Download or read book Words Music and the Popular written by Thomas Gurke and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-01-03 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Words, Music, and the Popular: Global Perspectives on Intermedial Relations opens up the notion of the popular, drawing useful links between wide-ranging aspects of popular culture, through the lens of the interaction between words and music. This collection of essays explores the relation of words and music to issues of the popular. It asks: What is popularity or ‘the’ popular and what role(s) does music play in it? What is the function of the popular, and is ‘pop’ a system? How can popularity be explained in certain historical and political contexts? How do class, gender, race, and ethnicity contribute to and complicate an understanding of the ‘popular’? What of the popularity of verbal art forms? How do they interact with music at particular times and throughout different media?
Download or read book Words Music written by Paul Morley and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-19 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Has pop burnt itself out? Inspired by the video for Kylie Minogue's hit single 'Can't Get You Out of My Head', acclaimed rock journalist Paul Morley is driving with Kylie towards a virtual city built of sound and ideas in search of the answer. Their journey bridges the various paradoxes of twentieth-century culture, as they encounter a succession of celebrities and geniuses - including Madonna, Kraftwerk, Wittgenstein and the ghost of Elvis Presley - and explore the iconic and the obscure, the mechanical and the digital, the avant-garde and the very nature of pop itself.
Download or read book Words with Music written by Lehman Engel and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2006 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dean of Broadway musical directors examines the dynamics of how the book, music and lyrics work together to create such hits as My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, Guys and Dolls, Hair, Pal Joey, West Side Story, Company, South Pacific, Threepenny Opera and Porgy and Bess. Howard Kissel, chief theater critic for the New York Daily News, extends the reach of Engel's subjects by bringing them up to date with commentary on such shows as A Chorus Line, Nine, Sunday in the Park with George, Rent, Working and Falsettos. Kissel offers a thoughtful history on how musical theater has evolved in the three decades since Engel wrote Words with Music (1972) and how Engel's classic work remains vital and illuminating today.
Download or read book Music in Words written by Trevor Herbert and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-02-12 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Music in Words is a compact guide to researching and writing about music, addressing all the issues that anyone who writes about music--from students to professional musicians and critics--may confront when putting together anything from brief program notes to a lengthy thesis. The book is a writing guide and a reference manual in one: the first part, a "how to" section, offers a clear explanation of the purpose of music research and how it is to be done, including basic introductions to the most necessary tools for musical inquiry (with special emphasis on strategic use of the internet), and how they can be accessed and used. The second part is a compendium of information on style and sources for quick reference, including a straightforward presentation of the purpose and use of citation and reference systems as they are applied to and in music. As a whole, the volume gives readers a clear picture of how to write about music at different levels and for different purposes in a handy, thoroughly cross-referenced format. This American edition has been thoroughly revised and expanded, and features an extensive section on writing for the Internet and new sections on writing for jazz, popular music, world musics, and ethnography. Additionally, a companion website presents a broad range of writing samples and links to key resources.
Download or read book Their Words are Music written by Lehman Engel and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Words and Music of Taylor Swift written by James E. Perone and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-07-14 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This scholarly analysis of the music of Taylor Swift identifies how and why she is one of the early 21st century's most recognizable and most popular stars. By the age of 13, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift had already inked a development deal with a major record label. This early milestone was an appropriate predictor of what accomplishments were to come. Now a superstar artist with an international fanbase of millions and several critically acclaimed and commercially successful albums, Swift has established herself as one of the most important musicians of the 21st century. This accessible book serves Taylor Swift fans as well as students of contemporary popular music and popular culture, critically examining all of this young artist's work to date. The book's organization is primarily chronological, covering Taylor Swift's album and single releases in order of release date while also documenting the elements of her music and personality that have made her popular with fans of country music and pop music across a surprisingly diverse age range of listeners. The chapters address how Swift's songs have been viewed by some fans as anthems of empowerment or messages of encouragement, particularly by members of the LGBTQ community, those who have been bullied or been seen as outsiders, and emerging artists. The final chapter places Swift's work and her public persona in the context of her times with respect to her use of and relationship with technology—for example, her use of social media and songwriting technology—and her expressions of a new type of feminism that is unlike the feminism of the 1970s.
Download or read book The Words and Music of Billy Joel written by Ken Bielen and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-07-22 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This detailed exploration looks at the musical works of recording artist Billy Joel and his impact on popular culture. Billy Joel skyrocketed to popularity in 1977 with his fifth album, The Stranger, and he has been a major American artist ever since. His songs are timeless and appreciated by generations of fans. The Words and Music of Billy Joel examines this influential musician's songs in detail, exploring the meaning of the lyrics and placing Joel's artistry in a regional and cultural context. Covering work that ranges from Joel's recordings with the Lost Souls to his classical compositions, the book focuses on the dozen studio albums of popular music released between 1971 and 1993. A bibliographic essay is included, as are both a discography and a filmography. There is also a special focus on the interpretation of Joel's songs by other recording artists.
Download or read book The Words and Music of Sting written by Christopher R. Gabel and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2008-12-30 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sting has successfully established himself as one of the most important singer-songwriters in Western popular music over the past twenty years. His affinity for collaborative work and disparate musical styles has pushed his music into an astonishing array of contexts, but no matter what the style or who the collaborator, Sting's voice always remains distinct, and this fact has earned him success amongst a correspondingly broad audience. The Words and Music of Sting subdivides Sting's life and works into rough periods of creative activity and offers a fantastic opportunity to view Sting's many stylistic changes within a coherent general framework. After analyzing Sting's musical output album by album and song by song, author Christopher Gable sums up Sting's accomplishments and places him on the continuum of influential singer-songwriters, showing how he differs and relates to other artists of the same period. Aside from his commercial success, Sting is also interesting for the use of recurring themes in his lyrics (such as family relationships, love, war, spirituality, and work) and for his use of jazz and world music to illustrate or work against the meaning of a song. Sting's life also sheds light on his music, as his working-class roots in Newcastle, England are never far removed from his international superstardom. Throughout his life, he has been musically open-minded and inquisitive, always seeking out new styles and often incorporating them into his compositions.
Download or read book The Rest Is Noise written by Alex Ross and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2007-10-16 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism A New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book of the Year Time magazine Top Ten Nonfiction Book of 2007 Newsweek Favorite Books of 2007 A Washington Post Book World Best Book of 2007 In this sweeping and dramatic narrative, Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, weaves together the histories of the twentieth century and its music, from Vienna before the First World War to Paris in the twenties; from Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia to downtown New York in the sixties and seventies up to the present. Taking readers into the labyrinth of modern style, Ross draws revelatory connections between the century's most influential composers and the wider culture. The Rest Is Noise is an astonishing history of the twentieth century as told through its music.
Download or read book The Words and Music of Paul McCartney written by Vincent P. Benitez Jr. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-03-23 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This examination of the solo music of Paul McCartney, from 1970-2007, offers an analysis of his songs, recordings, and his impact on popular music. The Words and Music of Paul McCartney: The Solo Years examines the large and varied oeuvre of this deeply personal artist, showing how McCartney's stint as a Beatle continues to inform his solo music, as well as how he has transcended his days as a member of the Fab Four. After a biographical introduction, chronologically arranged chapters explore McCartney's music in the immediate aftermath of the breakup of the Beatles, his work with Wings during the 1970s, his collaborations with other artists during the 1980s, and his compositions of the 1990s, including his first forays into classical music. The examination also covers McCartney's critically acclaimed work in the first decade of the 21st century, including Memory Almost Full and Ecce Cor Meum, a composition written in the style of sacred English choral music. Throughout, the book supplies analytical insights and historical background to a repertoire that, surprisingly, has not previously been covered in detail.
Download or read book Walter Legge written by Walter Legge and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Walter Legge was one of the greatest ever record producers. His many other activities included founding a great orchestra, the Philharmonia, which he ran for eighteen years as a 'benevolent dictator'. Music formed the central core of his life, but the printed word was also a vital source of inspiration and education. In his writings Walter Legge reveals clearly the many facets of his own remarkable personality, and from his correspondence with the great names of his day we gain rich insight into the musical world in which he played so great a part.
Download or read book The Words and Music of Tom Waits written by Corinne Kessel and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2008-11-30 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tom Waits's distinctive, bourbon-soaked growl, his unique persona, and his incorporation of musical styles from blues to experimental to vaudeville have secured for him a top-shelf cult following and an extraordinary critical respect. The idea of the Wanderer - someone who seeks an escape from all of life's problems, and dreams himself into oblivion - serves as the fundamental personality type around which all Waits's music revolves. Ten years of producing and touring with Waits's macabre folktale adaptation across Canada and the U.S. has given author Corinne Kessel direct access to his work, creative process, and his associates. In this comprehensive analysis, Kessel examines all of the many characters that have appeared throughout the course of Waits' musical career, from Closing Time (1973) to Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards. His raw form of expression and his evocative lyrics work together to form an emotional chronicle of society's misfits, outcasts, and lowlifes. He is not the sort of composer to chase after shiny red fire trucks to awesome blazing fires, but instead looks after the intangible dreams found dissipating in the last wisp of smoke from a cigarette, held in the weathered hands of a broken soul. Here, author Corinne Kessel pursues Waits into this distinctly murky and unsettled atmosphere to address in particular Waits's enduring questions of reality, landscape, and identity.
Download or read book The Words and Music of David Bowie written by James E. Perone and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2007-06-30 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All Music Guide's Stephen Thomas Erlewine has written, Even when he was out of fashion in the '80s and '90s, it was clear that Bowie was one of the most influential musicians in rock, for better or worse. In this comprehensive analysis of David Bowie's career, author James Perone examines the many identities and styles Bowie has developed over the years, and in so doing provides a stunning chronicle of creativity at work. Born David Jones in a London suburb in 1947, David Bowie changed his name in the late '60s to avoid confusion with the singer David Jones of The Monkees. This name change would turn out to be a highly prescient act: for in incorporating an exceptionally wide variety of styles, Bowie would become the most notorious chameleon of the rock era. Due in large part to his early success in the glam rock subgenre and his claims of homosexuality (dismissed by many writers as a ploy to generate public interest and record sales), Bowie raised serious issues about sexual orientation in rock music, regardless of whether or not his claimed homosexuality was genuine or part of his on-stage character. His regular use of theatrical personae also raises interesting issues concerning authenticity and the perception of authenticity in rock music. Although Bowie has been primarily an album artist, his recordings of Fame, Golden Years, Let's Dance, China Girl, Blue Jean, and Dancing in the Streets, all made it into the Billboard top 10 singles charts. Of these, all but one was written or co-written by Bowie. Even more notable are the songs he wrote and recorded that have made an impact far in excess of their chart standing. These include Space Oddity, Rebel, Rebel, Changes, Modern Love, and Young Americans. From his early 1970s albums like Hunky Dory and The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars-in both of which he assumed the character of the fictional, androgynous Stardust-to Diamond Dogs, Heroes, Tin Machine, and Black Tie White Noise, Bowie's albums generated both significant word-of-mouth interest and some of the most contentious critical reactions of any artist of the rock era. This long overdue investigation lets Bowie's artistry speak for itself. After a biographical introduction, chronologically arranged chapters discuss the singer's fascinating—and iconoclastic—body of work. A discography and annotated bibliography conclude the book.
Download or read book Words and Music Into the Future written by Michael Koppy and published by . This book was released on 2019-01-31 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Critique of contemporary songwriting and call for revolution in the medium
Download or read book The Words and Music of Frank Zappa written by Kelly Fisher Lowe and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2007-10-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A deep look at the work of one of the most insightful and incisive critics of late 20th-century American culture.
Download or read book The Words and Music of Paul Simon written by James Bennighof and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2007-10-30 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul Simon is commonly acknowledged to be one of the most successful singer-songwriters of the pop-rock era. His work has flourished in the context of Simon and Garfunkel as well as in his own solo career. Starting with the folk-rock style that marked his earliest significant success, he has drawn on a wide variety of influences, including many American traditions and, later, many international ones as well. He has won multiple Grammy awards in both the duo and the solo phases of his career. His songwriting has also provided the impetus for brief forays into film and musical theatre. After providing a brief biographical overview, this work examines Simon's songwriting work in depth, providing a critical discussion of each song as a fusion of text and music so as to help the reader to identify elements that enhance appreciation. A particularly valuable contribution in this context is the discussion of the wide variety of musical elements that contribute significantly to the value of Simon's work. These include such easily-understandable issues as verse-chorus structure, melodic variation, selection of particular instruments and even performers, variation of musical style within a song, general harmonic characteristics, relationships among keys, rhythm and pacing of text, etc. While the book proceeds chronologically through Simon's recorded output, specific threads are developed throughout, and the discussion of individual songs takes place in the context of these threads, both drawing on them and developing them further. The diversity of Paul Simon's work reflects his very American background, and no discussion of American music is complete without accounting for his influence.
Download or read book The Words and Music of Prince written by James E. Perone and published by Praeger. This book was released on 2008-04-30 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analysis of the songs, recordings, and influence of one of the most colorful and controversial American artists of the past quarter century.
