Showing titles in History & Criticism

Kerrang! has an unparalleled reputation as one of the world's best-loved rock-focused publications. It continues to be at the forefront of alternative music, flying the flag for metal, hardcore, punk and beyond, introducing millions to their new favourite bands. Anyone who's anyone in the metal scene has featured Kerrang!'s hallowed pages and this unique book chronicles these appearances. If it happened in metal, Kerrang! covered it, as confirmed in this year-by-year survey of alternative music.

A fascinating history that examines how real estate, gentrification, community and the highs and lows of New York City itself shaped the city’s music scenes from folk to house music. Take a walk through almost any neighborhood in Manhattan and you’ll likely pass some of the most significant...

Contrary to popular belief, the roots of American country music do not lie solely on southern farms or in mountain hollows. Rather, much of this music recorded before World War II emerged from the bustling cities and towns of the Piedmont South. No group contributed more to the commercialization of early country music than southern factory workers.

From a legendary journalist with four decades of unprecedented access and untold stories, an insider’s behind-the-scenes look at the major personalities of rock and roll. Lisa Robinson has interviewed everyone from John Lennon to Bono to Patti Smith, Eminem to Lady Gaga to Jay-Z and Kanye West...

Rhythm & blues emerged from the African American community in the late 1940s to become the driving force in American popular music over the next half-century. Although sometimes called "doo-wop", "soul", "funk", "urban contemporary", or "hip-hop", R&B is actually an umbrella category that includes all of these styles and genres. It is in fact a modern-day incarnation of a musical tradition that stretches back to 19th-century America, and even further to African beginnings.

Bloomsbury presents Unfinished by by Lucas Cantor Santiago, read by Christopher Ragland. For most of his career, the Emmy Award–winning composer and producer Lucas Cantor Santiago was a self-described luddite. Technology, he felt, was moving too fast, transforming the world and the arts with...

Dass die zerstrittenen Brüder Noel und Liam Gallagher eines Tages wieder zueinander finden würden, haben Fans nicht zu hoffen gewagt. Als Oasis im Sommer 2024 ihre Reunion und Tour verkündete, war die Freude umso größer. Dieses Buch erzählt, wie es dazu kam. Der Autor schreibt von der persönlichen und musikalischen Entwicklung der Brüder, von dem Bruch der Band im Jahr 2009 und den anschließenden Solokarrieren. Fundiert recherchiert ist dieses Buch eine Chronik bedeutender Musikgeschichte, einer Band, die immer noch Massen begeistert und von zwei Brüdern, die nie so ganz ohneeinander konnten.

This program includes an introduction read by the author. A stunning, in-depth look at the power and poetry of one of the most consequential rappers of our time. Kendrick Lamar is one of the most influential rappers, songwriters and record producers of his generation. Widely known for his...

Set against the backdrop of America's drug war, Atlanta’s urban communities, and the city’s vibrant music scene, Trap History takes an introspective look at the birth, rise, and global impact of trap music. From past interviews and firsthand encounters with trap music artists such as T.I., Gucci Mane, Jeezy, Future, and Migos, A.R. Shaw takes listeners on a journey that is informative, entertaining, poignant, and inspiring. Trap History stands as the first book that firmly details the origins of the rap subgenre, trap music.

The Everly Brothers—aka Don and Phil to fans with an intimate appreciation for them—seemed to exist almost as an apparition. Emerging within the formative era for young Baby Boomers during the blandly regimented '50s, they were a ubiquitous presence, clad in snug suits and skinny ties, hair neatly Brylcreemed, never raising their voices when they sang. The two prim-looking country boys with dark, curiously penetrating eyes and perfectly merged, honey-dipped harmonies, were oddly but comfortably settled as sentimental, soothing, sometimes lovelorn voices of a still-uncharted cultural turf.

It's a big question, and one that has been written about endlessly in an attempt to reveal the "formula" for creating a worldwide, smash hit record. First of all a good song speaks to you. You remember it, even if it's just one really good line.... It fills you with emotions, whether those be sad or happy ones. Then there is something else...it's the way the music was produced and its techniques which hook you in and enhance the listening experience. Inside this book, you will find a timeless blueprint for making smash hit songs.

Critiquing avant-garde rock bands from the 1960s to 2000, Bill Martin examines how social upheaval gave rise to this new form of musical expression. He covers early experimentation by artists such as James Brown; initiation into the mainstream and the resulting adaptations by the Beatles and the Who; and continues into the next era looking at how groups like Stereolab, Sonic Youth, Jim O’Rourke, and others continued to innovate.

Bloomsbury presents Death Metal by T Coles, read by Rob Crossan. Featuring exclusive interviews with key figures, from Napalm Death vocalist Barney Greenway to guitarist Bill Steer of Gentlemans Pistols, Carcass, and Napalm Death, this is your guide through the history of death metal. Guitars...

Since the late '70s, histories of rock music have either ignored or marginalized the progressive rock era. In part, this has occurred because rock music criticism has taken an almost completely sociological turn, with little or no interest in musical form itself. In Listening to the Future, Bill Martin argues that it is a musical and political mistake to ignore this period of tremendous creativity, a period that still finds resonance in rock music today.

R.E.M.'s debut album, released in 1983, was so far removed from the prevailing trends of American popular music that it still sounds miraculous and out of time today. J. Niimi tells the story of the album's genesis—with fascinating input from Don Dixon and Mitch Easter. He also investigates Michael Stipe's hypnotic, mysterious lyrics, and makes the case for Murmur as a work of Southern Gothic art.

For a Kentucky rifleman who spent his tour trudging through Vietnam's Central Highlands, it was Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'". For a "tunnel rat" who blew smoke into the Viet Cong's underground tunnels, it was Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze". For a black marine distraught over the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., it was Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools".

Award-winning music journalist and author Stuart Nicholson takes the listener on an entertaining journey from jazz's early stirrings in America’s south through to the present day, when almost every country in the world has its own vibrant jazz scene. En route we meet a host of jazz heroes past and present, from Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman and Miles Davis, to Keith Jarrett and Kamasi Washington. Each chapter is accompanied by a playlist designed to provide a stimulating and enjoyable entry point to what has been described as the most exciting art form of all.

The spiritual journey of the Beatles is the story of an entire generation of visionaries in the sixties who transformed the world. The Inner Light illumines hidden meanings of the Beatles' India-influenced lyrics and sounds, decoded by Susan Shumsky—a rare insider who spent two decades in the ashrams and six years on the personal staff of the Beatles' mentor, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

This guide provides introductory and closing commentary for works from many famous classical composers, and includes time-stamped commentary to explain the technical aspects of what is being heard in the piece and the composer's intent in real time. This innovative audiobook enables you to hear both the music and the commentary in parallel.

An entertaining and deeply nostalgic dive into how female pop stars broke through the music industry in the 2000s and altered the cultural landscape forever, from the Ringer writer and Every Single Album podcast cohost “Hit Girls bridges our butterfly-clipped, bedazzled past with today’s...