Mostrando títulos en Historia y Crítica

Ignoring nearly all rock traditions, experimenting in near-total secrecy in their Düsseldorf studio, Kraftwerk fused sound and technology, graphic design and performance, modernist Bauhaus aesthetics and Rhineland industrialisation - even human and machine - to change the course of modern music. This is the story of Kraftwerk as a cultural phenomenon, who turned electronic music into avant-garde concept art and created the soundtrack to our digital age.

In Reinventing Bach, his remarkable second book, Paul Elie tells the electrifying story of how musicians of genius have made Bach's music new in our time, at once restoring Bach as a universally revered composer and revolutionizing the ways that music figures into our lives. Reinventing Bach is a gorgeously written story of music, invention, and human passion—and a story that shows great things can happen when high art meets new technology.

The music of Yes indelibly shaped the original sound of progressive rock. But the true tale of this landmark band goes well beyond headline-making albums like Fragile and Close to the Edge. In this book, Kevin Mulryne tells the absorbing story of the final Yes album of the 1970s, Tormato, uncovering myriad fascinating twists and turns for the first time.

Based on Chuck's long-running show on Rapstation.com, this massive compendium details the most iconic moments and influential songs in the genre's recorded history, from Kurtis Blow's "Christmas Rappin'" to The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill to Kendrick Lamar's groundbreaking verse on "Control". Also included are key events in hip hop history, from Grandmaster Flash's first scratch through Tupac's holographic appearance at Coachella.

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.

A Really Strange and Wonderful Time features a representative cross-section of what was being created in and around Chapel Hill between 1989 and 1999. In addition to the aforementioned indie bands, it documents―through firsthand accounts―other local notables like Ben Folds Five, Dillon Fence, Flat Duo Jets, Small, Southern Culture on the Skids, Squirrel Nut Zippers, The Veldt, and Whiskeytown. At the same time, it describes the nurturing infrastructure which engendered and encouraged this marvelous diversity. In essence, A Really Strange and Wonderful Time is proof of the genius of community.

The Ninth Symphony, a symbol of freedom and joy, was Beethoven’s mightiest attempt to help humanity find its way from darkness to light, from chaos to peace. Yet the work was born in a repressive era, with terrified Bourbons, Hapsburgs, and Romanovs using every means at their disposal to squelch populist rumblings in the wake of the French Revolution and Napoleon’s wars. Ironically, the premiere of this hymn to universal brotherhood took place in Vienna, the capital of a nation that Metternich was turning into the first modern police state.

The spiritual journey of the Beatles is the story of an entire generation of visionaries in the sixties who transformed the world. The Inner Light illumines hidden meanings of the Beatles' India-influenced lyrics and sounds, decoded by Susan Shumsky—a rare insider who spent two decades in the ashrams and six years on the personal staff of the Beatles' mentor, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Fallopian Rhapsody: The Story of the Lunachicks is a coming-of-age tale about a band of NYC teenagers who forged a sisterhood, found salvation, and fervently crashed the gates of punk rock during the '90s, accidentally becoming feminist icons along the way. More than that, this is a story about the enduring friendship among the book's three central voices: Theo Kogan, Sydney Silver, and Gina Volpe.

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.

The Everly Brothers—aka Don and Phil to fans with an intimate appreciation for them—seemed to exist almost as an apparition. Emerging within the formative era for young Baby Boomers during the blandly regimented '50s, they were a ubiquitous presence, clad in snug suits and skinny ties, hair neatly Brylcreemed, never raising their voices when they sang. The two prim-looking country boys with dark, curiously penetrating eyes and perfectly merged, honey-dipped harmonies, were oddly but comfortably settled as sentimental, soothing, sometimes lovelorn voices of a still-uncharted cultural turf.

What makes a symphony a masterpiece? Why do certain symphonies continue to move audiences centuries after they were composed? The Anatomy of a Symphony takes you deep into the heart of the greatest orchestral works ever written, unlocking their structure, meaning, and emotional power. From Haydn’s groundbreaking classical forms to Beethoven’s revolutionary intensity, from the rich storytelling of Tchaikovsky to the daring innovations of modern symphonists, this book explores the evolution of the symphony and the genius behind its creation. With clear, engaging explanations, you’ll ...

Alex Niven charts the astonishing rise of Oasis in the mid 1990s and celebrates the life-affirming, communal force of songs such as “Live Forever,” “Supersonic,” and “Cigarettes & Alcohol.” In doing so, he seeks to reposition Oasis in relation to their Britpop peers and explore one of the most controversial pop-cultural narratives of the last thirty years.

In early 1960’s Palo Alto, Jerry Garcia randomly opened a dictionary to a fable in which an appreciative soul repays the generosity of a traveler by delivering him a fortune, a “gift of the grateful dead.” After a traumatic car accident that injured him and killed a close friend, Garcia had recently resolved to build the life he wanted, which meant making music. He had practiced relentlessly and caromed across the northern California folk and bluegrass scene, gathered up some fellow musicians and formed a band. Now they had their name.

Danny Goldberg's new book is a subjective history of 1967, the year he graduated from high school. It is, he writes, "an attempt at trying to remember the culture that mesmerized me, to visit the places and conversations I was not cool enough to have been a part of." It is also a refreshing and new analysis of the era; by looking at not only the political causes, but also the spiritual, musical, and psychedelic movements, Goldberg provides a unique perspective on how and why the legacy of 1967 lives on today.

Ticket to Ride recounts broadcast journalist Larry Kane's travels with the Beatles during their first North American tour. The book provides an intimate look at the Fab Four and contains original interview recordings with the band conducted during the tour.

The cassette tape was revolutionary. Cheap, portable, and reusable, this small plastic rectangle changed music history. Make your own tapes! Trade them with friends! Tape over the ones you don't like! The cassette tape upended pop culture, creating movements and uniting communities. This entertaining book charts the journey of the cassette from its invention in the early 1960s to its Walkman-led domination in the 1980s to decline at the birth of compact discs to resurgence among independent music makers.

Released in 1998, Lauryn Hill’s first solo album is often cited by music critics as one of the most important recordings in modern history. Artists from Beyoncé to Nicki Minaj have claimed it as an inspiration, and it was recently included in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress, as well as named the second greatest album by a woman in history by NPR (right behind Joni Mitchell’s Blue). Award-winning feminist author and journalist Joan Morgan delivers an expansive, in-depth, and heartfelt analysis of the album and its enduring place in pop culture.

Dancer, award-winning choreographer, show producer, stand-up comedienne, TV/film actress, and author, Norma Miller shares her touching historical memoir of Harlem's legendary Savoy Ballroom and the phenomenal music and dance craze that "spread the power of Swing across the world like Wildfire". It was a time when the music was Swing, and Harlem was king.

Taking us on a distinctive time-out-of-mind pilgrimage, Deadologist Howard Weiner revisits all the stops of the Grateful Dead’s 1983 fall tour on the anniversary dates of the shows. As he analyzes the band’s transcendent music in the places where it was created four decades earlier, Howard reflects on his vast touring experiences, and the long, strange trip of Deadheads from this era. The pilgrimage rolls through essential Dead stomping grounds like Madison Square Garden and the Hartford Civic Center, as well as returning to Lake Placid, site of a legendary Dead show three years after ...