Showing titles in History & Criticism

This audiobook analyzes the themes and progression of the composers' most famous works, comparing and contrasting them to each other and other composers' great works.

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.

Here, Rob Trucks talks to Lindsey Buckingham, as well as members of Animal Collective, Camper Van Beethoven, the New Pornographers, Wolf Parade, and the USC Trojan marching band in order to chart both the story and the impact of an album born of personal obsession and a stubborn unwillingness to compromise.

A Look at the History of the Emo and Indie Music Era. Explore the cultural, social, and psychological factors surrounding the genres.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of techno music from its inception in the 1980s to the present day. It discussed the various styles and genres that have emerged within techno, and the key artists and tracks that have helped shape the genre. The book also includes details about some of techno's most prominent producers and DJs, offering listeners insight into their creative process and the inspiration behind their music.

 Col. Bruce Hampton was a charismatic musical figure who launched and continued to influence the jam band genre over his 50-plus years performing. Part bandleader, soul singer, storyteller, conjuror, poet, preacher, comedian, philosopher, and trickster, Col. Bruce actively sought out and dealt in the weird, wild underbelly of the American South.

Wie die Familie Bach im Alltag lebte, Händel sich kurieren ließ und Telemann sein Geld anlegte Bruno Preisendörfers Zeitreise führt in die Zeit der Fürstenfeste und Bauernhochzeiten, der Stadtpfeifer und Bierfiedler, der Kaffeehäuser und Kastraten - nämlich ins Barock. Das Deutschland, in das wir mit Bruno Preisendörfer reisen, war erfüllt von der Musik tausender Hoforchester, Kirchenorgeln und Chöre, ob zur Unterhaltung des Adels, zu jedem Gottesdienst oder auf den Dorffesten der einfachen Leute - immer wurde gefiedelt, geflötet und getrommelt.

In the 36 years since its release, Sell Out, though still not the best selling release in The Who’s catalog, has been embraced by a growing number of fans who regard it as the band’s best work, one of the few recordings of the late 1960s that best represents the ambitious aesthetic possibilities of the concept album without becoming mired in a bog of smug, self-aggrandizing, high art aspirations. Sell Out, powerfully and ecstatically, articulates the nexus of pop music and pop culture.

André Gide, one of the great intellectuals of the 20th century and a devoted pianist, invites readers to reevaluate Frédéric Chopin as a composer "betrayed...deeply, intimately, totally violated" by a music community that had fundamentally misinterpreted his work. As a profound admirer of Chopin’s "promenade of discoveries", Gide intersperses musical notation throughout the text to illuminate his arguments, but most moving is Gide’s own poetic expression for the music he so loved.

Since 1991, only three albums have sold more than 15 million copies---Metallica (Metallica), Come on Over (Shania Twain), and Jagged Little Pill, by Alanis Morissette. JLP won Grammys, Junos, and stayed in the Billboad 200 for more than a year. Megan Volpert works through Alanis Morissette's career via JLP, her best-known record. Each chapter dives into one of the 13 tracks from the album, dissecting that song while connecting to later work that extends the relevant theme.

Beloved music critic Tom Breihan's fascinating narrative of the history of popular music through the lens of game-changing #1 singles from the Billboard Hot 100. When Tom Breihan launched his Stereogum column in early 2018, “The Number Ones”—a space in which he has been writing about every...

In The Master of Drums, biographer Elizabeth J. Rosenthal crafts a celebratory, honest, and exhaustively researched portrait of a twentieth-century music legend. When he died, Gene Krupa may have left behind a world of grieving friends, colleagues, fans, students, and progeny, but as The Master of Drums proves, his dynamic musical and cultural influences live on.

Smith tells the joyful story of the musicians, the radio DJs, the record labels, and the live venues where jazz not only survived but thrived in the 1960s. In an era marked by turmoil and struggle, popular jazz offered a powerful outlet for joy, resilience, pride, and triumph.

Слушать музыку–это самое интересное, что есть на свете. Вы убедитесь в этом, слушая аудиокнигу музыкального журналиста и популярного лектора Ляли Кандауровой. Вместо скучного и сухого перечисления фактов перед вами настоящий абонемент на концерт: автор рассказывает о 600-летней истории музыки так, что незнакомые произведения становятся близкими, а знакомые–приносят еще больше удовольствия. Отличительной особенностью аудиокниги являются музыкальные вставки; таким образом, у слушателя появляется возможность тотчас услышать те примеры и фрагменты сочинений, о которых заходит речь.

غير أنَّ هذه المقدِّمةَ المُوجَزة المثيرة تفتح الأبوابَ على ضربٍ موسيقيٍّ شديدِ التنوُّع، وتقدِّم لنا صورةً واسعةَ النطاقِ رسَمَها عالِـمُ الموسيقى الحائز عدداً من الجوائز؛ مارك سلوبين، الذي يتجاوز الحدودَ الأمريكيَّةَ كي يناقش الموسيقى الشعبيَّـةَ في كلِّ ركنٍ من أركان الكوكب. وفي هذا الكتاب يَتناول سلوبين بالتفصيل ثلاثَ أغنياتٍ بارزة من شمالِ أفغانستان، وأوروبا الشرقيـة اليهوديـة، والعالَـم الأنجلو أمريكي، مع إدراجِ النوتاتِ الموسيقيَّة والكلماتِ الخاصة بها.

In his 1967 megahit "San Francisco," Scott McKenzie sang of "people in motion" coming from all across the country to San Francisco, the white-hot center of rock music and anti-war protests. At the same time, another large group of young Americans was also in motion, less eagerly, heading for the jungles of Vietnam.

This book celebrates Madvillainy as a representation of two genius musical minds melding to form one revered supervillain. A product of circumstance, the album came together soon after MF DOOM's resurgence and Madlib's reluctant return from avant-garde jazz to hip-hop.

No period in the history of rock music offered such an abrupt shift in prevailing tastes as the 1990s. While just a short while before, radio and MTV were clamoring for hair metal bands, suddenly alt-rockers such as Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, Faith No More, Primus, Smashing Pumpkins, and of course, Nirvana, brought a sea change not just in what the most popular bands sounded like, but also in fashion, politics, and seemingly all aspects of pop culture.

From the critically acclaimed author of Temperament, a narrative account of the most defining moments in musical history—classical and jazz—all of which forever altered Western culture "A fascinating journey that begins with the origins of musical notation and travels through the...

2025 ASSOCIATION FOR RECORDED SOUND COLLECTIONS AWARDS CERTIFICATE OF MERIT * AUDIOFILE MAGAZINE EARPHONES AWARD The audiobook edition of How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History brings listeners closer than ever to their creative heroes. Featuring rare interview excerpts with Nina Simone...