Showing titles in History & Criticism

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.

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.

Formed in Hermosa Beach, California, in 1978, for eight brutal years Black Flag made and played brilliant, ugly, no-holds-barred music on a self-appointed touring circuit of America’s clubs, squats, and community halls. They fought with everybody: the police, the record industry, and even their own fans. They toured overseas on pennies a day and did it in beat-up trucks and vans. Spray Paint the Walls tells Black Flag’s story from the inside, drawing on exclusive interviews with the group’s members, their contemporaries, and the bands they inspired.

How can you search for oldies you want to hear when you've forgotten them? Radio doesn't play a lot of those oldies anymore, even though you would enjoy hearing them again. This audiobook offers you access to over 150 links to YouTube videos for lost or forgotten oldies as well as history about the artists and their songs.

From the joyous communal connections fostered through shared auditory experience to the devastating impact of noise pollution in the deep sea, musician and author Damon Krukowski urges readers to reconsider the significance of sound and its role in both our personal and collective well-being. He looks despairingly at how the multipronged efforts of urban dwellers to mitigate city noise have led to increased isolation, loss of community, and a sense of physical detachment from one’s surroundings.

*The inspiration for the CNN original series Vegas: The Story of Sin City* “Outstanding pop-culture history.” —Newsday The “smart and zippy account” (The Wall Street Journal) of how Las Vegas saved Elvis and Elvis saved Las Vegas in the greatest musical comeback of all time. Elvis’s...

This audiobook takes the listener on a grand musical tour from its origins in prehistory to the 21st century. It describes its roles in culture and religion in ancient China and the Middle East and how it developed in the Mediterranean world of classical Greece and Rome. Andrew Gant considers the evolution of music in medieval Europe and looks at what led to the astonishing revolution of musical forms and genres that took place in the Renaissance, first in Italy and then across the rest of Europe. 

In 2020, guitar expert John Stubbings released a limited-edition book on the American acoustic guitar that sold out in days. Now, The Devil Is in It returns with additional research and subject matter for a new generation of listeners. Stubbings traveled the country and met with guitar makers, players, collectors, and historians to unravel the long and rich history of the acoustic guitar, its evolution, and the music it has made over the last hundred years.

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.

Award-winning civil rights historian Ray Arsenault describes the dramatic story behind Marian Anderson’s concert at the Lincoln Memorial - an early milestone in civil rights history - on the 70th anniversary of her performance. On Easter Sunday 1939, the brilliant vocalist Marian Anderson sang before a throng of 75,000 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington - an electrifying moment and an underappreciated milestone in civil rights history.

In this enlightening and entertaining book, experience the evolution of country music, from the 1970s Appalachian hillbilly chitlin' circuit to the 1980s country music boom that paved the way for modern Americana. In a dim clearing off a county road in Kentucky sits a sagging outdoor stage...

Craze is a journey into sound, a book which along the way will bring to you a new colour; new dimension; a new understanding of the cultural, technological, and chemical strands that led to the Electronic Music Revolution. Take a trip down rave memory lane into Sydney’s early warehouse scene and explore the forging of a global cultural phenomenon. Re-live the Second Summer of Love from the unique Australian perspective of its farthest flung outpost.

Springsteen Fandom: "A Lifetime Conversation" explores the experience of the Bruce Springsteen musical fandom as a mutual exchange between artist and audience. Choosing significant stops of the Springsteen and E Street Band 2023 Tour as a narrative guideline, the book presents a thorough...

How a Quartet of American Musicians Outwitted the KGB – The Untold History of a Daring Cold War Spy Mission In 1985, while the United States engaged in a battle of nuclear brinkmanship, four Americans landed in Moscow on a mission to smuggle secret information in and out using music as their...

Dieser Pop-Split stellt den Titel Bitter Sweet Symphony vor und erklärt, weshalb man von seiner eigenen kreativen Leistung am Ende oft nichts hat...

Der Titel ist Teil des Pop-Splits "Rock Bizz - 21 Geschichten zu Geld und Ruhm".

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize Winner of a Certificate of Merit from the 2025 ARSC Awards for Excellence A New Yorker, GQ, The Daily Telegraph (London), and Library Journal Best Book of 2025 A 2025 Washington Post Notable Nonfiction An NPR...

World renowned Beatles experts provide groundbreaking insights into the Fab Four’s artistry, from Please Please Me to the incredible heights of Rubber Soul and Revolver. Dive into the songwriting, musicianship, and production of some of the most influential popular music ever created. In this...

El célebre tenor Ian Bostridge pasó casi dos años sin poder pisar los escenarios a causa de la pandemia, hecho que lo llevó a reflexionar sobre el valor irrenunciable del contacto directo con el público, a la vez que le permitió ahondar en el amplio catálogo de clásicos que ha interpretado a lo largo de su carrera.

For more than 20 years, music critic Bernard Holland reviewed the most celebrated artists of the 20th century. He reported both sides of the culture war between an honored past and radical change. Throughout his writings, Holland discusses what classical music really is, destroys the myth of high and low art, and defines the job of the music critic. Along the way, the listener will chat with Herbert von Karajan, take a plane trip with Yo-Yo Ma, and walk the slow walk with Robert Wilson.

Over one million copies sold! Have you ever wanted to learn more about hymns, but weren’t sure where to start? Bestselling author Robert J. Morgan shares the incredible stories behind the beloved traditional hymns of faith. Each week millions of Christians around the world use hymns composed...