Taylor Swift Songs Decoded
Taylor Swift Songs Decoded: The Untold Stories and Hidden Meanings Behind Her Famous Hits takes you on a thrilling deep dive into the creative heart of one of the world's most influential singer-songwriters. Each chapter reveals intriguing insights and behind-the-scenes anecdotes that shaped the lyrics and melodies fans have come to adore. From the country-inspired beginnings that catapulted Taylor to stardom, to her groundbreaking pop anthems and introspective storytelling, this book uncovers how personal experiences, friendships, and even heartbreak inform every note. Whether you're curious about the subtle references tucked away in fan-favorite songs or eager to revisit memorable eras through a fresh lens, this definitive guide offers an illuminating perspective on Taylor's artistry. Complete with fascinating trivia and meticulous research, Taylor Swift Songs Decoded is your key to unlocking the secret messages and symbolic details woven throughout her discography. Prepare to rediscover Taylor's music in a whole new light!
Choreomusicology
The Routledge Companion to Choreomusicology: Dialogues in Music and Dance is a distinguished collection of essays by leading scholars presenting research that redefines and rethinks the question of what dance and music are, together and apart, and which promotes new ideas and voices in the discipline.
Taylor Swift Songs Decoded
Taylor Swift Songs Decoded: The Untold Stories and Hidden Meanings Behind Her Famous Hits takes you on a thrilling deep dive into the creative heart of one of the world's most influential singer-songwriters. Each chapter reveals intriguing insights and behind-the-scenes anecdotes that shaped the lyrics and melodies fans have come to adore. From the country-inspired beginnings that catapulted Taylor to stardom, to her groundbreaking pop anthems and introspective storytelling, this book uncovers how personal experiences, friendships, and even heartbreak inform every note. Whether you're curious about the subtle references tucked away in fan-favorite songs or eager to revisit memorable eras through a fresh lens, this definitive guide offers an illuminating perspective on Taylor's artistry. Complete with fascinating trivia and meticulous research, Taylor Swift Songs Decoded is your key to unlocking the secret messages and symbolic details woven throughout her discography. Prepare to rediscover Taylor's music in a whole new light!
Boyz II Men 40th Anniversary Celebration
A must-have for every Boyz II Men fan, this handsome volume traces forty years of the groundbreaking group through stunning photography, fascinating facts, and interviews with fans and industry pros. Philly's own Boyz II Men is an iconic boy band that jumped to the top of the charts (and into the hearts of millions of global fans) in the 1980s. Though the band came to prominence in a time when acts like New Kids On The Block, Backstreet Boys, and NSYNC were surging in popularity, Boyz II Men was truly a transitional group, with a unique sound that took cues from both pop and R&B and brought together audiences across the world. Today, Boyz II Men is the bestselling R&B group of all time, having sold over 60 million albums worldwide, with a highly anticipated biopic in the works. In Boyz II Men 40th Anniversary Celebration, music journalist John Morrison delves into the band's origins--from their beginning in high school and their earliest influences--to their biggest successes in the '80s and '90s, to their continued achievements today and the lasting legacy they've left in the boy-band canon. Along the way, readers will also explore the creation of Boyz II Men's biggest hits, such as "End of the Road" and "Motownphilly"; the fan culture that built up around the band, from the small gigs and mall tours of their earliest years to their national anthem performance in 2022 and tour and album plans for their anniversary year in 2025; Boyz II Men's influences, from R&B to a cappella, and their place in a boy-band history that begins with the Jackson 5 and continues in the modern day with bands like One Direction and BTS; and the lasting legacy of a band proudly celebrating their fortieth anniversary. The book features interviews with icons of the music world and leading music historians and journalists, including: Singer-songwriter and record producer Kenneth "Babyface" EdmondsSinger-songwriter Loren Davis-StroudMusic journalist Michael Gonzales Music producer Joe "The Butcher" NicoloMusician and studio manager Daria Marmaluk-HajioannouAudio engineer George HajioannouBassist Reggie HamiltonAuthor and historian Dart AdamsLongtime music journalist and entertainment industry professional Karas LambWith stunning photographs and recollections from fans throughout, fans can relive their most precious memories of their favorite crossover band and learn about hidden gems and new tidbits from famous friends and collaborators. This is far from the end of the road for this groundbreaking group, and this book is the perfect companion to your everlasting love for "Nate, Mike, Shawn, and Wan"!
Fundamentals of Instrumental and Choral Conducting
Providing a thorough introduction to both choral and instrumental conducting, this textbook offers a complete package of teaching, study, and assessment materials to support a single-semester foundational conducting course.The book is designed to address the needs of students and instructors in mixed-discipline classrooms, giving equal weight to the conducting skills and repertoire of instrumental and choral ensembles. The 22 chapters are intended to fit comfortably into a single semester course with two weekly classes. The authors cover key topics including conducting body alignment, breathing, the conducting box, baton use, cutoffs, left-hand use, conducting patterns, conducting styles, conducting subdivisions, accents, syncopation, score preparation and score reading, transpositions and clef reading, ensemble familiarity, error detection, rehearsal planning, and rehearsal techniques.This textbook and its accompanying supplemental materials are uniquely designed for the instructor to achieve an efficient and readily organized class, and for the students to receive essential fundamental conducting skills on both instrumental--including orchestral and band instruments--and choral ensembles. Addressing the conductor's role, basic conducting skills, makeup of instrumental and choral ensembles, and solutions to common issues, the text prepares all students to engage in higher-level conducting courses.
Fieldwork: Essays on the Cultural History of Music in Ireland
An absorbing study of the development and reception of musical culture in Ireland by a pioneering and deservedly renowned author. This volume is a collection of fourteen essays on the history and reception of Irish music and music in Ireland. It addresses three prevailing themes: the historiography of Irish music, the influence of music on Irish writing (and vice versa), and the cultural identity and reception of Irish music both domestically and in the world at large. Its principal protagonists include Thomas Moore, W. H. Grattan Flood, George Moore, Edward Martyn, Charles Villiers Stanford, James Joyce, Dora Pejačevic, Ina Boyle, Aloys Fleischmann and Jennifer Walshe. These essays also identify and interrogate key questions underpinning a general crisis of reception in relation to Irish music, and particularly art music, within the domain of Irish studies. Fieldwork examines this crisis in the aftermath of The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland (published in 2013) and a major retrospective of Irish art music, Composing the Island (curated and presented in 2016). It thereby engages closely with contemporary Irish art music and the challenges which this music has faced in the early decades of the twenty-first century. This well-conceived and beautifully written work testifies to Harry White's central place in the shaping of the discourse surrounding the cultural history of Irish music over the last 40 years. White's gift for expression and memorably poetic turns of phrase allows the complexity of ideas and range of historical and literary knowledge examined in these essays to be deftly excavated and evaluated. Curiosity, provocativeness, imagination and literature are threaded through his exploration of how Irish history and experience have been imagined musically.
100 Years of Grand OLE Opry
The official book celebrating 100 years of the Grand Ole Opry--an intimate, gorgeously illustrated behind-the-scenes look at the American institution and world-renowned stage for country music Since 1925, the Grand Ole Opry has left an undeniable mark on American culture. What began as an impromptu performance of old-time fiddle tunes has transformed into the longest-running radio broadcast in US history, as well as a live performance for millions of country music fans each year. Widely regarded as the show that made country music famous, the Opry has played an important role in the careers of country music's biggest stars--including Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Carrie Underwood, Luke Combs, and countless others--popularizing and preserving some of the most beloved forms of American music. As country music has broadened and its audience continues to grow, the Grand Ole Opry has evolved alongside the genre itself. This centennial celebration showcases the venerable institution's history through lively never-before-seen photography and ephemera from years past, as well as behind-the-scenes stories from those who have paced backstage before career-defining performances, and those who have come to know the Opry as a second home. Replete with gorgeous illustrations and tributes from country music's biggest names, 100 Years of Grand Ole Opry is a glorious, one-of-a-kind celebration, and a must-have for any country music fan.
From Born to Be Wild to Dazed and Confused
Emerging from a period of protest and social unrest, 1968 was the year that ushered in gut-punching sounds that would define classic and hard rock--the formation of bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath rolled away the light sounds of psychedelic music and Flower Power. Celebrated music journalist & author John Einarson provides the first detailed account of this crucial period. Einarson begins by examining the birth of psychedelic music and experimentation beginning in 1965 and the resultant Summer of Love, showing how The Who and The Jimi Hendrix Experience planted the seeds for the harder rock sounds at The Monterey Pop Festival. Music and popular culture always reflect prevailing social and political conditions, and 1968 was no exception. Events like the Tet Offensive, student protests around the world, the My Lai massacre, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, the Chicago Democratic National Convention protests, and the election of Richard Nixon set the stage for a more visceral music that reflected the sense of alienation, frustration, and violence among young people who rejected the vacuous platitudes of Flower Power. Einarson traces the evolution of a harder rock sound throughout the year as well as the formation of pivotal hard rock and heavy metal bands in 1968, including Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin who would provide the all-important foundation for what we know today as classic rock.
Play This Book Loud
More than at any time in human history, our daily lives are scored and imprinted by music. We listen while bicycling, while taking walks, on the train to and from work, and at home on stereos or streaming. We're immersed in music and music making virtually 24/7. Why is music such an essential part of the way we live, and how does it enrich and fasten itself to our very beings? Play This Book Loud tunes in to many voices, from mainstream bands to obscure artists, from Lydia Loveless singing her heart out and DJ Shadow/Cut Chemist endlessly crate digging, from the Detroit Cobras playing for a few dozen to Green Day filling stadiums, from Riot Grrrl punk to the traditional styles of Connie Francis, from the Stooges' messiness and psychedelic rock to the careful orchestration of anonymous session players and 1960s commercial jingles. In this compelling and exuberant book, song by song, Joe Bonomo moves between zones of listening, turned on while wearing headphones or watching a band in a club. With the heart of a fan and a generous ear, he enthusiastically explores the reasons music, and those who devote themselves to it, matters so deeply. Play This Book Loud explores our urge for sonic existence.
My Black Country
Alice Randall, award-winning professor, songwriter, and author presents "a celebration of all things country music" (Ken Burns) as she reflects on her search for the first family of Black country music. Country music had brought Alice Randall and her activist mother together and even gave Randall a singular distinction in American music history: she is the first Black woman to cowrite a number one country hit, Trisha Yearwood's "XXX's and OOO's (An American Girl)". Randall found inspiration and comfort in the sounds and history of the first family of Black country music: DeFord Bailey, Lil Hardin, Ray Charles, Charley Pride, and Herb Jeffries who, together, made up a community of Black Americans rising through hard times to create simple beauty, true joy, and sometimes profound eccentricity. What emerges in My Black Country is "a delightful, inspirational story of persistence, resistance, and sheer love" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) of this most American of music genres and the radical joy in realizing the power of Black influence on American culture. As country music goes through a fresh renaissance today, with a new wave of Black artists enjoying success, My Black Country is the perfect gift for longtime country fans and a vibrant introduction to a new generation of listeners who previously were not invited to give the genre a chance.
Custom Made Woman
Alice Gerrard, an award-winning and storied folk and bluegrass musician for over 50 years, is one of the notable few women in a heavily male genre. Custom Made Woman tells Gerrard's story through the music, the folk festivals, the kids, and the relationships--both personal and professional--that defined her storied life and career. Her collaborations with Appalachian singer Hazel Dickens during the 1960s and 1970s were pivotal recordings during the decades after the American folk music boom of the midcentury; the duo produced four albums that have recently been rereleased by Rounder Records and Smithsonian Folkways. In addition to Dickens, Gerrard has worked with folks like Tommy Jarrell, Enoch Rutherford, Otis Burris, Luther Davis, and Matokie Slaughter, and founded The Old-Time Herald, based in Durham, North Carolina, serving as its editor-in-chief from 1987 until 2003.She's also a lifelong documentarian of the folkways scene, and this book features nearly 100 rare photos--many never before seen--of key musicians, including Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, Hazel Dickens, Elizabeth Cotten, Mike Seeger, and more. In telling the story of her time as a player of traditional music, Gerrard gives us a deeply personal way to understand and appreciate a quintessentially American genre that has a long history and thrives to this day.
Norton: Microstyles Collection for Piano
(BH Piano). The Microstyles Collection contains stunning solo keyboard music for beginner to intermediate-level players. Forty-eight original progressive piano pieces capture the characteristic qualities of popular music styles, including Latin, reggae, jazz, pop, rock, and many others. Listen to the composer's vibrant performances or play along to the accompaniment tracks online.
Fahrenheit-182
***The Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller!***A smart, funny, and refreshing memoir from Mark Hoppus, the vocalist, bassist, and founding member of pop-punk band blink-182.This is the coming of age story of an angst-filled kid from the desert, navigating the chaos of his parents' bitter divorce and searching for his place in the world. Each move across the country was a chance to reinvent himself, switching identities from dork to goth to skate punk, and eventually meeting his best friend who just so happens to be his musical soulmate.With sharp humor and raw honesty, this unforgettable rock and roll memoir takes readers through Mark's formative years as a latchkey kid in the 1980s, hooked on punk rock, skateboards, and MTV. Along the way, Mark reflects on his lifelong battle with anxiety, his celebrated career with blink-182, and his public fight with cancer, in a voice that's both relatable and unmistakably his own.Threaded with sharp humor and heartfelt grit, Fahrenheit-182 EPB is more than just a memoir for blink-182 fans. It's a funny, smart, and deeply human story for anyone who's struggled, reinvented themselves, wanted to quit but kept going.This unflinching look at life inside one of the world's biggest bands delivers: 90s Music Scene: Go behind the scenes of the Warped Tour-era pop-punk explosion, from sweaty club shows in San Diego to sold-out arenas around the globe.Unflinching Honesty: Explore a candid account of a lifelong battle with anxiety and the pressures of fame, told with Mark's signature self-deprecating wit.Cancer Survival Story: Follow a powerful journey through a shocking diagnosis and grueling chemotherapy to the triumphant return to the stage.Band Dynamics: Get an inside look at the friendships, fractures, and creative magic that defined blink-182 for decades.
Beethoven - Symphony No.1 in C Major Op. 21 - Creation, Origins and Reception History
AUTHOR'S NOTEINTRODUCTIONEDITORIAL PRINCIPLESBEETHOVEN'S FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS SYMPHONY NO. 1 - SELECTED WRITINGSAllgemeine musikalische ZeitungWilhelm AltmannPaul BekkerJohn BlackingLeon BotsteinJoseph BraunsteinBarry CooperBasil DeanePhilip G. DownsDonald Jay Grout, and Claude V. Palisca(Sir) George GroveGeorge HogarthDavid Wyn JonesWilliam KindermanGustav MahlerStedman PrestonMaynard SolomonMichael SteinbergCoriander StuttardDonald Francis ToveyPaul WebsterRalph Vaughan WilliamsBEETHOVEN AND BONNBEETHOVEN AND VIENNABEETHOVEN: A CONTEMPORARY PORTRAITBEETHOVEN: A NEW PATHSYMPHONY NO. 1: CREATION ORIGINSPUBLISHERS AND PUBLICATIONSYMPHONY NO. 1: RECEPTION HISTORYSYMPHONY NO. 1: MUSICOLOGY: SELECTED WRITINGSBIBLIOGRAPHYINDEXABOUT THE AUTHOR
Beethoven - Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major Op. 60
The subjects of the monographs in this series are selected works of Beethoven relating to their creation origins and reception history.They incorporate contextual accounts of Beethoven and his contemporaries and estimations of his music as expressed by musicians and musicologist in the nineteenth century and those closer to our own time. The individual titles in the series are as follows: Volume One: Beethoven: An Anthology of Selected WritingsVolume Two: Piano Sonatas: An Anthology of Selected WritingsVolume Three: Piano Sonatas: Op. 2-Op.28Volume Four. Piano Sonatas: Op. 31-Op.81AVolume Five: Piano Sonatas: Op. 90-Op.111Volume Six: String Quartets Op. 18, Nos. 1 6Volume Seven: String Quartets Op. 59, Nos. 1-3, (Razumovsky), String Quartet Op. 74, (The Harp), String Quartet Op. 95, (Quartetto serioso)Volume Eight: String Quartets Op. 127, Op. 132 and Op. 130 (Galitzin)Volume Nine: String Quartet Op. 131 and String Quartet Op.135, Grosse Fuge, Op. 133, and Op. 134, Fugue transcriptionThe following additional titles are in course of preparation: The Piano ConcertosThe Symphonies: An Anthology of Selected WritingsSymphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36Symphy No. 3 in E-Flat Major Op. 55 (Eroica)
Values That Pay
A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Today, Morocco's hip hop artists are vital to their country's reputation as diverse, creative, and modern. But in the 1990s and 2000s, teenage amateurs shaped their craft and ideals together as the profound socioeconomic changes of neoliberalization swept through their neighborhoods. Values That Pay traces Moroccan hip hop's trajectory from sidewalk cyphers and bedroom studios to royal commendations and international festivals. Kendra Salois draws from more than ten years of research into her interlocutors' music and moral reasoning to explore the constitutive tensions of institutionalization, hip hop aesthetics, and neoliberal life. Entrepreneurial artists respond to their unavoidable complicity with an extractive state through aesthetic and interpersonal sincerity, educating their fans on the risks and responsibilities of contemporary citizenship. Salois argues that over the past forty years, Moroccan hip hop practitioners have transformed not only themselves but also what it means to be an ethical citizen in a deeply unequal nation.
Welsh Vocal Music
Welsh Vocal Music: A Guide to Lyric Diction and Repertoire introduces readers to the vast vocal repertoire of Wales and provides them with the tools to accurately and confidently sing in the Welsh language.
Bangkok After Dark
From the 1930s to the 1950s, jazz pianist Maurice Rocco was a mainstay in Hollywood and American nightlife scenes. As rock and roll surpassed jazz as America's most popular music in the 1950s, the queer Black pianist's fortunes faded and he was forced to go abroad for new opportunities. In 1964 Rocco ultimately settled in Bangkok, where he thrived and enjoyed a relatively privileged life until he was murdered by two young male sex workers in 1976. In Bangkok after Dark, Benjamin Tausig uses Rocco's intriguing story to trace the history of transnational nightlife encounters between Thais and Americans during the long Vietnam War. Tausig shows how these encounters, which included musical collaborations, romantic and sexual relationships, and new labor, identity, and geopolitical configurations, remade Thailand in crucial and enduring ways. As Tausig demonstrates, Rocco's Blackness, queerness, and musical life in Thailand illuminates how Thai-American relationships complicated neat distinctions between the two countries. In teasing out these relationships through the figure of Rocco, Tausig challenges conventional understandings of the global Cold War on individual and transnational scales.
Bangkok After Dark
From the 1930s to the 1950s, jazz pianist Maurice Rocco was a mainstay in Hollywood and American nightlife scenes. As rock and roll surpassed jazz as America's most popular music in the 1950s, the queer Black pianist's fortunes faded and he was forced to go abroad for new opportunities. In 1964 Rocco ultimately settled in Bangkok, where he thrived and enjoyed a relatively privileged life until he was murdered by two young male sex workers in 1976. In Bangkok after Dark, Benjamin Tausig uses Rocco's intriguing story to trace the history of transnational nightlife encounters between Thais and Americans during the long Vietnam War. Tausig shows how these encounters, which included musical collaborations, romantic and sexual relationships, and new labor, identity, and geopolitical configurations, remade Thailand in crucial and enduring ways. As Tausig demonstrates, Rocco's Blackness, queerness, and musical life in Thailand illuminates how Thai-American relationships complicated neat distinctions between the two countries. In teasing out these relationships through the figure of Rocco, Tausig challenges conventional understandings of the global Cold War on individual and transnational scales.
Fearless Vampire Killers
FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS uniquely features almost every single Glen E. Friedman photograph of the Bad Brains, considered by many music fans to be the greatest and most influential American punk rock band of all time. The photographs are from 1981 and 1982, when the band was at its most fiery musical heights. The book also includes an introduction by Friedman, a preface by HR (singer of Bad Brains), and an afterword by Zack de la Rocha (singer of Rage Against the Machine).Some of these photographs will be recognized as iconic shots that have graced album, book, and magazine covers, while most of them have never been seen before. In his introduction to the volume, Friedman writes, "They were outsiders in the scenes they infiltrated and soon thereafter influenced . . . The Bad Brains were all Black! They showed other punk musicians that in fact you could be an incredible musician and be PUNK at the same time."Indeed, many bands beyond the realm of punk cite the Bad Brains as a seminal influence, including Beastie Boys, Living Colour, Jane's Addiction, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, to name just a few. The artistry of Friedman's Bad Brains photographs is unparalleled, and music lovers the world over will feast on Fearless Vampire Killers.
Medieval Song
Originally published in 1972, Medieval Song assembles the whole tradition of early European poetry, from the writings of the late Roman Empire to the time of the Hundred Years War. It covers a vast range of languages and cultures, beginning with the Latin of pagan song and ending with the Middle English ballads of Chaucer's time.
Liszt and Virtuosity
CO-WINNER: The Triennial Alan Walker Book Award, sponsored by the American Liszt Society 2023 A new and wide-ranging collection of essays by leading international scholars, exploring the concept and practices of virtuosity in Franz Liszt and his contemporaries. In the annals of music history, few figures have dominated the discussion of virtuosity as much as Franz Liszt. A flamboyant performer whose hair-raising technical feats at the piano created a sense of awe-inspiring excitement andan icon whose star power radiated far beyond the realm of music, Liszt was, along with his early model, Paganini, among the first major performer-composers to define himself principally by virtuosity. Featuring new essays by an international group of preeminent scholars, Liszt and Virtuosity offers a reevaluation of the concept and practices of virtuosity as shaped and defined in Liszt's multifaceted oeuvre, as well as a reconsiderationof Liszt's relation to other major and lesser-known musical figures, including Czerny, Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy, and Marie Ja禱ll. Set in the context of larger trends within the fields of music history, musicanalysis, intellectual history, and performance studies, these capacious explorations demonstrate that Liszt's uniqueness and significance resided in his ability to transform virtuosity into a revolutionary musical force, pushingthe piano aesthetic to the limits of sound and poetic meaning.
The Theatrical Orchestra
The Theatrical Orchestra analyses experimental performances by British music ensembles in the twenty-first century. Orchestras are reconceiving how concerts are programmed and presented, how musicians perform, where performance can occur, and the role of the audience in the co-creation of the live event. They are embracing theatricality, thereby realising music more fully as a multi-sensory performance art. This book explains how and why orchestras are thinking theatrically about performance, and uses the work of British music ensembles as exemplars. It analyses performances by Aurora Orchestra, London Contemporary Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Manchester Collective, Multi-Story Orchestra, Paraorchestra, Scottish Ensemble, and Southbank Sinfonia. The book bridges musicology and theatre studies to analyse the theatrical orchestra on the concert stage and beyond, addressing such topics as visuality, storytelling, physical performance, site-engaged performance, and immersive performance.
Orbit
"Orbit: RAP Icons Volume 3" dives into the lives and legacies of hip-hop's most influential artists-DMX, Megan Thee Stallion, Kendrick Lamar, and Lil Wayne. This graphic novel brings their journeys to life, from struggles and triumphs to chart-topping success. Witness DMX's raw intensity, Megan's unstoppable rise, Kendrick's poetic brilliance, and Lil Wayne's game-changing impact. Through bold storytelling and dynamic visuals, this volume captures the highs, lows, and defining moments of these rap icons. Whether you're a longtime fan or new to their stories, this installment delivers an electrifying look at hip-hop's ever-evolving legacy.
Welcome to the Club
Featuring a foreword from Annie Mac An inspiring memoir-manifesto from one of the UK's leading DJs. In Welcome to the club, Manchester legend DJ Paulette shares the highs, lows and lessons of her thirty-year music career, with insights from some famous friends. As one of the Ha癟ienda's pioneering female DJs, Paulette has reached the pinnacle of the music industry, performing for crowds of thousands worldwide. She offers a remarkable perspective from a Black woman's viewpoint, arguing that despite dance music's core values of peace, love, unity and respect, it remains a world rife with exclusion, misogyny, racism and classism. Yet, as Paulette reveals, it is also a space teeming with powerful women. Part personal memoir, part call to action, Welcome to the club exposes the exclusivity of the music industry while honouring the often invisible women who keep the rhythm alive.
A Fabulous Disaster
Prolific guitarist and Exodus songwriter Gary Holt presents an entertaining, personal memoir detailing his "destruction-laden" life and the origins of the Thrash Metal scene from the Bay Area to its world dominance. Since exploding out of the Bay Area heavy metal scene in the 1980s, thrash metal has made its way to every corner of the globe, conquering worldwide charts year after year. As the guitarist and primary songwriter of Exodus, and an originator of the subgenre and one of its fiercest proponents, Gary Holt watched as his peers--Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax--soared to superstardom. As his fellow artists amassed millions of fans and record sales, Exodus's albums received critical recognition and inspired generations of listeners but struggled to reach the same heights of success, as the band was plagued by years of bad management, bad luck, and bad decision-making. In A FABULOUS DISASTER, Holt shares a deeply personal account of what it was like to "live fast, play fast, and crash hard" as thrash metal dominated the globe. Readers witness his highest of highs and lowest of lows as Holt and his bandmates juggle major label contracts, MTV-sponsored tours and festivals, growing addictions to alcohol and meth, and the departures of original members. In the throes of addiction, Holt's own fall from grace is swift: one year he's playing on the MTV Headbanger's Ball Tour with Anthrax and Helloween, and the next he's struggling to find minimum wage jobs as he battles drugs, divorce, and the impending collapse of his music career. Ultimately, after the tragic death of one of his closest friends and former bandmates--Holt realizes the only one who can save him is himself. An "unadulterated odyssey through decades of insanity," punctuated by Holt's unique insight and knack for storytelling, A FABULOUS DISASTER is a thrill ride from start to finish. His story proves that redemption--even from the pits of rock 'n' roll excess--is always possible.
Debt and Redemption in the Blues
This volume explores concepts of freedom and bondage in the blues and argues that this genre of music explicitly calls for a reckoning while expressing faith in a secular justice to come. Placing blues music within its historical context of the post-Reconstruction South, Jim Crow America, and the civil rights era, Julia Simon finds a deep symbolism in the lyrical representations of romantic and sexual betrayal. The blues calls out and indicts the tangled web of deceit and entrapment constraining the physical, socioeconomic, and political movement of African Americans. Surveying blues music from the 1920s to the early twenty-first century, Simon's analyses focus on economic relations, such as sharecropping, house contract sales, debt peonage, criminal surety, and convict lease. She demonstrates how the music reflects this exploitative economic history and how it is shaped by commodification under racialized capitalism. As Simon assesses the lyrics, technique, and styles of a wide range of blues musicians, including Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Big Bill Broonzy, Muddy Waters, B. B. King, Albert Collins, and Kirk Fletcher, she argues forcefully that the call for racial justice is at the heart of the blues.A highly sophisticated interpretation of the blues tradition steeped in musicology, social history, and critical-cultural hermeneutics, Debt and Redemption not only clarifies blues as an aesthetic tradition but, more importantly, proves that it advances a theory of social and economic development and change.
Norton: Microjazz Absolute Beginners for Piano
(BH Piano). Christopher Norton's acclaimed Microjazz series has won worldwide popularity with teachers and students alike for its stimulating blend of contemporary genres and classical values. Two beginners' books and five collections of repertoire pieces form seven clearly defined levels of achievement, making Microjazz the ideal basis for progressive learning and teaching. Microjazz Absolute Beginners is the very first book in the series and is suitable for learners of all ages. Using a combination of words, music and illustrations, it takes first-time pianists steadily through the early stages of both the practical and theoreticalaspects of playing. A booklet of accompaniments, suitable for use by a teacher or any intermediate player, is included. The resulting duets can be played on one or two keyboards, and turn even the easiest pupil's tunes into unmistakable Microjazz pieces. Online audio resources containing both backing and full performance tracks are available to enthuse and enhance both your practice and performance.
Prince, Musical Genre, and the Construction of Racial Identity
Throughout his career, the Minneapolis musician Prince was known for fusing different musical genres as well as moving between different identities--sexual lothario, devout man of God, androgynous sprite--qualities that fit the postmodernism of the 1980s. This volume takes a fresh look at Prince's work, arguing that his music was deeply informed by the history and techniques of Black culture, and that his multigenre fluency and changeable image were weapons that he deployed in a career-long fight against the racially segregated structures of the American music industry. Using a methodology that mixes musicology with African American literary theory, queer theory, and gender studies, this book analyzes the ways that Prince mixed and manipulated musical genres that are indexed to racial identities--such as "white" rock or new-wave, and "Black" funk, gospel, or R&B--in order to construct pluralistic identities. Each chapter includes detailed musical analyses and transcriptions of Prince's songs, focusing on his use of rock guitar, new-wave synthesizers, funk drumming, gospel singing, and R&B horns. By tracking Prince's transformations of instrumental and vocal idioms derived from specific musical genres, and considering the historical and cultural values embedded within those genres, Griffin Woodworth explores the ways that Prince musically broke down stereotypes of Black masculinity. With its intersectional approach to musical analysis, this book captures the sounds of American racial politics in the 1980s, 90s, and 2000s as heard through the music of one of the era's most popular artists as he worked to transform and transcend those politics.
Smile
"Brian Wilson. SMILE: Excellent! The man is my hero. I love him. I weep when I hear his band, I hear him sing. I love him." --Paul McCartneyThe story of the Brian Wilson's legendary SMiLE album from Beach Boys authority David Leaf. The story of SMiLE is a story without precedent, appropriate for music that was and remains groundbreaking.This is the first book to tell the full story of Brian Wilson and SMiLE, including the details of the original SMiLE recording sessions and their increasingly legendary status as well as the final release of the album, the accompanying concerts and film, and its afterlife. With over two dozen new interviews as well as generous excerpts from his extended 2004 interviews with Brian Wilson and SMiLE collaborator Van Dyke Parks, the book tells the story of SMiLE by those who were there in 1966 and from the participants in its 2004 resurrection, including all the members of Brian Wilson's band. It also features fan memories of what it was like to see Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE and what it meant to them.With a foreword by Melinda Wilson and an anthology of essays from SMiLE historians, devotees, and music professors, this book promises to be the definitive word on the subject."If I had to select one living genius of popular music, I would choose Brian Wilson." --George Martin"He's a modern-day Stravinsky, the way he constructs his music." --Questlove"I don't think there is anyone his equal in pop music." --Linda Ronstadt"The only real pop genius in the world..." --Elton John
The Jam - The Day I Was There
With a foreword by Jam drummer Rick Buckler, The Jam - The Day I Was There tells the story of The Jam in the words of over 400 fans. With memories from the earliest shows at clubs and pubs around Woking and London, and then their UK and American tours before their last ever gig in Brighton on 11 December 1982.Told from the perspective of fans, promoters, studio engineers, photographers and support acts, the book includes personal photographs, memorabilia, anecdotes and stories that have never been published before.Between 1977 and their split in 1982, The Jam released six albums and 18 singles, including four UK numbers 1s. They were the biggest band in Britain.
Analyzing NES Music
Explores a core challenge of early video game composition: how to disguise repetition in music that repeats extensively. It develops a theory of harmony and form for Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) music and uses this theory to analyze five landmark scores: Super Mario Bros., Dragon Warrior, Metroid, Mega Man 2 and Silver Surfer. 170 b&w illus. Read an interview with Andrew Schartmann
Islamic Themes in Us Hip-Hop Culture
Islam has been a part of hip-hop culture since it sprang from New York's street culture in the 1970s. Today hip-hop has evolved into a truly global artform with a diversity of Muslim Islamic discourses expressed. Using tools from the field of social semiotics, this book examines how Islamic themes feature in US hip-hop culture, maintaining a particular awareness that both Muslims as well as non-Muslims participate in their production. The book also argues that there is a historical continuity in the use of Islamic semiotic resources in US musical culture that runs through the entirety of the 20th century and can be observed in gospel, blues and jazz. It is also often connected to African American religious initiatives and African American empowerment politics.
