Music-History & Criticism

There Are Places I Remember whisks us back to the domestic dysfunction and unexpected European glory of Liverpool's 2004/05 season, when the Reds seemed to match every two steps forward with one to the side and one back. From British Sports Book Awards-shortlisted author...

The tale of the famous Greenwich Village coffeehouse turned nightclub, The Bitter End is also the story of the club's manager and owner, Paul Colby. From the early 60s to the 90s, the Bitter End hosted a wide range of influential music and comedy...

Iconic Albums - Morrissey - Kill UncleA Deep Dive into One of Morrissey's Most Misunderstood MasterpiecesBy Richard WardWhat do you get when one of the most polarizing voices in British music history releases an album full of contradictions, deadpan humour, and aching alienation?You get...

This is the story of a girl who grew up in the spotlight and refused to stay in anyone's shadow. Miley Cyrus: The Wild Ride of a Pop Rebel takes you on an unforgettable journey through the highs and lows of one of modern...

This Handbook explores and critiques a new sonic reality - one which unearths new narratives that chart embryonic practices from the early twentieth century that have developed in parallel with accepted narratives of electronic music.Today's musical and artistic practices within technology-based music represent radical...

From Johnny Cash to Jay-Z, musicians have long used their voices to challenge the injustices of the prison system. Prison Song: Music and Incarceration in the United States reveals how musicians have confronted the prison system by telling the life stories of imprisoned individuals,...

The Faery Faith in British Music examines the influence of faery belief upon classical and rock music, primarily in Britain, since late Victorian times. It covers a wide range of subjects, from the evolution of traditional ballads into music hall, through Gilbert and Sullivan...

In the vibrant and ever-evolving landscape of the music industry during the year 1910, recording artists and musicians faced a multitude of challenges asthey navigated the rapidly growing realm of recorded sound. This era marked a significant turning point in the industry, with the...

1904 wurde in Chalkida einer der bedeutendsten Komponisten Griechenlands geboren: Nikos Skalkottas. Zu seinen Lebzeiten verkannt und kaum aufgefuhrt, ruckte der Meisterschuler Schonbergs erst in den letzten Jahren verstarkt in das Bewusstsein des internationalen Publikums und die Aufmerksamkeit der musikalischen Forschung. Die Veranstaltung zu...

This is a facsimile reprint of the 1888 edition. "Celebrated singing performer of the last [18th] century: including an account of her introduction to public life, her professional engagements in London and Dublin and her various adventures and intrigues with well-known men of quality...

The Rosary and the Microphone explores U2 as a politically engaged band that manifests a particular brand of Christianity through the band's mediation in a global context and for a global audience. Through the primarily semiotic study of U2's various mediations, this book maps...

USA Today Bestseller2025 Readers' Favorite Silver Medal Winner: Non-Fiction - Music/EntertainmentFrom hits to history, explore the impact of R&B's iconic groups that shaped our culture.R&B groups once dominated the airwaves, shaping generations with their rhythms. But as the industry evolved, these iconic voices vanished...

USA Today Bestseller2025 Readers' Favorite Silver Medal Winner: Non-Fiction - Music/EntertainmentFrom hits to history, explore the impact of R&B's iconic groups that shaped our culture.R&B groups once dominated the airwaves, shaping generations with their rhythms. But as the industry evolved, these iconic voices vanished...

Richard Crocker once wrote "we understand many things about the history of music--specifically its development--better from the earlier periods." Since his first publications in 1958, Crocker pioneered a radically phenomenological and critical approach to the study of early music and musical style. Medieval Music...

Author: Brian ThompsonISBN-10: 1580463606ISBN-13: 9781580463607Publisher: University of Rochester PressLanguage: EnglishPublished: 12/15/2009Pages: 144Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.40lbsSize: 7.50h x 5.00w x 0.40d

A transformative look at a popular instrument and a hidden chapter of American history.The American guitar, that lightweight wooden box with a long neck, hourglass figure, and six metal strings, has evolved over five hundred years of social turmoil to become a nearly magical...

Wagner's Tristan Und Isolde by George Ainslie Hight is a comprehensive guide to one of the most famous operas in the world. The book provides an in-depth analysis of the music, libretto, and historical context of Wagner's masterpiece. The author explores the themes of...

Josephus Aegypti Prorex: Drama Musicum Honoribus Josephi Episcopi Augustani is a historical drama likely composed in the 18th century. The work centers on Josephus, possibly alluding to Flavius Josephus, the 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, and is dedicated to Joseph, Bishop of Augsburg....

"Master Of German Music" delves into the rich tapestry of German musical history, exploring the lives and works of its most influential composers. Authored by John Alexander Fuller-Maitland, this book offers insightful perspectives on the evolution of German music and its enduring impact on...

The Gaelic Old Smuggler Hotch Potch is a book that celebrates Scottish culture through a collection of songs, music, and humor. Written by J. Murray Mackenzie, the book features a range of traditional Scottish songs and Highland music, as well as anecdotes and jokes...

An Outline of the Structure of the Pipe Organ is a book written by William Horatio Clarke in 1877. The book offers a comprehensive guide to the structure of pipe organs, including their construction, design, and operation. It covers the various components of the...

Fragrant tropical flowers, opulent batik fabrics, magnificent bronze gamelan orchestras, and, of course, aromatic coffee. Such are the exotic images of Java, Indonesia's most densely populated island, that have hovered at the periphery of North American imaginations for generations. Through close readings of the...

Wagner's epic Ring of the Niebelungs stands as a focal point of nineteenth-century German art. Redemption or Annihilation? discusses the unusual structure of The Ring and major critical viewpoints, such as those of Friedrich Nietzsche and Theodor Adorno. An interpretation is presented in which...

Texas-born T Bone Burnett is an award-winning musician, songwriter, and producer with over forty years of experience in the entertainment industry. In The Philosopher King, Heath Carpenter evaluates and positions Burnett as a major cultural catalyst by grounding his work, and that of others...

Tchaikovsky's final symphony has fascinated generations of music lovers since its first performance just over a century ago. Professor Jackson explores sensitively and without prejudice the question of the Pathétique's program and its relation to Tchaikovsky's homosexuality and death. The book covers the work's...

Early Music History is devoted to the study of music from the early Middle Ages to the end of the seventeenth century. It demands the highest standards of scholarship from its contributors, all of whom are leading academics in their fields. It gives preference...

Black musical forms profoundly influenced the work of American poet and leading literary figure Lorenzo Thomas, and he wrote about them with keen insight---and obvious pleasure. This book, begun by Thomas before his death in 2005, collects more than a dozen of his savvy...

A Classic of Blues Literature inductee into the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame Drawing on archives and interviews with musicians, Red River Blues remains an acclaimed work of blues scholarship. Bruce Bastin traces the origins of the music to the turn of the...

Through the study of a large variety of musical practices from the U.S.-Mexico border, Transnational Encounters seeks to provide a new perspective on the complex character of this geographic area. By focusing not only on norteña, banda or conjunto musics (the most stereotypical musical...

Annals Of Music In America: A Chronological Record Of Significant Musical Events, From 1640 To The Present Day, With Comments On The Various Periods Into Which The Work Is Divided This book is a result of an effort made by us towards making a...

Follow the untold story of how one of America's greatest companies changed our culture and our music with their unorthodox devices. In 1968, Mike Matthews founded Electro-Harmonix (EHX) and began assembling a worldwide team of the most talented engineers, creatives, and musicians he could...

Updated for the first time in five years, this is the ultimate albums guide featuring insider knowledge and criticism from 90 internationally acclaimed music journalists. 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is the ultimate critical guide to history's greatest music. You'll find...

Witness one of the most stunning revolutions in rock 'n' roll history in this authoritative and visually rich history of grunge. In the early 1990s, a new sound from the Pacific Northwest changed everything. Grunge charts the rise of the movement that redefined rock...

Good Listener: Meditations on Music and Pauline Oliveros is a performance-in-writing of Oliveros's Sonic Meditation XXI--a text score in the form of a question: "What constitutes your musical universe?" Michael Ned Holte responds to this brief but expansive prompt with a daily meditation that...

Transatlantic knowledge of the queer underground punk scene that ultimately became queercore developed through the spirit of DIY resistance that guided earlier feminist artists as queer musicians pushed back against the homophobia and sexism that remained pervasive in hardcore punk. Queercore officially got its...

From dazzling electronic futurism to pioneering post-punk, via pop, metal, bassline, bleep techno and generation-defining indie rock, Sheffield has long been a crucible for world-leading music. Some artists have excelled on the fringes, others have achieved global success, but all remain connected through a...

On 16 September 2025, Kate Bush's timeless masterpiece, Hounds of Love, turns 40. But have you ever wondered where the album was recorded? Or maybe you've always wanted to know where the video for Running Up That Hill was filmed, or where Kate's No....

Girls! Girls! Girls! - Elvis Presley in Hollywood's Soundtrack EraStep aboard with Elvis Presley in Girls! Girls! Girls! - the 1962 musical that captures both the brilliance and the compromises of his Hollywood years. From the tropical glow of Hawaii to the nautical swagger...

Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole blazed paths that salvaged socially conscious rap at a pivotal time in history. Conscious rap, a subgenre of hip-hop music that engages in dialogue about social and political issues and often challenges systems of oppression, ascended with pioneers like...

Turn on the radio anywhere in the world, and sooner or later you will hear 'Africa'. Along with just a handful of songs by other artists, Toto's worldwide hit is one of the most ubiquitous musical works of our time, written by a group...

It's 1977, and punk rock has just hit Liverpool. The legendary Eric's club is home to the city's rebels, posers and misfits. It's a place of attitude, adventure and new possibilities, and it changes lives. Some become pop stars; Penny Kiley becomes a music...

WINNER OF THE ELIZABETH AGEE PRIZE IN AMERICAN LITERATUREA groundbreaking appreciation of Dylan as a literary practitioner. The literary establishment tends to regard Bob Dylan as an intriguing, if baffling, outsider. That changed overnight when Dylan was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature,...

What defines a "musical work"? Traditionally, this question has been dominated by Western art music and its reliance on prescriptive scores. Yet, with the rise of recording technologies and the growing influence of genres like jazz, pop, and rock, the very foundations of music's...

Celebrated, controversial, and conspicuously eclectic, Paul Simon's Graceland stands among the monumental albums of the 20th century. This book explores how and why it made its mark, from the international collaborations that defined its musical character, to the inflamed political environment from which it...

This is the first book to map and celebrate the overlooked history of producers, promoters and DJs from Islington that contributed to the acid house and rave scene as it developed in derelict spaces in the borough in the late 1980s, and how this...

For music analysts and performers alike, Beethoven's Tempest sonata (1802) represents one of the most challenging pieces of the classical and early romantic piano repertoire. This book is a collection of eleven essays, each dealing with this sonata from a different analytical perspective and...

A group of resourceful kids start "solution-seekers.com," a website where "cybervisitors" can get answers to questions that trouble them. But when one questioner asks the true meaning of Christmas, the kids seek to unravel the mystery by journeying back through the prophecies of the...

A group of resourceful kids start "solution-seekers.com," a website where "cybervisitors" can get answers to questions that trouble them. But when one questioner asks the true meaning of Christmas, the kids seek to unravel the mystery by journeying back through the prophecies of the...

The European music world at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century was characterised by national ideas and nationalistic ideologies. But the reality of the music itself seems quite different: inspiration did not stop at national borders, and composers sought out poetic...

In relation to music, the word censorship immediately calls to mind the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century, in particular those of Nazi Germany and the USSR. But music censorship is arguably even more prominent and pervasive in our own age, not only in...