Mostrando títulos en Historia y Crítica

Equal parts music criticism, cultural and comedy history, autobiography, and comic meditation on nostalgia, television, consumerism, childhood, technology, and food, The Weird Accordion to Al does justice to a musical legend and comic genius, the extent of whose remarkable achievements are only now being fully understood and appreciated.

A first-time-ever exploration of the 290 songs from the entirety of Twin Peaks, sure to entice fans of the David Lynch-Mark Frost's cult classic that revolutionized TV, with brand-new interviews with Frost and several of the key composers and musicians involved.

Few people in recent memory have dedicated themselves as devotedly to the story of twentieth-century American music as Rob Kapilow, the composer, conductor, and host of the hit NPR music radio program, What Makes It Great? Now, in Listening for America, he turns his keen ear to the Great American Songbook, bringing many of our favorite classics to life.

Now it can be told! The true, behind-the-scenes story of Casablanca Records, from an eyewitness to the excess and insanity. Casablanca was not a product of the 1970s, it was the 1970s. From 1974 to 1980, the landscape of American culture was a banquet of hedonism and self-indulgence, and no person or company in that era was more emblematic of the times than Casablanca Records and its magnetic founder, Neil Bogart.

In extensive interviews with scene pioneers and mainstays, including Chris Carrabba (Dashboard Confessional), Geoff Rickly (Thursday), Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance), Gabe Saporta (Midtown/Cobra Starship), and Max Bemis (Say Anything), veteran music journalist Michael Tedder has crafted a once-in-a-generation exploration of emo and The Scene that is as forthright as it is tenderly nostalgic, taking to task the elements of toxic masculinity and crass consumerism that bled out of the early 2000s cultural milieu and ultimately led to the implosion of emo's first home, MySpace.

Bitches Brew is still one of the most astonishing albums ever made in either jazz or rock. Seeming to fuse the two, it actually does something entirely more revolutionary and open-ended: blending the most avant-garde aspects of Western music with deep grooves, the album rejects both jazz and rock for an entirely different idea of how music can be made.

Reggae superstar Bob Marley is one of the world’s most important and influential artists. Exodus, named by Time magazine as “Album of the Century,” is Bob Marley’s masterpiece of spiritual exploration. Recorded in London after an assassination attempt on his life sent Marley into exile from Jamaica, Exodus is the most lasting testament to his social conscience. Now, in The Book of Exodus, Goldman chronicles the making of this album, from its conception in Jamaica to the raucous but intense all-night studio sessions in London.

Drawing on interviews with family members, managers, promoters, and the jazz musicians who worked with her, as well as contemporary newspaper articles and reviews, Late Life Jazz tells the unsung story of one of America's finest singers, Rosemary Clooney. Ken Crossland and Malcolm Macfarlane trace Rosemary's life from her hardscrabble beginnings in Maysville Kentucky, through her first performances singing with the Barney Rapp Band in Cincinnati, through her rise to pop stardom in the early 1950s.

In 1934, the Great Depression had destroyed the US economy, leaving residents poverty-stricken. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt urged President Roosevelt to take radical action to help those hit hardest. They set up government homesteads in rural areas across the country, an experiment in cooperative living where people could start over. To boost morale and encourage the homesteaders to find community in their own traditions, the administration brought in artists to lead group activities—including folk music.

In Elvis Presley: A Southern Life, one of the most admired Southern historians of our time takes on one of the greatest cultural icons of all time. The result is a masterpiece: a vivid, gripping biography, set against the rich backdrop of Southern society - indeed, American society - in the second half of the 20th century.

Vs. is the sound of a band on fire. The same confluence of talent, passion, timing, and fate that made “grunge” the world’s soundtrack also lit a short fuse beneath Pearl Jam. The band combusted between late 1992 and mid-1994, the span during which they planned, recorded, and supported their sophomore record. The spotlight, the pressure, the pace—it all nearly turned the thriving act to ash.

Reflecting on the Beach Boys’ long, fascinating history, this book tells the story behind 50 of the band’s greatest songs from the perspective of group members, collaborators, fellow musicians, and notable fans. The band's music is as influential now as it was 50 years ago, and this retelling of how the iconic rock group found itself in the annals of pop culture couldn't come at a better time.

There have been few times in modern music history that an instant shift in how we listen to - and view - music has occurred. However, the launch of MTV on August 1, 1981, was certainly one such occurrence. Instantly, music fans were now “listening with their eyes” rather than relying solely on their ears.

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 retro-futuristic sound—influences include danceable disco, tangy funk, swaggering glam, and Roxy Music's art-rock—the full-length sold millions and spawned smashes such as "Hungry Like the Wolf" and the title track.

In the heart of the Colombian Andes, music is more than sound—it is memory, identity, and survival. Where the Mountains Sing is the definitive, sweeping history of carranga, the rural musical tradition born in Boyacá’s highlands and carried through centuries by farmers, artisans, muleteers, and dreamers. From ancient Muisca rituals to colonial soundscapes, from humble campesino kitchens to the explosive rise of Jorge Velosa and the carranguero movement, Elena Caro masterfully uncovers the living story of a genre that once had no name—and became a national treasure. Richly researched ...

This epic cultural and historical odyssey unearths the full influence of occult traditions on rock and roll - from the Beatles to Black Sabbath - and shows how the marriage between mysticism and music changed our world.

Discover the raw wisdom of the Sovereign of the Soul in The Pearl Philosophy. This collection of Janis Joplin quotes and biographical insights explores the power of the blues, radical vulnerability, and the courage to be uncompromised. Perfect for fans of music history, female empowerment, and creative inspiration, this volume deconstructs the mindset of a rock legend who lived "out loud." "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose." Janis Joplin arrived like a thunderstorm in a world that told women to be quiet. She was the "Sovereign of the Soul," a woman who turned her ...

Discover the ultimate collection of Phil Lynott quotes, lyrics, and wisdom. Black Rose & Blarney explores the life of Thin Lizzy’s legendary frontman through his own words—from his Dublin roots to his status as a global rock icon. The definitive guide for fans of the "Black Rose." Before U2 and Sinead O’Connor, there was Philip Lynott. A black man in a white Ireland, a poet in a leather jacket, and the undisputed King of Dublin. Phil Lynott didn’t just lead Thin Lizzy; he narrated the 1970s rock scene with a unique blend of swagger and soul. Black Rose & Blarney: The Wisdom and Wit ...

Have you ever had a dream? Something you wanted so bad you just couldn’t let it go? For a group of kids in Harlem in the Eighties, their dreams would change pop music forever. Teddy Riley, Timmy Gatling, and Aaron Hall form a group called Guy that would fuse hip-hop and R&B and launch a new sound.

Music is interwoven into the fabric of our lives. We listen to it, some of us play it, but throughout history, humans have also attempted to capture it visually, from the musical images of Ancient Sumer, to Frozen's Elsa standing on the side of a mountain, her voice making crystals in the air. In this startlingly original history of music, Eleanor Chan takes us on a journey through sound that encompasses the 35,000-year-old flute found in a German cave, Kandinsky's kaleidoscopic paintings, illuminated manuscripts, and haute couture.