Music-History & Criticism

American Music: An Introduction, Second Edition is a collection of seventeen essays surveying major African American musical genres, both sacred and secular, from slavery to the present. With contributions by leading scholars in the field, the work brings together analyses of African American music...

The definitive history of the first 30 years of heavy metal, containing over 100 interviews with members of Black Sabbath, Metallica, Judas Priest, Twisted Sister, Slipknot, Kiss, Megadeth, Public Enemy, Napalm Death, and more. More than 30 years after Black Sabbath released the first...

Before Ralph Ellison became one of America s greatest writers, he was a musician and a student of jazz, writing widely on his favorite music for more than fifty years. Now, jazz authority Robert O Meally has collected the very best of Ellison s...

Note that the file is only 80 pages long, which means there will be some blank pages in the POD version.Author: Hugh VickersISBN-10: 0312346344ISBN-13: 9780312346348Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PLLanguage: EnglishPublished: 10/15/1985Pages: 108Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.32lbsSize: 8.52h x 5.51w x 0.28d

From one of the most prominent music critics writing today, a page-turning and wonderfully researched history of protest music in the twentieth century and beyondNowhere does pop music collide more dramatically with the wider world than in the protest song, which forces its way...

Computer World was Kraftwerk's most concise and focused conceptual statement, their most influential record and crowning achievement. Computer World transformed the way pop music was composed, played, packaged and released and, in the process, helped create entire new genres of music including hip-hop, techno,...

Sound Changes responds to a need in improvisation studies for more work that addresses the diversity of global improvisatory practices and argues that by beginning to understand the particular, material experiences of sonic realities that are different from our own, we can address the...

Parliament-Funkadelic can hardly be summed up in a few sentences. Wax Poetics digs deep to trace the sprawling history of this supergroup, from its doo-wop roots to its freaked-out, drug-laden rock sessions, and finally onto the best-known (and best-selling) period of space boogie. re:...

In the fifties and sixties, in the period leading up to the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality and the founding of the Gay Liberation movement, a group of gay men behind the scenes of rock'n'roll was changing pop, politics and society for good.Through a mix...

September 12, 1910: The world premiere of Gustav Mahler's Eighth Symphony and the artistic breakthrough for which the composer had yearned all his life. Munich's new Musik Festhalle was filled to capacity on two successive evenings for the performances, which were received with rapturous...

"Taken as a trilogy, consent not to be a single being is a monumental accomplishment: a brilliant theoretical intervention that might be best described as a powerful case for blackness as a category of analysis."--Brent Hayes Edwards, author of Epistrophies: Jazz and the Literary...

The most influential work of its kind ever written, appraising the musical qualities and potential of over 60 commonly used stringed, wind and percussion instruments. With 150 illustrative full-score musical examples from works by Berlioz, Mozart, Beethoven, Gluck, Weber, Wagner, and others, and numerous...

How hip hop shapes our conversations about race -- and how race influences our consideration of hip hop Hip hop is a distinctive form of black art in America-from Tupac to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Kendrick Lamar, hip hop has long given voice to the...

The first narrative biography of the Bee Gees, the phenomenally popular vocal group that has sold more than 200 million records worldwide -- sales in the company of the Beatles and Michael Jackson. The Bee Gees is the epic family saga of brothers Barry,...

Woodstock Then and Now is a first-hand transcription of a series of roundtable discussions and interviews with "Woodstock luminaries" held at the Berklee College of Music in April 2019. Here, the words of Michael Lang (Woodstock cofounder) Chip Monck (emcee, stage and lighting designer),...

Critically-acclaimed and bestselling author Paul Morley's long-awaited biography of Factory Records co-founder and Manchester icon Tony Wilson. When forced to pick between truth and legend, print the legend. -- Tony Wilson To write about Tony Wilson, AKA Anthony H. Wilson, is to write about...

With her debut album Switched-On Bach, composer and electronic musician Wendy Carlos (b. 1939) brought the sound of the Moog synthesizer to a generation of listeners, helping to effect arguably one of the most substantial changes in popular music's sound since musicians began using...

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Rolling Stone * BookPage * Amazon * Rough Trade Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence " A] riveting and inspiring history of punk's hard-fought struggle in East Germany." --The New York Times Book...

Like all double albums, Songs in the Key of Life is imperfect but audacious. If its titular concern - life - doesn't exactly allow for rigid focus, it's still a fiercely inspired collection of songs and one of the definitive soul records of the...

Think "Woodstock" and the mind turns to the seminal 1969 festival that crowned a seismic decade of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. But the town of Woodstock, New York, the original planned venue of the concert, is located over 60 miles from the...

Jazz musicians call it The Bible. Critics call it the one jazz album every fan must own. Forty-one years since its recording in 1959, it has sold millions worldwide and sits near the top of any list of most important records of the century....

The story of Stax Records unfolds like a Greek tragedy. A white brother and sister build a monument to racial harmony in blighted south Memphis during the civil rights movement. Their success soon pits the siblings against each other, and the brother abandons his...

In this "expertly researched, elegantly written, dispassionate yet thoughtful history" (Gary Giddins), award-winning author Ted Gioia gives us "the rare combination of a tome that is both deeply informative and enjoyable to read" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). From the field hollers of nineteenth-century plantations...

Eberhard Weber is a virtuoso who revolutionized jazz bass playing. He brought his instrument from the far corner of the stage into the spotlight - and turned it into a solo force. He began his career as a jazz bassist in the 1960s, and...

Brought to you by the subscription club of the same name, Vinyl Me, Please: 100 Albums You Need In Your Collection is a vibrant visual guide to curating must-have records for any music lover's shelf. Celebrating artists as varied and influential as Bikini Kill,...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A celebration of American history through the music that helped to shape a nation, by Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham and music superstar Tim McGraw "Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw form an irresistible duo--connecting us to music as an...

Arturo Toscanini is widely considered the greatest conductor of the modern age and remains a towering figure in the world of classical music. His explosive passions, dynamic music making, and legendary leadership continue to inspire and influence today's musicians while still captivating new generations...

Between 1959 and 1968, New England saw a folk revival emerge in more than fifty clubs and coffeehouses, a revolution led by college dropouts, young bohemians, and lovers of traditional music that renewed the work of the region's intellectuals and reformers. From Club 47...

"American Hardcore sets the record straight about the last great American subculture"--Paper magazineSteven Blush's "definitive treatment of Hardcore Punk" (Los Angeles Times) changed the way we look at Punk Rock. The Sony Picture Classics-distributed documentary American Hardcore premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival....

In the early 1990s, Swedish death metal revolutionized the international music scene. Suddenly, the mild-mannered Scandinavian country found itself at the forefront of a new movement with worldwide impact thanks to bands such as Entombed, Dismember, and At the Gates. The birth of black...

From his early work as lyricist for West Side Story to acclaimed creations such as A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George, and Sweeney Todd, Stephen Sondheim is widely regarded as the most important figure in musical theater since the second...

An engaging inside view of experimental musicComposer and performer Alvin Lucier brings clarity to the world of experimental music as he takes the reader through more than a hundred groundbreaking musical works, including those of Robert Ashley, John Cage, Charles Ives, Morton Feldman, Philip...

The propensity to make music is the most mysterious, wonderful, and neglected feature of humankind: this is where Steven Mithen began, drawing together strands from archaeology, anthropology, psychology, neuroscience--and, of course, musicology--to explain why we are so compelled to make and hear music. But...

The saga of the legendary Los Angeles band Little Feat is one of rock 'n' roll's great stories. Formed in 1969 by ex-members of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, Little Feat created groove-heavy music that was an irresistible mix of rock, blues, R&B, country,...

A stirring testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of music, Violins of Hope tells the remarkable stories of violins played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust, and the Israeli violin maker dedicated to bringing these inspirational instruments back to...

Across India women, mostly from the courtesan community, were the stellar pioneers of recording technology in the early twentieth-century. Yet, their stories have been completely lost in the sands of time.This book revisits their lives & features the indefatigable saga of 25 inspiring Indian...

Before the dawn of rock 'n' roll, the accordion ranked among North America's most popular instruments. Nearly every ethnicity on the continent played the squeezebox- Irish, Scottish, French, German, Eastern European, Jewish, and Latino. The instrument packed barn dances, jazz clubs, and recital halls....

Whether used for personal reference or as a text for a class in the history of the wind band this book is the most comprehensive single-volume history of the wind band ever written. This volume draws on the author's multi-volume History and Literature of...

The basis of a full-length documentary."Moondog is one of America's great originals."--Alan Rich, New York MagazineHere is a revised edition of a book that celebrates one of the most improbable lives of the twentieth century: a blind and homeless man who became the most...

New Orleans jazz thrilled the world in the twenties and traveled around the world in the thirties. In the forties and fifties, the world came to New Orleans to hear authentic New Orleans jazz played by real jazz musicians. The sixties brought Preservation Hall,...

Gillian G. Gaar's critically acclaimed, breakthrough book, the first full history of women in rock and pop ever written, became an instant classic upon its publication in 1992. Arranged chronologically and told with impassioned detail, She's A Rebel charts a half century of women...

Blues Book of the Year --Living Blues Association of Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence Best Historical Research in Recorded Blues, Gospel, Soul, or R&B-Certificate of Merit (2018) 2023 Blues Hall of Fame Inductee - Classic of Blues Literature categoryWith this volume, Lynn Abbott...

This book gives an in depth look at Black Sabbath 1986 - 1997. How a young singer named Tony Martin helped to pull the band out of it's darkest period. Including rare and never before seen photographs. Also gives the details on the various...

Pete Battistini released "American Top 40 with Casey Kasem (The 1970's)" in 2005. Now comes the follow-up, "American Top 40 with Casey Kasem (The 1980's)." Battistini painstakingly documented approximately 425 weekly, Casey Kasem-hosted countdown programs from the 80s, and compiled individual program summaries for...

Although Exile in Guyville was celebrated as one of the year's top records by Spin and the New York Times, it was also, to some, an abomination: a mockery of the Rolling Stones' most revered record and a rare glimpse into the psyche of...

"In the absence of love, there is loneliness, sorrow and desperation. And that's where I come in." --Greg Dulli, introducing "When We Two Parted" onstage in San Francisco Like no record before or since, Gentlemen is fraught with the psychological warfare, bedroom drama, Catholic...

The clarinetist Rebecca Rischin has written a captivating book.... Her research dispels several long-cherished myths about the 1941 premiere.... Rischin lovingly brings to life the other musicians--ﾉtienne Pasquier, cellist; Henri Akoka, clarinetist; and Jean Le Boulaire, violinist--who played with Messiaen, the pianist at the...

A Concise History of the Classic Guitar by Graham Wade, one of the foremost international writers on the guitar, explores the history of the instrument from the 16th century to the present day.Author: Graham WadeISBN-10: 078664978XISBN-13: 9780786649785Publisher: Mel Bay PublicationsLanguage: EnglishPublished: 08/01/2001Pages: 224Format: PaperbackWeight:...

Rush: Album by Album pays genuine tribute to this iconic rock band's discography by moderating frank, entertaining conversations about all 20 of Rush's studio albums. Formed in Toronto in 1968, the rock trio Rush has gone on to multiplatinum success behind the distinctive high...

Why Jazz Happened is the first comprehensive social history of jazz. It provides an intimate and compelling look at the many forces that shaped this most American of art forms and the many influences that gave rise to jazz's post-war styles. Rich with the...