Music-Genres & Styles-Pop Vocal

Here is an up-to-date, thoroughly researched biography of the world's most popular pop-punk band. Green Day is almost certainly the world's most popular pop-punk band. How they got there is the subject of Green Day: A Musical Biography, the first book to follow the...

Tom Waits's distinctive, bourbon-soaked growl, his unique persona, and his incorporation of musical styles from blues to experimental to vaudeville have secured for him a top-shelf cult following and an extraordinary critical respect. The idea of the Wanderer - someone who seeks an escape...

Hip Hop music is comprised of several art forms: 1) MC-ing or rapping 2)B-boying or breakdancing 3)Deejaying (music) and 4) Graffiti art (visual art). This encyclopedia examines all four elements of Hip Hop Culture, providing students, scholars, and music fans with a complete history...

The result of years of research by its authors, this discography strives to identify and trace the recorded development of the musical style now known as western swing from its early years through World War II. The style developed from the Texas string band...

This volume in the Greenwood Press series Bio-Bibliographies in Music provides an overview of Phil Ochs' life and career, an annotated guide to the literature by and about Phil Ochs, and an extensive discography of his recordings. Biographical information traces his career up until...

More than 400 books have been published on the American musical icon, Elvis Presley. This critical, annotated guide contains reviews of the varied literature on Elvis, from his career and its social and political aspects to biographies and discographies. The annotated literature not only...

Carole King's early compositional work in the 1970s paved the way for many women songwriters of popular music. Among her best-known compositions are You've Got a Friend, Up on the Roof, Will You Love Me Tomorrow? and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural...

Worldwide in scope and covering the second half of the 20th century, this work provides biographies and discographies of some 500 conductors and composers in many aspects of light and popular orchestral music, including film, show, theatre, and mood music. This is the first...

This catalog is divided into four major sections: singles, extended-play albums, long-play albums, and compact discs. An appendix lists the liner notes Cash has written for his own releases, as well as those of a number of prominent performers over the years. It also...

Through its Decca 5000 series of the 1930s and 1940s, the American Decca recording company became the most influential record label in the burgeoning hillbilly music category, the forerunner of today's country and western music. This unique discography provides for the first time in...

The Definitive History of Texas Music From the 1920s to the Present Texas is the land of Buddy Holly and Janis Joplin, Roy Orbison, and Ornette Coleman. It's where Stevie Ray Vaughn wailed his blues, and where Kirk Franklin praised the Lord. Texas Music...

Here is a lively and nostalgic look back at the forgotten era that gave us Hooked on a Feeling, Dancing in the Moonlight, I Am Woman, Seasons in the Sun, and more. The early '70s brought a Convoy of popular music--everything from the cheesy...

The author of the magisterial A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers now approaches the great singers and their greatest work in an innovative and revelatory way: through considering their finest albums, which is the format in which this music was...

It's here: the fourth and latest volume in the series that you have come to rely upon for your music reading fix. The 2003 volume will celebrate the year's best writing about music and its culture with a selection of pieces on a dazzling...

Twentieth century music has been remarkable for its pluralism. The various styles--atonality, neo-classicism, nationalism, serialism, jazz, computer music, minimalism, electronics, folklorism, "happenings," sheer chance--have been far from monolithic, and experimentation has been, perhaps, the century's only defining feature. With over 2500 entries, The Companion...

In 1933 Irving Berlin wrote to composer-lyricist Cole Porter, "I am mad about Night and Day." Millions of others throughout the world have been "mad about" that Porter gem, as well as dozens of others, including, to name just a few, Begin the Beguine,...

"The spirit of balladry is not dead, but slowly dying. The instincts, sentiments, and feelings which it represents are indeed as immortal as romance itself, but their mode of expression, the folksong, is fighting with its back to the wall, with the odds against...

"Music saturates the city of Austin, always has, and likely always will," observes Louis Black, the founding editor of the renowned alternative newspaper, The Austin Chronicle. Music is more than simply the sound track of Austin, however; it's a force inseparable from the city's...

Sting has successfully established himself as one of the most important singer-songwriters in Western popular music over the past twenty years. His affinity for collaborative work and disparate musical styles has pushed his music into an astonishing array of contexts, but no matter what...

Ice Cube is one of the most influential figures in the history of rap and hip-hop. Best known for the vitriol of his angry black man recordings of the late 1980s and mid 1990s, Ice Cube epitomizes the genre often referred to as gangsta...

Frank Sinatra's influence on American popular culture has been wide reaching and long lasting. This diverse collection of essays written by historians, music critics, and popular culture personalities offers a myriad of perspectives and commentaries on this multitalented legend. The essays attest to the...

Smith explores Pete Townshend's artistic struggle between his own creative impulses and those of the commercial public. Faced with a modern version of the minstrel's dilemma, Townshend, early in his career, ignored his creative instincts to satisfy commercial agendas. After his success, he slowly...

If you drive into any American city with the car stereo blasting, you'll undoubtedly find radio stations representing R&B/hip-hop, country, Top 40, adult contemporary, rock, and Latin, each playing hit after hit within that musical format. American music has created an array of rival...

As the United States transitioned from a rural nation to an urbanized, industrial giant between the War of 1812 and the early twentieth century, ordinary people struggled over the question of what it meant to be American. As Brian Roberts shows in Blackface Nation,...

Hipness has been an indelible part of America's intellectual and cultural landscape since the 1940s. But the question What is hip? remains a kind of cultural koan, equally intriguing and elusive. In Dig, Phil Ford argues that while hipsters have always used clothing, hairstyle,...

The first biography of legendary singer/songwriter/composer Rufus Wainwright, There Will Be Rainbows reveals the integrity and complexity of Wainwright's work while fully embracing the self-deprecating humor, wild flamboyance, and fascinating contradictions that embody Rufus Wainwright, the man. There Will Be Rainbows tells Wainwright unforgettable...

This book recounts the entire story of the most successful British band since The Beatles. From their humble beginnings to the break-up that shook the pop world, to their explosive and successful come-back tour a decade later, TAKE THAT - NOW AND THEN exposes...

The ultimate biography of the musical icon. A groundbreaking and vibrant look at the music hero to generations, DYLAN: The Biography digs deep into Bob Dylan lore--including subjects Dylan himself left out of Chronicles: Volume One. DYLAN: The Biography focuses on why this beloved...