Showing titles in History & Criticism

The revealing backstory of the album with no name that spawned 'When the Levee Breaks', 'Black Dog,' 'Stairway to Heaven', and 'Rock 'n' Roll'. Four tracks each side; eight killers, no fillers. This is how they did it.

Dangerous Melodies vividly evokes a time when classical music stood at the center of American life, occupying a prominent place in the nation’s culture and politics. The work of renowned conductors, instrumentalists, and singers - and the activities of orchestras and opera companies - were intertwined with momentous international events: two world wars, the rise of fascism, and the Cold War.

Rock & Roll Nightmares, Volume 1 scratched the sinister surface with tales of the 27 Club, rock ‘n’ roll suicides, plane crashes, curses, and more. Now the award-winning series continues with concert mayhem, a look at the “baby groupie” trend of the 1970s, Satanic panic, horrific home invasions, musicians who’ve died on stage, rockers who lived on borrowed time, gun-toting music producers, deadly DJs, and much more.

Over a prolific 40-year career, The Fall created a world that was influential, idiosyncratic and fiercely original - and defied simple categorisation. Their front man and lyricist, Mark E Smith, spun opaque tales that resisted conventional understanding; The Fall's worldview was an education in its own right. Who wouldn't want to be armed with a working knowledge of M R James, shipping-dock procedures, contemporary dance, Manchester City and Can? The group inspired and shaped the lives of those who listened to and tried to make sense of their work.

Sacramento’s greatest commodity isn’t the Kings, trees, the Farm-to-Fork Festival, or being the capitol of California. Around the world, Sacramento is most known for its rap music. Sac’s rich 35-year rap history is admired far beyond our borders. With Mozzy’s success and X-Raided’s prison release, Sac rap is bigger than ever! The History Of Sacramento Rap: The Rise and Fall takes an in-depth look at the controversial history of our Sacramento rap culture.

The year 2000. As Britain celebrates the new millennium, something fluorescent and futuristic is stirring in the crumbling council estates of inner city London. Making beats on stolen software, spitting lyrics on tower block rooftops and beaming out signals from pirate radio aerials, a group of teenagers raised on UK garage, American hip-hop and Jamaican reggae stumble upon a dazzling new genre. Against all odds, these young MCs will grow up to become some of the UK’s most famous musicians, scoring number one records and dominating British pop culture for years to come.

A small-town Florida teenager discovers punk rock through a loaned mix tape, and punk music and culture slowly takes over all aspects of his life. His new passion causes him to form a band, track down out-of-print records he loves and reissue them, open a record store, start a record distribution operation as a public service, mentor a host of young musicians, and befriend all manner of punk luminaries along the way. Slowly his life's pursuit pushes him to the point of personal ruination and, ultimately, redemption.

Jazz 101 is a fascinating entry into the world of jazz, for the beginner, novice, or jazz enthusiast. Szwed takes listeners on a tour of the varied and nonlinear history of jazz, exploring how it developed from an ethnic music to become America's most popular music and then part of the avant-garde in less than 50 years.

The immense cultural contribution made by two maverick Scottish independent music labels, Fast Product and Postcard, cannot be underestimated. Bob Last and Hilary Morrison in Edinburgh, followed by Alan Horne and Edwyn Collins in Glasgow, helped to create a confidence in being Scottish that hitherto had not existed in pop music (or the arts in general in Scotland). Their fierce independent spirit stamped a mark of quality and intelligence on everything they achieved. Hungry Beat is a definitive oral history of these labels and the Scottish post-punk period.

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.

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. 

Leafy St Albans is an unlikely starting point for one of the great psychedelic/acid house musicians of his generation, but, like so many others who brought radical change to the counterculture, Richard Norris' story starts in the suburbs. Strange Things Are Happening documents his journey from punk through the emerging DIY indie culture to producing the UK's first acid house album, Jack the Tab. This is an insider's tale of inspiration and collaboration, working with some of the most iconic artists in music and beyond.

The Police have sold more than 50 million albums, made Rolling Stone's Greatest Artists of All Time list, and finished a triumphant world reunion tour in 2008. Now British journalist Chris Campion draws on extensive research and new interviews to trace the inside saga of this iconic group, including the unorthodox business strategies employed by manager Miles Copeland that took them to the top and the intense rivalry that drove Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland to split at the height of their success in the 1980s.

Whether you are a fan of hip-hop, or you are just curious about it, you will not have to look further after finding Eric Reese's The History of Hip Hop. This concise but in-depth audiobook explores all the distinguishing traits of what is not only a genre of music but a lifestyle. Reese traces the history of hip-hop from its beginnings in the 1970s and reveals how it changed in the next decades until it became a worldwide phenomenon. The author gives attention to the influence of hip-hop at every level, including art and fashion.

Die Königin des Rock'n'Roll. "Liebe hat mein Leben gerettet. Davon will ich erzählen." Tina Turner, die Königin des Rock 'n' Roll, wird bald 80 Jahre alt. Unter dem Eindruck einer lebensbedrohlichen Erkrankung, die sie aufgrund einer wunderbaren Wendung überwinden konnte, schildert sie erstmals ihre ganze Geschichte. "Private Dancer", "Simply the Best", "I Can't Stand the Rain" - jeder, der Tina Turners Musik hört, ahnt etwas von ihrer Energie. Ihr Lebenswille und nie versiegender Mut brachten sie aus der Enge der Kindheit in Tennessee auf die Bühnen der Welt.

Miles to Go is a frank and intimate exploration of Miles Davis' eccentric working life, drug habits, paranoia, depression, and subsequent recovery. Murphy explores Davis' troubled relationship with his children and the controversial role Cicely Tyson played in his life. The book also delves into the dynamics that made Davis' band work so well together, placing Davis' work in a historic, literary, and musical framework.

In 1948, the Orioles, a Baltimore-based vocal group, recorded "It's Too Soon to Know". Combining the sound of Tin Pan Alley with gospel and blues sensibilities, the Orioles saw their first hit reach #13 on the pop charts, thus introducing the nation to vocal rhythm & blues and paving the way for the most successful groups of the 1950s. In the first scholarly treatment of this influential musical genre, Stuart Goosman chronicles the Orioles' story and that of myriad other black vocal groups in the postwar period.

It was a time when music fans copied and traded recordings without permission. An outraged music industry pushed Congress to pass anti-piracy legislation. Yes, that time is now; it was also the era of Napster in the 1990s, of cassette tapes in the 1970s, of reel-to-reel tapes in the 1950s, even the phonograph epoch of the 1930s. Piracy, it turns out, is as old as recorded music itself. In Democracy of Sound, Alex Sayf Cummings uncovers the little-known history of music piracy and its sweeping effects on the definition of copyright in the United States.

Can't Give It Away on Seventh Avenue: The Rolling Stones and New York City explores the history of the group through the prism of New York. It is a highly detailed document of the dynamic and reciprocal relationship between the world's most famous band and America's most famous city as well as an absorbing chronicle of the remarkable impact the city has had on the band's music and career.

Zur Einstimmung auf laute Tage und lange Nächte präsentiert Nico Rose vom "Ministerium für Schwermetall" erhellende Erkenntnisse rund um die Psychologie des Metalheads. In "Hard, Heavy & Happy" gehen wir der Frage auf den Grund, wie Metal das Leben bereichert und einfach glücklich macht – oder manchmal: etwas weniger unglücklich. Wir werfen einen meist heiteren, bisweilen aber auch melancholischen Blick auf die besonderen Sitten und Gebräuche der Szene. Als Psychologe beleuchtet Nico Rose insbesondere die seelisch-emotionale Seite dieser außergewöhnlichen Musik.