1990, and Folds formed Pots and Pans with Evan Olson (bass) and Britt "Snuzz" Uzzell (guitar and vocals), where Folds played drums. The newly formed band lasted for only a month, after which Olson and Uzzell went on to form Bus Stop with Folds' brother, Chuck Folds, on bass, and Eddie Walker on drums.

Folds eventually got a music publishing deal with Nashville music executive Scott Siman who saw Folds open for musician Marc Silvey (as well as playing bass for Silvey's band Mass Confusion), and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue it in 1990. He played drums for a short stint in Jody's Power Bill, headed by Millard Powers, Will Owsley, and Jody Spence. Jody's Power Bill was later renamed The Semantics. Folds did not take a creative role in the band. He, again, attracted interest from major labels. He ended up playing drums there as a session musician.

"In Nashville, I was running eight miles a day, hanging out with my friends, walking around eating chocolate-chip cookies and playing a lot of drums, which I enjoyed. Life was easy. I was never frustrated – even though I wasn't fulfilling my contract obligations. If you are failing in Nashville, at least your standard of living is nice. Nashville is a nice way to fail."

Folds attended the University of Miami's Frost School of Music on a percussion scholarship, but dropped out with one credit to go before graduating. He devoted a lot of time to working on piano technique. "I spent maybe six months just running scales with a metronome like a freak," Folds said. "I suppose that did something."

Folds tells audiences about a jury recital when he was a student at the University of Miami’s music school. A jury recital consists of playing a prepared repertoire (and sometimes unprepared pieces from prior years of training) before faculty members who apply a grade for the entire semester. Folds, a drummer, showed up with a broken hand from defending his room mate from bullies the night before, but was required to play anyway. He ended up losing his scholarship and in desperation threw his drumkit into the campus' Lake Osceola.

After leaving Miami, Folds moved to Montclair, New Jersey and began to act in theater troupes in New York City. He enjoyed it in 1993 to the point where he didn't want to keep pursuing a musical career. He also played weekly gigs at Sin-é, famous for being the cafe which had helped start Jeff Buckley's career.

Soon after, Folds moved back to North Carolina. The trio of Folds, bassist Robert Sledge, and drummer Darren Jessee formed Ben Folds Five in 1994 in Chapel Hill. As Folds put it, “Jeff Buckley was being signed at that time by Columbia and I was talking to Steve, his A&R; guy, and somehow we knew the same people or something."

Ben Folds Five

In 1995, Ben Folds Five released their self-titled debut album. The debut was followed by Whatever and Ever Amen in 1997, and the odds-and-ends compilation Naked Baby Photos was released in early 1998. Whatever and Ever Amen spawned many singles such as "Brick", "Song for the Dumped", and "Battle of Who Could Care Less". In 1999, the band released their final album, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner, which included the hit, "Army".

Folds has described his former band as "punk rock for sissies", and his oddball lyrics often contain nuances of , melancholy, self conflict, and humorous sarcasm, often punctuated by profanity.

Despite its presence on multiple Billboard genre charts, no Ben Folds Five singles reached the US Hot 100, although they did show well on both adult contemporary and modern rock charts. However they gained a strong following in the United Kingdom and Australia early in their career, and like many other 'alternative' American acts this was largely thanks to consistent support from national broadcasters in those countries, the BBC in Britain and the ABC's Triple J youth radio network in Australia (and ABC-TV's music video show Rage).

The group's first chart breakthrough came in the UK, when "Underground" made the lower reaches of the Top 40, peaking at #37. Britain was the Five's strongest territory in terms of chart success, with five singles making the national Top 40 there – "Underground", "Battle of Who Could Care Less", "Kate", "Brick" and "Army" – although none managed to crack the UK Top 20.

In Australia "Underground" likewise broke the band locally and while it did not make the ARIA chart, it came in at #3 the 1998 Triple J Hottest 100 poll. The 1998 single "Brick" became the group's only major chart placing in Australia, reaching #13; it also came in at #53 in the ARIA Australian Top 100 for that year and earned a Gold Record award while its parent album Whatever and Ever Amen peaked at #9 and charted for 32 weeks. Folds and band mates had been going full force since 2001 while moving album after album and states:"“The songs have been getting a great reaction,it makes me look forward to having a new album out there because it’s been a while. This feels like a really free period in my life and I’m really enjoying it.” Ben Folds Five reunited to perform its first concert appearance in nearly 10 years on September 18, 2008 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Memorial Hall. The one-off gig was part of the MySpace "Front to Back" series, in which artists play an entire album live. The band played its final album, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. The concert aired during October and can be viewed at Nowwhat.com. All proceeds from ticket sales benefitted the charity Operation Smile, of which Ben's uncle, Jim Folds, is on the board of directors for the North Carolina Chapter.

Solo career

As of 2008, Folds had released six solo LPs, including an experimental side project called Fear of Pop, which was released while Ben Folds Five was still together.

Folds's first solo release after the breakup of the band was Rockin' the Suburbs in 2001. He played nearly all the instruments, notably guitar (an instrument seldom used during the Ben Folds Five days). The Luckiest was written for the Amy Heckerling movie Loser, but the scene it was meant for was deleted. Millard Powers, Britt "Snuzz" Uzzell, and Jim Bogios joined him on the promotional tour of the album. "Weird Al" Yankovic directed and appeared in Folds' video for "Rockin' the Suburbs". Folds' friend and fellow musician John McCrea, lead singer of the band Cake, contributed vocals to Folds' song "Fred Jones, Part 2".

A year later, he released Ben Folds Live, a collection of live solo recordings. In late 2003, two solo EPs, Speed Graphic and Sunny 16, were released. The last EP, Super D, was released in mid-2004.

Songs for Silverman was released in the United States on April 26, 2005. The album featured Jared Reynolds on bass and Lindsay Jamieson on drums, thus returning to the trio format. This album includes the track "Late", a tribute to the late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, and also features backup vocals from "Weird Al" Yankovic on "Time" (Folds had played piano for Yankovic's song "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?" on his Poodle Hat album).

Folds contributed to William Shatner's album, Has Been, as producer, arranger, musician, and backup vocalist. Shatner was also involved in Folds' Fear of Pop project, and contributed vocals to a number of songs on the album.

The soundtrack for the 2006 animated film Hoodwinked! featured "Red is Blue," performed by Ben Folds.

In May 2006, Folds contributed three original songs to the soundtrack of Over the Hedge, dubbed "Heist," "Family of Me," and "Still." Included with them was a cover of The Clash song "Lost in the Supermarket" and a remix of "Rockin' The Suburbs." "Rockin' the Suburbs" featured new lyrics written to complement the script of the film.

On October 24, 2006, Folds released Supersunnyspeedgraphic, the LP, a compilation of songs that were originally released on the EPs Sunny 16, Speed Graphic, and Super D. He announced on his MySpace blog that he planned to work on his next studio album in October 2006 (although recording did not actually start until 2007). On that same day, Folds became the first person to broadcast a live concert over MySpace. The concert was complete with pranks staged ahead of time by Folds, including a drunk man falling over the balcony during "Jesusland" and a suicide attempt at the end. The concert is also notable for featuring a "guitorchestra", a group of acoustic guitarists from Nashville who accompanied Folds on some songs, as well as an impromptu ringtone orchestra made up of audience memebers playing their cellphone's ringtones in unison.

Folds produced The Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer's first solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer which was released September 16, 2008. He also performs on the album.

During a concert at the National in Richmond, Virginia on April 11, 2008, Folds announced that he had completed his newest album, and played four new tracks from this album. He played the first track, "Hiroshima", at the same show in Richmond on April 11. He also debuted new music at an impromptu gig at the Exit/In on December 19, 2007 and at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival on January 25, 2008. Other new songs include "Errant Dog", "Effington", "Bitch Went Nuts", "Free Coffee", and "Kylie From Connecticut". Folds played The 6th annual Langerado on March 8, 2008 and was a part of the lineup for the 2008 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

On July 16, 2008, an anonymous user posted what they claimed was a "leak" of Ben's latest album on a fan site (eventually called Way to Normal (Fake)). The file contained nine tracks along with a PDF of supposed cover art, and was a mix of what appeared to be legitimate songs from Way to Normal, pastiches of dry humor and melodramatic pop interwoven with bright, energetic melodies. Folds explained on Triple J radio a few weeks later that in one overnight session in Dublin he and the band had recorded 'fake' versions of songs from the new album. His sources had then leaked them to the public as a light-hearted joke on his fans.

Way to Normal was released on September 30, 2008 in the United States and on September 29, 2008 in the United Kingdom. It became Folds' highest-charting album ever in the US, debuting at #11 on the Billboard 200.

Soon before Way to Normal was released, Folds announced that he planned to record an album with English author Nick Hornby, with Hornby writing the lyrics and Folds writing the music. The idea of the collaboration came out of the 'fake' leak of the album Way to Normal released in July 2008. "(We will) write and record it in about three days, just like we did in Dublin with the fake record," Folds said.

In August 2008, Folds played piano for friend and Japanese singer-songwriter Angela Aki's song "Black Glasses" on her new album Answer.

On April 28, 2009, Folds released Ben Folds Presents University A Cappella, an album consisting of college student's a cappella arrangements of his music performed by some of the country's best college a cappella groups.

Folds' song "Rockin' the Suburbs" has been featured as part of the music for ABC's sitcom Surviving Suburbia.

Folds was also an inaugural member of the Independent Music Awards' judging panel to support independent artists.

From December 14 through 21, 2009, Folds was featured as a judge on NBC's a cappella competition The Sing Off alongside Nicole Scherzinger and Shawn Stockman and offered insightful, constructive comments and criticisms to the contestants. On the final show, in a departure from his a cappella purism, showcased his talents and played the roaring, riffing piano background on "Why Can't We Be Friends?" sung by the two finalist groups, The Beelzebubs from Tufts University near Boston and Nota, from San Juan, Puerto Rico. He again returned for the show's second season, and has been confirmed to return for the third season in September 2011 alongside Stockman and Sara Bareilles.

In March 2010, Folds became a YouTube phenomenon in a video titled "Ode To Merton". In the video, Folds improvises several songs about people that he sees on the popular social networking site Chatroulette, in the style of "Merton" another YouTube phenomenon who many thought was Folds himself.

Folds' newest album, a collaboration with English author Nick Hornby, is entitled Lonely Avenue and was released on September 28, 2010. On June 14, Folds released the official album art via his Twitter account. "From Above", the first single from the album, premiered on Richard Kingsmill's new music show 2010 on Triple J in Australia on July 18, 2010. "From Above" features Australian singer Kate Miller Heidke on backing vocals.

Folds has recently recorded a video song with Nick Hornby and Pomplamoose. As well, English YouTuber Charlie McDonnell was commissioned to create the music video for Folds' song "Saskia Hamilton", which was uploaded on October 1, 2010.

Tours

After Ben Folds Five split, Folds' first tour with a full band was to support the album Rockin' The Suburbs. He was accompanied by Britt "Snüzz" Uzzell on guitar and electronic keyboard, Millard Powers on bass and keys, and Jim Bogios on drums. Powers and Bogios later went on to join Counting Crows.

On a tour of Australia, Folds joined with solo artists Ben Kweller and Ben Lee to travel the country as The Bens, at the suggestion of a fan on Kweller's official website. The trio also went on to record a four-track EP together.

In the summer of 2004, Folds co-headlined an American tour with fellow singer-songwriters Rufus Wainwright and Guster. Folds again performed with Wainwright and Lee in the summer of 2005 as part of the "Odd Men Out" tour. In addition, Folds has performed with many other notable musical names, including Weezer and Tori Amos. After seeing The Fray perform with Weezer, Folds asked the band to join him for twelve performances in 2005.

Folds also performed with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) in March 2005, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in November 2005, the North Carolina Symphony in March 2010, and the Utah Symphony Orchestra in July 2010. A DVD of Folds playing with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra was released in December 2005.

On May 9, 2007, Folds performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra. The orchestra's performance was marred when a fight broke out between two audience members in the balcony, though Folds had not yet taken the stage.

Folds performed with symphony orchestras again in August 2006 during a tour of Australia, which included performances with the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Western Australian Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and The Queensland Orchestra.

After his MySpace performance on October 24, 2006, Folds's tour performances began to feature a synthesizer, which he uses in many of the songs when played live. The synthesizer is a red Nord Lead II synthesizer. During his concerts, Folds performs two of his concert traditions: palm-smashing and throwing his stool at the piano.

Folds toured with John Mayer as an opening act (though his set typically lasted an hour) in the summer of 2007. During this tour, Mayer sometimes joined Folds on the song "Narcolepsy", playing synth. At various concerts throughout the tour, parents of young children going to see Mayer would file complaints about Folds' lyrics. Folds responded by posting on his website, "We have kids too, but we don't take them out to rock shows that last until 11pm."

On March 29, 2008, Folds played the Cage Center Arena at Berry College in Mt. Berry, GA. During contract negotiations, he was asked by the administration to not play one of his songs due to its explicit lyrics. Folds refused, citing artistic freedom.

On May 9, 2008, Folds played his first completely solo show in years at Western Connecticut State University due to the fact that his bassist Jared Reynolds was with his wife who had just given birth to their first son.

Folds made a brief solo tour of Australia during August 2009; at one of his sold out Sydney Opera House concerts he was joined onstage for several songs by Aimee Mann, who was also touring Australia at the time. At the Palais theatre in Melbourne Missy Higgins joined him for You Don't Know Me.

In 2010, Folds went on a brief tour of North America called "Ben Folds and a Piano" where he played solo other than with Zach Williams or Kate Miller-Heidke and her husband Keir Nuttall as supporting musicians. A small number of copies that were pre-ordered also included signed manuscripts by Ben Folds and Nick Hornby.

In April 2011 Folds collaborated with Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman and Damian Kulash as 8in8 to write, record and produce eight songs in eight hours which were then available online within 24 hours, as well as being performed once on its world tour, as part of the ReThink Music conference.

Personal life

Folds has been married four times. His personal life has inspired several of his songs; the hit single "Brick", co-written with Darren Jessee, was based on the experience of Folds and his girlfriend having an abortion while they were in high school.

Folds met Anna Goodman in first grade at Moore Elementary School, Winston Salem and was married to her from 1987–1992. She co-wrote several Ben Folds Five songs: "Alice Childress", "The Last Polka", "Smoke", "Kate" and "Lullaby." Folds was then briefly married to Kate Rosen in 1996. He met Australian Frally Hynes in January 1998 and they were married in Adelaide, South Australia in May 1999. Two months after their wedding, Frally gave birth to their twins, Louis Francis (July 22, 1999) and Gracie Scott (July 23, 1999), the former inspiring his song "Still Fighting It" and the latter inspiring his song "Gracie." Folds filed for divorce in November 2006.

Ben and Fleur Folds were married on November 17, 2007 at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.  They are currently based in Nashville where they live with their three children, Gracie, Louis and Julia-Rose. Folds stated in an online chat on the fan forum thesuburbs.org.uk that he and Hynes share joint custody of their twins. Julia Rose is Ben's stepdaughter.

Ben Folds recently announced in a press conference for The Sing-Off that Ben Folds Five will reunite to record a new album in December. He has not said anything of a Ben Folds Five Tour.

Discography

Ben Folds Five (1995), Passenger/Caroline

Whatever and Ever Amen (1997), 550 #42 US

Naked Baby Photos (1998), Caroline

Fear of Pop: Volume 1 (1998), 550

The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner (1999), 550 #35 US

Rockin' the Suburbs (2001), Sony #42 US

Ben Folds Live (2002), Sony #60 US

Songs for Silverman (2005), Epic (Bonus DVD) #13 US

Supersunnyspeedgraphic, the LP (2006), Epic

Way to Normal (2008), Epic #11 US

Lonely Avenue (2010), Nonesuch

Nighty Night (2011), in collaboration with Amanda Palmer, Damian Kulash, and Neil Gaiman

The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective (2011)

References

External links

Official sites: US/UK Australia Germany Japan

Video of author Nick Hornby performing with Ben Folds and the duo Pomplamoose on "Things You Think"

Ben Folds Talks The Sing-Off to SportsTownChicago.com

Category:1966 births Category:American male singers Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:American pop pianists Category:American pop singers Category:American rock pianists Category:American rock singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Keytarists Category:Living people Category:Melodica players Category:Musicians from North Carolina Category:People from Winston-Salem, North Carolina Category:University of Miami alumni

de:Ben Folds es:Ben Folds eo:Ben Folds fr:Ben Folds ko:벤 폴즈 it:Ben Folds nl:Ben Folds ja:ベン・フォールズ no:Ben Folds pl:Ben Folds pt:Ben Folds simple:Ben Folds fi:Ben Folds sv:Ben Folds tr:Ben Folds

Name	The Members
Background	group_or_band
Origin	Camberley, England
Genre	Punk
Years active	1976–19832007–present
Label	StiffVirginArista
Website	http://www.themembers.co.uk
Current members	Nicky TescoJean Marie CarrollChris PayneNigel BennettAdrian LillywhiteGary BakerSteve MorleyNick CashClive ParkerSteve MaycockRudi ThompsonSimon LloydChuck SaboAdam MaitlandRat Scabies}}

The Members are a British punk band that originated in Camberley, England. Their best known recording is "The Sound of the Suburbs" (1979).

Career

The Members was formed by lyricist Nicky Tesco (Nick Lightowlers) in 1976, through an invited audition at a recording studio at Tooley Street, London. The original personnel, with Tesco (vocals), was Gary Baker (guitar), and Steve Morley (bass guitar), initially with Steve Maycock then Clive Parker (drums). Morley and Parker were later replaced by Chris Payne and Adrian Lillywhite.

In 1976, the band performed for its first engagements at The Red Cow (London W6), The Windsor Castle (London W9) and The Nashville Rooms (London W14). In that year composer Jean Marie Carroll (aka JC Carroll) joined the band to complement Tesco's lyrics. The Members had recorded a number of songs, but the first released recording was "Fear on the Streets", produced by Lillywhite's brother Steve Lillywhite. This song was included on the first record released by the Beggars Banquet label, the punk compilation, Streets (1977).

The Members' first album, At the Chelsea Nightclub, was followed by a second for Virgin, 1980 – The Choice Is Yours. Their last album was Going West,.

The band broke up in 1983, when Tesco left the band after the last tour of the US. In 1989, Tesco appeared in Leningrad Cowboys Go America, written and directed by Aki Kaurismaki, a film about a fictional Russian rock band touring the US. This fictional band then toured as an actual band, and recorded the Tesco song "Thru the Wire". Kaurismäki directed a video for "Thru the Wire", featuring Tesco. As well as working as a music journalist for the magazine Music Week, Tesco has been a commentator on new releases for BBC 6 Music's "Roundtable".

In 2007, The Members were reunited at The Inn on the Green, Ladbroke Grove, London, MC'd by Phill Jupitus under his 1980s performance poet stage name of “Porky The Poet”.

In 2009, a new single "International Financial Crisis" (a re-write of "Offshore Banking Business") was released, recorded by Tesco, Carroll, Payne and Bennett, with artwork by the original Members’ album sleeve designer, Malcolm Garrett. The same year, Carroll and Payne toured as The Members, with occasional appearances of Tesco and Bennett. A Members' line-up of Carroll, Payne and Nick Cash (drums) performed during 2010, playing in Spain and Italy, and at the Isle of Wight and Glastonbury Festivals. At the beginning of 2011, they toured Europe with Rat Scabies playing the drums.

Discography

Singles

"Solitary Confinement"/"Rat up a Drainpipe" (1978) Stiff

"The Sound of the Suburbs" (1979) UK #12

"Offshore Banking Business" (1979) UK #31

"Killing Time" (1979)

"Romance" (1980)

"Flying Again" (1980)

"Working Girl" (1981)

"Radio" (1982)

"International Financial Crisis" (2009)

"New English Blues c/w M1DL1FECRi5i5" (2011)

Albums

At the Chelsea Nightclub (1979) UK #45

1980 – The Choice Is Yours (1980)

Uprhythm, Downbeat (1982)

Going West (1983)

The Members: Sound of the Suburbs Virgin Records (1995)

Live in Berlin (2010)

Compilation albums

Streets - Beggars Banquet 1977 (Track: "Fear on the Streets")

The Moonlight Tapes - Danceville Records 1977 (Track: “Rat up a Drainpipe”)

The Sound of the Suburbs - Columbia Records MOOD18 (1991) (Track: "The Sounds of the Suburbs")

Line-ups

1976

Nicky Tesco: vocals

Gary Baker: guitar

Steve Morley: bass guitar

Clive Parker: drums

Steve Maycock: drums

1977

Nicky Tesco: vocals

Gary Baker: guitar

Steve Morley: bass guitar

Adrian Lillywhite: drums

1977

Nicky Tesco: vocals

JC Carroll: guitar/vocals

Gary Baker: guitar

Steve Morley: bass guitar

Adrian Lillywhite: drums

1977-78

Nicky Tesco: vocals

JC Carroll: guitar/vocals

Gary Baker: guitar

Chris Payne: bass guitar

Adrian Lillywhite: drums

1978-83

Nicky Tesco: vocals

JC Carroll: guitar/vocals

Nigel Bennett: guitar

Chris Payne: bass guitar

Adrian Lillywhite: drums

1981-83

Nicky Tesco: vocals

JC Carroll: guitar/vocals

Nigel Bennett: guitar

Chris Payne: bass guitar

Adrian Lillywhite: drums

Steve "Rudi" Thompson: horns

Adam Maitland: horns

1981-83

Nicky Tesco: vocals

JC Carroll: guitar/vocals

Nigel Bennett: guitar

Chris Payne: bass guitar

Adrian Lillywhite: drums

Steve "Rudi" Thompson: horns

Simon Lloyd: horns

1983 (disestablished)

Nicky Tesco: vocals

JC Carroll: guitar/vocals

Nigel Bennett: guitar

Chris Payne: bass guitar

Chuck Sabo: drums

Steve "Rudi" Thompson: horns

Simon Lloyd: horns

2007 (reformed)

Nicky Tesco: vocals

JC Carroll: guitar/vocals

Nigel Bennett: guitar

Chris Payne: bass guitar

Adrian Lillywhite: drums

2009

Nicky Tesco: vocals

JC Carroll: guitar/vocals

Chris Payne: bass/vocals

Nick Cash: drums

2010

JC Carroll: guitar/vocals

Chris Payne: bass/vocals

Nick Cash: drums

2011

JC Carroll: guitar/vocals

Chris Payne: bass/vocals

Rat Scabies: drums

References

External links

Nick (Nicky) Tesco biographical videos.

The Members web site

Nick Tesco music review blog.

J C Carroll myspace

J C Carroll composition site entry

Nicky Tesco filmography

Nick Cash: a bio

The Members Myspace

Category:English punk rock groups Category:British New Wave musical groups Category:Musical groups established in 1975 Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1983 Category:Musical groups reestablished in 2007 Category:Reggae rock groups Category:People from Camberley

ru:The Members