Download or read book The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing written by Marc Smirnoff and published by University of Arkansas Press. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not only have a breathtaking array of musical giants come from the South—think Elvis Presley, Robert Johnson, Louis Armstrong, Jimmie Rodgers, to name just obvious examples—but so have a breathtaking array of American music genres. From blues to rock & roll to jazz to country to bluegrass—and areas in between—it all started in the American South. Since its debut in 1996, The Oxford American's more-or-less annual Southern Music Issue has become legendary for its passionate and wide-ranging approach to music and for working with some of America's greatest writers. These writers—from Peter Guralnick to Nick Tosches to Susan Straight to William Gay—probe the lives and legacies of Southern musicians you may or may not yet be familiar with, but whom you'll love being introduced, or reintroduced, to. In one creative, fresh way or another, these writers also uncover the essence of music—and why music has such power over us. To celebrate ten years of Southern music issues, most of which are sold-out or very hard to find, the fifty-five essays collected in this dynamic, wide-ranging, and vast anthology appeal to both music fans and fans of great writing.
Download or read book When the Music Mattered written by Bruce Pollock and published by New York : Holt, Rinehart and Winston. This book was released on 1984 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book How Music Can Make You Better written by Indre Viskontas and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can certain songs carry us through a tough workout, comfort us after a breakup, or unite 50,000 diverse fans? In this fascinating field guide, neuroscientist and opera singer Indre Viskontas investigates what music is and how it can change us for the better—from deep in our neurons to across our entire society. Whether hip-hop fans, classically trained pianists, or vinyl collectors, readers will think about their favorite songs in a whole new way by the end of this book. This is a vibrant and smart gift for any audiophile.
Download or read book Alfred s Great Music Musicians Bk 1 An Overview of Music History Book Online Audio With CD Audio written by Nancy Bachus and published by Premier Piano Course. This book was released on 2013-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a foundation for understanding the major cultural periods, musical styles, and the development of music through the ages. There are art and listening examples to encourage discussions. Book 1 of "Great Music & Musicians" is appropriate for piano students in various levels of Premier Piano Coarse (based on the individual student's reading level). It also may be used with other piano methods or in group lessons.
Download or read book Good Music written by John J. Sheinbaum and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-11-29 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past two centuries Western culture has largely valorized a particular kind of “good” music—highly serious, wondrously deep, stylistically authentic, heroically created, and strikingly original—and, at the same time, has marginalized music that does not live up to those ideals. In Good Music, John J. Sheinbaum explores these traditional models for valuing music. By engaging examples such as Handel oratorios, Beethoven and Mahler symphonies, jazz improvisations, Bruce Springsteen, and prog rock, he argues that metaphors of perfection do justice to neither the perceived strengths nor the assumed weaknesses of the music in question. Instead, he proposes an alternative model of appreciation where abstract notions of virtue need not dictate our understanding. Good music can, with pride, be playful rather than serious, diverse rather than unified, engaging to both body and mind, in dialogue with manifold styles and genres, and collaborative to the core. We can widen the scope of what music we value and reconsider the conventional rituals surrounding it, while retaining the joys of making music, listening closely, and caring passionately.
Download or read book Can t Slow Down written by Michaelangelo Matos and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2020-12-08 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Rolling Stone-Kirkus Best Music Book of 2020 The definitive account of pop music in the mid-eighties, from Prince and Madonna to the underground hip-hop, indie rock, and club scenes Everybody knows the hits of 1984 - pop music's greatest year. From "Thriller" to "Purple Rain," "Hello" to "Against All Odds," "What's Love Got to Do with It" to "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," these iconic songs continue to dominate advertising, karaoke nights, and the soundtracks for film classics (Boogie Nights) and TV hits (Stranger Things). But the story of that thrilling, turbulent time, an era when Top 40 radio was both the leading edge of popular culture and a moral battleground, has never been told with the full detail it deserves - until now. Can't Slow Down is the definitive portrait of the exploding world of mid-eighties pop and the time it defined, from Cold War anxiety to the home-computer revolution. Big acts like Michael Jackson (Thriller), Prince (Purple Rain), Madonna (Like a Virgin), Bruce Springsteen (Born in the U.S.A.), and George Michael (Wham!'s Make It Big) rubbed shoulders with the stars of the fermenting scenes of hip-hop, indie rock, and club music. Rigorously researched, mapping the entire terrain of American pop, with crucial side trips to the UK and Jamaica, from the biz to the stars to the upstarts and beyond, Can't Slow Down is a vivid journey to the very moment when pop was remaking itself, and the culture at large - one hit at a time.
Download or read book Alfred s premier piano course written by Dennis Alexander and published by Alfred Music Publishing. This book was released on 2006-02 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The appealing repertoire with charming lyrics further reinforces and enhances the learning of new musical concepts introduced in the Lesson Book. Includes attractive music created by internationally acclaimed composers in a variety of styles, plus tips on how to perform more musically. Each piece on the CD was recorded at a performance tempo and a slower practice tempo The audio for this book is also available for download here The music from this book is available in the Piano Maestro app that's downloadable here. Learn more About JoyTunes, the maker of Piano Maestro here.
Download or read book Listen to This If You Love Great Music written by Robin Murray and published by Ivy Press. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Listen To This If You Love Great Music is a must read for anyone with even a passing interest in music. Featuring 100 of the best albums from the last four decades, clashmusic.com editor Robin Murray shares his passion for exceptional music and offers insightful takes on what elevates these records above the competition. Robin steers clear of the usual classics – The Beatles and The Clash, for example – and instead goes deep into his record collection to pull out the albums he considers the greatest ever. For each, a solid case is made for why it represents a watershed moment in music history, outlining the story behind the record and critiquing what constitutes a classic. Uniquely curated to offer a fresh perspective on the last 40-plus years of music, find politically charged rock brushing shoulders with dub-infused electronica, progressive pop and dreamy shoegaze shaken awake by ear-drum rattling grime and house music. Whether it’s bass-heavy hip-hop from Nas that inspired a thousand MCs to pick up a mic or experimental indie dance from LCD Soundsystem that blurred genres and tempted musicians to trade in their guitars for synthesizers, this is an essential rundown of the albums that really matter. You need to play them loud.
Download or read book Switched on Pop written by Nate Sloan and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019-12-13 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pop music surrounds us - in our cars, over supermarket speakers, even when we are laid out at the dentist - but how often do we really hear what's playing? Switched on Pop is the book based on the eponymous podcast that has been hailed by NPR, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and Entertainment Weekly for its witty and accessible analysis of Top 40 hits. Through close studies of sixteen modern classics, musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding shift pop from the background to the foreground, illuminating the essential musical concepts behind two decades of chart-topping songs. In 1939, Aaron Copland published What to Listen for in Music, the bestseller that made classical music approachable for generations of listeners. Eighty years later, Nate and Charlie update Copland's idea for a new audience and repertoire: 21st century pop, from Britney to Beyoncé, Outkast to Kendrick Lamar. Despite the importance of pop music in contemporary culture, most discourse only revolves around lyrics and celebrity. Switched on Pop gives readers the tools they need to interpret our modern soundtrack. Each chapter investigates a different song and artist, revealing musical insights such as how a single melodic motif follows Taylor Swift through every genre that she samples, André 3000 uses metric manipulation to get listeners to "shake it like a Polaroid picture," or Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee create harmonic ambiguity in "Despacito" that mirrors the patterns of global migration. Replete with engaging discussions and eye-catching illustrations, Switched on Pop brings to life the musical qualities that catapult songs into the pop pantheon. Readers will find themselves listening to familiar tracks in new waysand not just those from the Top 40. The timeless concepts that Nate and Charlie define can be applied to any musical style. From fanatics to skeptics, teenagers to octogenarians, non-musicians to professional composers, every music lover will discover something ear-opening in Switched on Pop.
Download or read book Alfred s Great Music Musicians written by Nancy Bachus and published by . This book was released on 2016-10-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Great Music & Musicians series provides a foundation for understanding the major cultural periods, musical styles, and development of music through the ages. The books include art and listening examples to deepen understanding. Although not correlated page by page, Book 2 is appropriate for piano students in various levels of Premier Piano Course (based on the individual student's reading level). It also may be used with other piano methods and in group lessons. Each unit includes an overview of major keyboard composers and literature, as well as information about the development of the piano and related cultural trends. Also included are short unit summaries and review activities. At the end of each unit is a Listening Guide that includes important keyboard compositions to reinforce the concepts presented. Recordings of these pieces can be downloaded as MP3 files.
Download or read book To Feel the Music written by Neil Young and published by BenBella Books. This book was released on 2019-09-10 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neil Young took on the music industry so that fans could hear his music—all music—the way it was meant to be heard. Today, most of the music we hear is com-pressed to a fraction of its original sound,while analog masterpieces are turning to dustin record company vaults. As these record-ings disappear, music fans aren't just losing acollection of notes. We're losing spaciousness,breadth of the sound field, and the ability tohear and feel a ping of a triangle or a pluckof a guitar string, each with its own reso-nance and harmonics that slowly trail off intosilence. The result is music that is robbed of its original quality—muddy and flat in sound compared to the rich, warm sound artists hear in the studio. It doesn't have to be this way, but the record and technology companies have incorrectly assumed that most listeners are satisfied with these low-quality tracks. Neil Young is challenging the assault on audio quality—and working to free music lovers from the flat and lifeless status quo. To Feel the Music is the true story of his questto bring high-quality audio back to musiclovers—the most important undertaking ofhis career. It's an unprecedented look insidethe successes and setbacks of creating thePono player, the fights and negotiationswith record companies to preserve master-pieces for the future, and Neil's unrelentingdetermination to make musical art availableto everyone. It's a story that shows how muchmore there is to music than meets the ear. Neil's efforts to bring quality audio to his fans garnered media attention when his Kickstarter campaign for his Pono player—a revolutionary music player that would combine the highest quality possible with the portability, simplicity and affordability modern listeners crave—became the third-most successful Kickstarter campaign in the website's history. It had raised more than $6M in pledges in 40 days. Encouraged by the enthusiastic response, Neil still had a long road ahead, and his Pono music player would not have the commercial success he'd imagined. But he remained committed to his mission, and faced with the rise of streaming services that used even lower quality audio, he was determined to rise to the challenge. An eye-opening read for all fans of Neil Young and all fans of great music, as well as readers interesting in going behind the scenes of product creation, To Feel the Music has an inspiring story at its heart: One determined artist with a groundbreaking vision and the absolute refusal to give up, despite setbacks, naysayers, and skeptics.
Download or read book Everybody Had an Ocean written by William McKeen and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2017-04-01 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Los Angeles in the 1960s gave the world some of the greatest music in rock 'n' roll history: "California Dreamin'" by the Mamas and the Papas, "Mr. Tambourine Man" by the Byrds, and "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys, a song that magnificently summarized the joy and beauty of the era in three-and-a-half minutes. But there was a dark flip side to the fun fun fun of the music, a nexus between naïve young musicians and the fringe elements that exploited the decade's peace-love-and-flowers ethos, all fueled by sex, drugs, and overnight success. One surf music superstar unwittingly subsidized the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. The transplanted Texas singer Bobby Fuller might have been murdered by the Mob in what is still an unsolved case. And after hearing Charlie Manson sing, Neil Young recommended him to the president of Warner Bros. Records. Manson's ultimate rejection by the music industry likely led to the infamous murders that shocked a nation. Everybody Had an Ocean chronicles the migration of the rock 'n' roll business to Southern California and how the artists flourished there. The cast of characters is astonishing—Brian and Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, eccentric producer Phil Spector, Cass Elliot, Sam Cooke, Ike and Tina Turner, Joni Mitchell, and scores of others—and their stories form a modern epic of the battles between innocence and cynicism and joy and terror. You'll never hear that beautiful music in quite the same way.
Download or read book Love for Sale written by David Hajdu and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A personal, idiosyncratic history of popular music that also may well be definitive, from the revered music critic From the age of song sheets in the late nineteenth-century to the contemporary era of digital streaming, pop music has been our most influential laboratory for social and aesthetic experimentation, changing the world three minutes at a time. In Love for Sale, David Hajdu—one of the most respected critics and music historians of our time—draws on a lifetime of listening, playing, and writing about music to show how pop has done much more than peddle fantasies of love and sex to teenagers. From vaudeville singer Eva Tanguay, the “I Don’t Care Girl” who upended Victorian conceptions of feminine propriety to become one of the biggest stars of her day to the scandal of Blondie playing disco at CBGB, Hajdu presents an incisive and idiosyncratic history of a form that has repeatedly upset social and cultural expectations. Exhaustively researched and rich with fresh insights, Love for Sale is unbound by the usual tropes of pop music history. Hajdu, for instance, gives a star turn to Bessie Smith and the “blues queens” of the 1920s, who brought wildly transgressive sexuality to American audience decades before rock and roll. And there is Jimmie Rodgers, a former blackface minstrel performer, who created country music from the songs of rural white and blacks . . . entwined with the sound of the Swiss yodel. And then there are today’s practitioners of Electronic Dance Music, who Hajdu celebrates for carrying the pop revolution to heretofore unimaginable frontiers. At every turn, Hajdu surprises and challenges readers to think about our most familiar art in unexpected ways. Masterly and impassioned, authoritative and at times deeply personal, Love for Sale is a book of critical history informed by its writer's own unique history as a besotted fan and lifelong student of pop.
Download or read book A Taste for the Classics written by Patrick Kavanaugh and published by Sparrow Corporation. This book was released on 1993 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book How Music Really Works written by Wayne Chase and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 889 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Listening for America Inside the Great American Songbook from Gershwin to Sondheim written by Rob Kapilow and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Not since the late Leonard Bernstein has classical music had a combination salesman-teacher as irresistible as Kapilow.” —Kansas City Star Few people in recent memory have dedicated themselves as devotedly to the story of twentieth- century American music as Rob Kapilow, the composer, conductor, and host of the hit NPR music radio program, What Makes It Great? Now, in Listening for America, he turns his keen ear to the Great American Songbook, bringing many of our favorite classics to life through the songs and stories of eight of the twentieth century’s most treasured American composers—Kern, Porter, Gershwin, Arlen, Berlin, Rodgers, Bernstein, and Sondheim. Hardly confi ning himself to celebrating what makes these catchy melodies so unforgettable, Kapilow delves deeply into how issues of race, immigration, sexuality, and appropriation intertwine in masterpieces like Show Boat and West Side Story. A book not just about musical theater but about America itself, Listening for America is equally for the devotee, the singer, the music student, or for anyone intrigued by how popular music has shaped the larger culture, and promises to be the ideal gift book for years to come.
Download or read book The Great Music Trivia Quiz Book written by Rachel Federman and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2009 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covers all musical genres with a focus on rock and pop from the 1960s through today. You may know that Bono's real name is Paul Hewson and that John Lennon was featured on the first cover of Rolling Stone, but it might surprise you to learn that compact discs have been on the market since 1982.
