Music-History & Criticism

Ubiquitous in the music world, Fender(R) guitars and amplifiers are also icons in popular culture, their shapes and sounds instantly recognizable. Authoritatively written and lavishly illustrated, Fender 75 Years is the officially licensed anniversary celebration of the company and its legendary instruments. Originating in...

Chart topping-and headline-making-rap artist Eminem shares his private reflections, drawings, handwritten lyrics, and photographs in his New York Times bestseller The Way I Am Fiercely intelligent, relentlessly provocative, and prodigiously gifted, Eminem is known as much for his enigmatic persona as for being the...

In the '80s, the Birmingham, England, band Duran Duran became closely associated with new wave, an idiosyncratic genre that dominated the decade's music and culture. No album represented this rip-it-up-and-start-again movement better than the act's breakthrough 1982 LP, Rio. A cohesive album with a...

Now in paperback, Tune In is the New York Times bestseller by the world's leading Beatles authority - the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy about the band that revolutionized music. The Beatles have been in our lives for half a century and surely...

One of the greatest double albums of the vinyl era, Sign O' the Times shows Prince at his peak. Here, Michaelangelo Matos tells the story of how it emerged from an extraordinary period of creativity to become one of the landmark recordings of the...

"Indispensable [reading] about the feminine journey through a man's world"--USA TodayAn intimate look at the lives of our most celebrated female musicians--and their challenges with fame--from a legendary music journalist Over four decades, Lisa Robinson has made a name for herself as a celebrated...

A revealing collection of interviews with the shape-shifting, genre-bending, wildly influential musician and song writer David Bowie was an icon, not only his stunning musical output, but also his fascinating refusal to stay the same--the same as other trending artists, or even the same...

Remember When All You Wanted Was Your MTV? The perfect gift for the music fan or child of the eighties in your life. Named One of the Best Books of 2011 by NPR - Spin - USA Today - CNBC - Pitchfork - The...

The twin acts of singing and fighting for freedom have been inseparable in African American history. May We Forever Stand tells an essential part of that story. With lyrics penned by James Weldon Johnson and music composed by his brother Rosamond, "Lift Every Voice...

"A fascinating political, racial, economic, and cultural tapestry" (Detroit Free Press), Once in a Great City is a tour de force from David Maraniss about the quintessential American city at the top of its game: Detroit in 1963.Detroit in 1963 is on top of...

Now in trade paperback: "The definitive guide to musical enjoyment" (Forum). In this fascinating analysis of how to listen to both contemporary and classical music analytically, eminent American composer Aaron Copland offers provocative suggestions that will bring readers a deeper appreciation of the most...

The acclaimed, definitive biography of Pink Floyd, from their iconic beginnings in psychedelic, Swinging London to their historic reunion at the Live8 concert ("The most complete, insightful, and current account of Pink Floyd...nearly as essential as the music itself."--Austin Chronicle)Mark Blake draws on his...

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2022 In September of 1963, Reverend Lawrence Roberts and the Angelic Choir of the First Baptist Church of Nutley, New Jersey, teamed with rising gospel star James Cleveland to record Peace Be Still. The LP and its haunting...

Venerated for his lyrics, Bob Dylan in fact is a songwriting musician with a unique mastery of merging his words with music and performance. Larry Starr cuts through pretention and myth to provide a refreshingly holistic appreciation of Dylan's music. Ranging from celebrated classics...

By June 1993, when Washington, D.C.'s Fugazi released their third full-length album In on the Kill Taker, the quartet was reaching a thunderous peak in popularity and influence. With two EPs (combined into the classic CD 13 songs) and two albums (1990's genre-defining Repeater...

A Tribe Called Quest - Beastie Boys - De La Soul - Eric B. & Rakim - The Fugees - KRS-One - Pete Rock & CL Smooth - Public Enemy - The Roots - Run-DMC - Wu-Tang Clan - and twenty-five more hip-hop immortals...

U2 planted the seeds for The Joshua Tree during an existential journey through America. As Irishmen in the 1970s, the band grew up with the belief that America was a place of freedom and prosperity, a symbol of hope and a refuge for all...

Highway 61 Revisited resonates because of its enduring emotional appeal. Few songwriters before Dylan or since have combined so effectively the intensely personal with the spectacularly universal. In "Like a Rolling Stone," his gleeful excoriation of Miss Lonely (Edie Sedgwick? Joan Baez? a composite...

(Percussion). The Cymbal Book is the first book of its kind. It details the 5000-year history and development of these fascinating instruments. Based on visits to all the major cymbal manufacturing companies and interviews with the world's leading drummers, journalist and drummer Hugo Pinksterboer...

Empirically proving that--no matter where you are--kids wanna rock, this is Chuck Klosterman's hilrious memoir of growing up as a shameless metalhead in Wyndmere, North Dakotoa (population: 498). With a voice like Ace Frehley's guitar, Klosterman hacks his way through hair-band history, beginning with...

As the social anchor in middle-class homes of the nineteenth century, the piano was simultaneously an elegant piece of drawing-room furniture, a sign of bourgeois prosperity, and a means of introducing the young to music. In this admirably balanced and leisurely account of the...

Col. Bruce Hampton was a charismatic musical figure who launched and continued to influence the jam band genre over his fifty-plus years performing. Part bandleader, soul singer, storyteller, conjuror, poet, preacher, comedian, philosopher, and trickster, Col. Bruce actively sought out and dealt in the...

An extraordinary collection of revealing, personal interviews with fourteen jazz music legends During his nearly forty years as a music journalist, Ralph J. Gleason recorded many in-depth interviews with some of the greatest jazz musicians of all time. These informal sessions, conducted mostly in...

The Dolls, peddling trans-gender posturing and incendiary rock 'n' roll, were dumped by the record business after making just two albums. But their influence lived on when Malcolm McLaren injected the last of The Dolls' life blood into the Sex Pistols and changed pop...

Engaging and enlightening, this guide explores African music's forms, musicians, instruments, and place in the life of the people. A discography classified by country, theme, group, and instrument is also included.Author: Francis BebeyISBN-10: 1556521286ISBN-13: 9781556521287Publisher: Lawrence Hill BooksLanguage: EnglishPublished: 08/01/1999Pages: 192Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.70lbsSize: 9.10h...

What is the world that Nine Inch Nails made, and what was the world that made Nine Inch Nails? These are the questions at the heart of this study of the band's 1989 debut, Pretty Hate Machine. The album began as after-hours demos by...

Of all the seminal albums to come out in 1991-the year of Nevermind, Loveless, Ten, and Out of Time, among others-none were quieter, both in volume and influence, than Spiderland, and no band more mysterious than Slint. Few single albums can lay claim to...

Don Cusic presents gospel music as part of the history of contemporary Christianity. From the psalms of the early Puritans through the hymns of Isaac Watts and the social activism of the Wesleys, gospel music was established in eighteenth-century America. With the camp meetings...

Can't Stop Won't Stop is a powerful cultural and social history of the end of the American century, and a provocative look into the new world that the hip-hop generation created. Forged in the fires of the Bronx and Kingston, Jamaica, hip-hop became the...

Named one of the best jazz books of 2010 by Jazz Times's reader pollJohn Coltrane created a new sound, a music that had nothing to do with anyone except himself. The path he chose was difficult and risky. Nevertheless, he persisted, and his recordings...

Beginning in 1994 and closing in the first months of 1998, the UK passed through a cultural moment as distinct and as celebrated as any since the war. Founded on rock music, celebrity, boom-time economics, and fleeting political optimism, this was "Cool Britannia." Records...

In the late '90s, third-wave ska broke across the American alternative music scene like a tsunami. In sweaty clubs across the nation, kids danced themselves dehydrated to the peppy rhythms and punchy horns of bands like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Reel Big Fish....

David Bowie Made Me Gay isthe most "sweeping" and "comprehensive" (Kirkus Reviews, A Best Nonfiction Book Selection) history of LGBT music ever compiled, encompassing a century of music by and for the LGBT community. From Sia to Elton John, from Billie Holiday to David...

Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award - American Library Association (ALA)i see the rhythmis an inspiring celebration of African American music and the far-reaching impact it has had on the world.From Michele Wood and Toyomi Ingus, the award-winning artist and author of Going Back Home,...

Derided as one-hit wonders, estranged from their original producer and record label, and in self-imposed exile in Los Angeles, the Beastie Boys were written off by most observers before even beginning to record their second album - an embarrassing commercial flop that should have...

Since the dawn of modernism, visual and music production have had a particularly intimate relationship. From Luigi Russolo's 1913 Futurist manifesto L'Arte dei Rumori (The Art of Noise) to Marcel Duchamp's 1925 double-sided discs Rotoreliefs, the 20th century saw ever more fertile exchange between...

An outstanding anthology in which notable musicians, artists, scientists, thinkers, poets, and more--from Gustavo Dudamel and Carrie Mae Weems to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Paul Muldoon--explore the influence of music on their lives and work Contributors include: Laurie Anderson ● Jamie Barton ● Daphne...

For generations, "chitlin' circuit" has meant second tier--brash performers in raucous nightspots far from the big-city limelight. Now, music journalist Preston Lauterbach combines terrific firsthand reportage with deep historical research to offer a groundbreaking account of the birth of rock 'n' roll in black...

The long-awaited ninth installment in John Zorn's essential series of writings by musicians and composers at the forefront of musical innovation, from John Luther Adams to Danny ElfmanInitiated in 1997 and now in its ninth installment, John Zorn's Arcana series is a major source...

Learn about the world's greatest classical compositions and musical traditions in The Classical Music Book.Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Classic Music in this overview guide...

"Raw, authoritative, and unflinching ... An elaborately detailed, darkly surprising, definitive history of the LA gangsta rap era." -- Kirkus, starred review A monumental, revealing narrative history about the legendary group of artists at the forefront of West Coast hip-hop: Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice...

The Velvet Underground and Nico has influenced the sound of more bands than any other album. And remarkably, it still sounds as fresh and challenging today as it did upon its release in 1967. In this book, Joe Harvard covers everything from Lou Reed's...

Led Zeppelin All the Songs takes a deep dive into the innovative recording history of the one of the most influential rock bands of all time--covering every album and every track that Led Zeppelin has ever produced. More than fifty years after their first...

Published for the first time in a beautiful collectible edition, the essential lecture delivered by the 2016 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Bob Dylan. On October 13, 2016, Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, recognizing his countless contributions to...

The 40-year story of the rock band Yes reveals the rows, bust-ups and personal tensions, the twists, surprises, humour and drama of their lives together. Welch talks to members past and present and traces the band's rise to fame.Author: Chris WelchISBN-10: 184772132XISBN-13: 9781847721327Publisher: Omnibus...

An NPR Best Book of the Year - Winner of the Virgil Thomson Award for Outstanding Music Criticism"This is the best book about the Beatles ever written" --Mashable Rob Sheffield, the Rolling Stone columnist and bestselling author of Love Is a Mix Tape offers...

In Boysie's Horn, social historian, radio host, producer, journalist, and novelist Steven Leech highlights the influence of one of America's greatest jazz educators, Boysie Lowrie, in making African American Wilmington, Delaware a launchpad for national performers like vibraphonist Lem Winchester, trumpeter Clifford Brown, and...

Dive into this no-holds-barred group autobiography of the critically acclaimed feminist punk-rock group, The Lunachicks--featuring never-before-seen materials from the band's private archive. Fallopian Rhapsody: The Story of the Lunachicks is a coming-of-age tale about a band of NYC teenagers who forged a sisterhood, found...

From a Los Angeles hospital bed, equipped with little more than a laptop and a stack of records, James "J Dilla" Yancey crafted a set of tracks that would forever change the way beatmakers viewed their artform. The songs on Donuts are not hip...

Answering a need for critical attention towards experimental and avant-garde music, Arcana is a ground-breaking work--as far-ranging and dynamic as the current generation of musicians. Through manifestoes, scores, interviews, notes and critical papers, performer/composers address composing, playing, improvising, teaching and thinking in and through...