History & Criticism

'You never knew what you were going to be confronted with when you went on Later...' Nick Cave 'Later... is a voyage of discovery for us as well as the viewers' Dave Grohl Dave Grohl and Alicia Keys loved it, Bjoerk...

Electronic music evokes new sensations, feelings, and thoughts in both composers and listeners. Opening the door to an unlimited universe of sound, it engages spatialization as an integral aspect of composition and focuses on sound transformation as a...

Depeche Mode's 101 is, at first glance, a curious thing: a live double-album by a synth band. A recording of its "Concert for the Masses," 101 marks the moment when doomy, cultish, electronic Depeche Mode, despite low American album sales and a lack of...

The Pixies have had a career unlike any other in alternative rock, disappearing as not-quite-the-next-big-things only to become gods in absentia. "Doolittle" is their knotty masterpiece, the embodiment of the Pixies' abrasive, exuberant, enigmatic pop...

Roy Harper must be one of Britain's most undervalued rock musicians and songwriters. For over fifty years he has produced a series of innovative albums of consistently outstanding quality. He puts poetry and social commentary to music in a way that...

The first major account of the history of reggae, black music journalist Lloyd Bradley describes its origins and development in Jamaica, from ska to rock-steady to dub and then to reggae itself, a local music which conquered the world. There are many...

From the ashes of Nirvana, Dave Grohl rose as a one-man band with a self-titled album: The Foo Fighters. Now, 25 years on, and with a rock solid outfit that includes Nate Mendel (bass), Taylor Hawkins (drums), Chris Shiflett (guitar), Pat Smear (rhythm...

A must-read for old-school hip-hop heads and burgeoning fans alikeTime'Hip Hip is not History, it's Our story. Brilliant book'Craig Charles'Hip-Hop Is History melds a detailed chronological retelling of the genre's story with occasionally hair-raising...

In February 1968 and March 1976, the Who performed shows in the same venue, almost ten years apart: San Francisco's Winterland. Generally considered as two marginal years in the Who's career, they are only apparently so. These two years represent a...

Berlioz's Orchestration Treatise is a classic textbook which has been used as a guide to orchestration and as a source book for the understanding both of Berlioz's music and of orchestral practice in the nineteenth century. This was the first English...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781929069286Author Art ChantryFormat PaperbackPage Count 276Imprint MiscmediaPublisher MiscmediaWeight(grams) 644gDimensions(mm) 279mm * 216mm * 15mm

A thoughtfully curated and gloriously illustrated retrospective of the band's studio releases, Queen, comes just in time for the 45th anniversary of their debut LP and biopic. Formed in 1970, Queen went on to become one of the most popular-and most...

On the fiftieth anniversary of David Bowie's magical album, Aladdin Sane 50 is the ultimate celebration of a musical masterpiece - and the most famous photograph in pop history.This landmark book contains hundreds of photographs, including dozens of...

David Toop's extraordinary work of sonic history travels from the rainforests of Amazonas to the megalopolis of Tokyo via the work of artists as diverse as Brian Eno, Sun Ra, Erik Satie, Kate Bush, Kraftwerk and Brian Wilson. Beginning in 1889 at the...

THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES, GRAMMY-NOMINATED BESTSELLERA SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, ROLLING STONE, AND ROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR A panoramic experience that tells the story of Beastie Boys, a book as unique as the band itself-by band members...

Ian Bradley's Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan has established itself across the world as the authorized and definitive 'Bible' for all those interested in the Savoy operas. Originally published in two Penguin paperbacks in the 1980's, a...

On the afternoon of August 15, 1969, Richie Havens took the stage at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, welcoming a crowd of several hundred thousand to the green fields of Max Yasgur's farm. Havens was the first act - the legendary festival, years in the...

Selected writings on three decades of popular music from one of the most influential critics of his generation.Spanning three decades worth of astute, acerbic, and overall astounding music writing, Kick Out the Jams is the first large-scale anthology of...

The prequel to Bob Stanley's universally acclaimed Yeah Yeah Yeah, Let's Do It is the only book that brings together all genres to tell the definitive story of the birth of Pop, from 1900 to the mid-fifties. 'An absolute landmark/joy/gossip-fest/door to...

The Ultimate Guide To Great Reggae celebrates (and helps you find) the greatest songs of reggae. It focuses on every style of reggae, from mento to Jamaican R&B, ska, rock steady, dub, DJ roots, dancehall and more. It opens with an exceptionally...

Singing Like Larks opens a rare window onto the ancient song traditions of the British Isles, interweaving mesmerising lyrics, folklore and colourful nature writing to uncover the remarkable relationship between birds and traditional folk music. Birds...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.About the AuthorCarolyn McHugh is an editor and writer specializing in popular music, fashion, and culture. From the birth of rock and roll in the mid-1950s through to modern...

'Stanley is both a fine writer and an impassioned celebrant of pop in all its mongrel, misfit glory.'STUART MACONIE, THE TIMESThere have been many books on pop music but none have attempted to chart its entire story, from the dawn of the charts in the...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781935243076Author Bertrand Harris BronsonFormat HardbackPage Count 516Imprint Loomis House PressPublisher Loomis House PressWeight(grams)...

'Skilfully written, engaging and sensitive' HELEN O'HARA'Hugely readable' MOJO'A compelling, moving book' THE TIMESIn the early 1980s, the pop charts were dominated by musicians tarted up in Day-Glo colours, who fought it out for coverage on our TV...

Everyone loved The Hollies. They were the 'group's group'. Never confrontational or rebellious, always smartly suited, always smiling. The band had an unbroken run of immaculate pop singles which, while they seldom had that must-buy factor of the latest...

The Royal Marines are renowned for their military skill and also for having one of the finest military bands in the world. These highly trained and talented musicians are equally at home parading at Buckingham Palace, playing at the Royal Albert Hall, or...

Opening with the psychedelic haunts of the 1960s New York pop art scene and closing more than half a century later with the rise of post-club happenings, Temporary Pleasure shows how nightlife spaces have evolved to meet the needs of their generation,...

An extraordinary prodigy of Mozartean abilities, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was a distinguished composer and conductor, a legendary pianist and organist, and an accomplished painter and classicist. Lionized in his lifetime, he is best remembered today...

An updated new edition of Ted Gioia's universally acclaimed history of jazz, with a wealth of new insight on this music's past, present, and future. Ted Gioia's The History of Jazz has been universally hailed as the most comprehensive and accessible...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781635617887Author Layne RedmondFormat PaperbackPage Count 242Imprint Echo Point Books & MediaPublisher Echo Point Books & Media

A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'Full of delightful nuggets' Guardian online 'Entertaining, informative and philosphical ... An essential read' All About History 'Extraordinary range ... All the world and more is here' Evening Standard 165...

Discover the stories behind the songsTHE LIFE OF A SONG contains the stories of 100 songs exploring each song's biography and how they took on a new life following their release. Packed with intriguing factoids, these bite-sized essays will delight music...

Providing a detailed analysis of Bach's Passions, this 2010 book represents an important contribution to the debate about the culture of 'classical music', its origins, priorities and survival. The angles from which each chapter proceeds differ from...

In the late 1970s, aggressive, young bands are forming across Britain. Independent labels are springing up to release their music. But this isn't the story of punk. Forget punk. Punk was a flash in the pan compared to this. This is the story of the New...

Two entwined narratives run through the creation of "Swordfishtrombones" and form the backbone of this book. As the 1970s ended, Waits felt increasingly constrained and trapped by his persona and career. Bitter and desperately unhappy, he moved to New...

The charts are the evening news of the music industry. Collected here, they show the rapid rise or demise of each single as it enters the charts, either winning over a large audience or just making music for its own smaller group of fans. Top 40 Charts...

Dusty in Memphis, Dusty Springfield's beautiful and bizarre magnum opus, remains as fine a hybrid of pop and rhythm and blues as has ever been made. In this remarkable book, Warren Zanes explores his own love affair with the record. He digs deep into the...

***WINNER OF THE 2024 PENDERYN MUSIC BOOK PRIZE***A Times Book of the YearA Telegraph Book of the YearA Guardian Book of the Year A Rock 'n' Roll Book Club Book of the YearA Guardian 50 Best Holiday ReadsAn Independent Book of the YearA Mojo Music Book...

Making Master Guitars is a craftsman's handbook about the exciting and challenging pursuit of making classical guitars, a craft that the author reveals to be surprisingly accessible by following his instructions. The book is unique in that it includes...