Author: Eric Wolfson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1501391828
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 265
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Book Description
The concept album is one of popular music's most celebrated-and misunderstood-achievements. This book examines the untold history of the rock concept album, from The Beatles to Beyoncé. The roots of the concept album are nearly as old as the long-playing record itself, as recording artists began using the format to transcend a mere collection of songs into a listening experience that takes the listener on a journey through its unifying mood, theme, narrative, or underlying idea. Along the way, artists as varied as the Moody Blues, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Pink Floyd, Parliament, Donna Summer, Iron Maiden, Radiohead, The Notorious B.I.G., Green Day, Janelle Monáe, and Kendrick Lamar created albums that form an extended conversation of art and music. Limits were pushed as the format grew over the subsequent eras. Seminal albums like the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Who's Tommy, Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, stand alongside modern classics like Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville, Kendrick Lamar's good kid, "m.A.A.d city," and Beyoncé's Lemonade. Mixing iconic albums with some newer and lesser-known works makes for a book that ventures into the many sides of a history that has yet to be told-until now.
Author: Robert Gordon
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199988749
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 777
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Book Description
The first comprehensive academic survey of British musical theatre from its origins, The Oxford Handbook of the British Musical offers both a historical account of musical theatre from 1728 and a range of in-depth critical analyses of key works and productions that illustrate its aesthetic values and sociocultural meanings.
Author: Stephen Spignesi
Publisher: Post Hill Press
ISBN: 1642933287
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 252
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Book Description
We can count on one hand the musical legends equal to Elton John (the Beatles and the Rolling Stones each get a finger). Elton John: Fifty Years On looks at the impact songwriting partners Elton John and Bernie Taupin have had on popular music and culture, and also discusses every song on all thirty albums, plus his work on Broadway, in movies, and elsewhere. • Part 1 is a bullet-pointed look at every released song, complete with insights, trivia, and meanings, including musical insights—like Elton’s favorite chord progressions, or the most notable melodies in his discography. • Part 2 is a collection of essays and interviews with musicians and music writers chatting about Elton and Bernie. Did you know? · Elton and Bernie’s revision of “Candle in the Wind” (known as “Goodbye England’s Rose”), a tribute to Princess Diana after her untimely death, is the biggest-selling single in the UK and the second-biggest selling single in music history (after Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas”). · “Tiny Dancer” may or may not be about Bernie Taupin’s wife, Maxine…quotes from Elton and Bernie contradict each other. · The biggest music stars in the world routinely show up at Elton John concerts to sing duets with the Rocket Man, including Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, George Michael, Bruce Hornsby, Lionel Richie, Mary J. Blige, Bryan Adams, Demi Lovato, Shawn Mendes, and many more, as well as Elton’s legendary “dual” shows with Billy Joel · The background vocals for the song “White Lady White Powder” on the 21 at 33 album are sung by the Eagles. · The background vocals for the song “Cage the Songbird” on the Blue Moves album are sung by Graham Nash and David Crosby. (Stephen Stills must have been busy?) Elton John: Fifty Years On was written for ultimate Elton John fans. A browsing book, a reading book, a treasure trove of facts, trivia, insights, and commentary, it’s the perfect companion to Elton leaving the Yellow Brick Road.
Author: Christian Matijas-Mecca
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440861986
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 236
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Book Description
Listen to Psychedelic Rock! contains more than 50 entries covering the people, records, places, and events that shaped one of the most exciting and influential periods in popular music. This addition to the Exploring a Music Genre series concentrates solely on psychedelic rock music. Listen to Psychedelic Rock! Exploring a Musical Genre covers over fifty topics, arranged alphabetically, that are central to learning about psychedelic music and will enable readers to understand the breadth and ongoing influence of psychedelia through to the present day. The title contains biographical sketches on selected artists, "song-by-song" descriptions of many albums, and short, informative essays on participants who were influential in the original psychedelic movement. A background section introduces the genre and a legacy section shows how psychedelic music has cemented its place in the world, while another section shows the tremendous impact the music has had on popular culture. Information on record labels and year-of-release dates for all musical entries make it easy for any reader to navigate this title - a must-have for high school and college readers as well as for music scholars and fans of the genre.
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004500685
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 368
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Book Description
The volume explores the various intersections and interconnections of the self and popular music in fiction; it examines questions of musical taste and identity construction across decades, spaces, social groups, and cultural contexts, covering a wide range of literary and musical genres.
Author: Gareth Shute
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781517287559
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 210
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Book Description
This book is the first indepth, critical account of the concept album from its highest creative moments to its most pretentious, flailing abominations. This work rediscovers the pre-history of the form in folk and country music, before covering its rise to prominence during the era of psychedelia and prog. It goes on to cover some of the most successful albums in the history of popular music, including - The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Who's Tommy, David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and Pink Floyd's The Wall. The lean years of the concept album are also discussed, especially the eighties when it was kept alive within heavy metal, before being subtly resurrected by the alternative and hip hop artists of the nineties. Now the concept album is back, with artists as varied as Green Day, Arcade Fire, Mastodon, and My Chemical Romance releasing conceptual work in the new millennium, as a way to keep the album format relevant in the digital era. This book reveals the subtle currents that brought the concept album in and out of fashion, showing a new way to look at popular music over the last fifty years and unearthing some of the most ambitious and most bizarre musical projects ever conceived. Its time to delve into the world of the concept album... This is a revised and updated version which also includes images of some of the major artists along the way.
Author: Nathan Catchpole
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1465308024
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 190
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Book Description
For as long as author Nathan Catchpole could remember, he has always loved music. In fact, he loved it so much that he started writing lyrics when he was just twelve years old. He has written over a thousand songs since then. In his book, he reveals Lyrics and How They Inspire Me. He first heard music when he was only three years old, although he couldnt understand what the singers were singing about. He only knew that he liked what he was hearing and years later, music would become a central part of his life. In Lyrics and How They Inspire Me, Catchpole shares his favorite singers and the songs that inspired him. He gives brief biographies of each along with their discographies and points out the particular lyrics that moved him to create his own. An entertaining at the same time informative book, Lyrics and How They Inspire Me provides readers insight on singers lives, their hits and misses, and the impact they had on their fans.
Author: Uwe Schütte
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316511073
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 345
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Book Description
This Companion is the first academic introduction to the 1960s/70s 'Krautrock' movement of German experimental music that has long attracted the attention of the music press and fans in Britain and abroad. It offers a structured approach to this exceptionally heterogeneous and decentralized movement, combining overviews with detailed analysis and close readings. The volume first analyzes the cultural, historical and economic contexts of Krautrock's emergence. It then features expert chapters discussing all the key bands of the era including Can, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Neu!, Faust, Ash Ra Tempel, Cluster and Amon Düül II. The volume concludes with essays that trace the varied, wide-ranging legacy of Krautrock from a variety of perspectives, exploring in particular the impact of German experimental music in the Anglosphere, including British post-punk and Detroit Techno. A final chapter examining the current bands that continue the Krautrock sound closes this comprehensive overview of the Krautrock phenomenon.
Author: Jeffrey A. Kottler
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0787982326
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 331
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Book Description
"Madness can afford the individual certain resources and abilities that are not available to others. The fantasy life, free flight of ideas, distortions of reality, and heightened senses . . . offer a unique perspective on the world." —From the Introduction Why do some extraordinary individuals overcome mental anguish and produce brilliant creative artistry that is often enhanced by their madness? New York Times best-selling author and noted psychologist Jeffrey Kottler explores this fascinating question in Divine Madness. His book is filled with the compelling stories of emotional turmoil that many great artists have undergone as they struggle for success and survival. Jeffrey Kottler writes about the dramatic and tragic lives of cultural icons Sylvia Plath, Judy Garland, Mark Rothko, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Charles Mingus, Vaslav Nijinsky, Marilyn Monroe, Lenny Bruce, and Brian Wilson. In this riveting book, Kottler highlights the personal story of each of these extraordinary individuals and analyzes how they struggled to overcome their emotional hardships. Divine Madness clearly differentiates between those who surrendered to their illness, often taking their own lives, and those who managed to endure and even recover. Kottler details how their profound psychological issues affected their lives and work, their great productivity and success, and how they strove to achieve some kind of personal stability. The fascinating and brilliantly told stories in Divine Madness help us to find meaning in the incredible lives of these artists. They also serve as an inspiration for those who are grappling to rise above their own challenges and limitations and express themselves more productively and creatively.
Author: Marianne Tatom Letts
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253004918
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 256
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Book Description
How the British rock band Radiohead subverts the idea of the concept album in order to articulate themes of alienation and anti-capitalism is the focus of Marianne Tatom Letts's analysis of Kid A and Amnesiac. These experimental albums marked a departure from the band's standard guitar-driven base layered with complex production effects. Considering the albums in the context of the band's earlier releases, Letts explores the motivations behind this change. She places the two albums within the concept-album/progressive-rock tradition and shows how both resist that tradition. Unlike most critics of Radiohead, who focus on the band's lyrics, videos, sociological importance, or audience reception, Letts focuses on the music itself. She investigates Radiohead's ambivalence toward its own success, as manifested in the vanishing subject of Kid A on these two albums.
