History & Criticism

From a Los Angeles hospital bed, equipped with little more than a laptop and a stack of records, James "J Dilla" Yancey crafted a set of tracks that would forever change the way beatmakers viewed their artform. The songs on Donuts are not hip hop music...

Charles Fourier imagined a whole society structured by music. Hector Berlioz wrote science fiction. Hugo Gernsback looked forward to telematic operas. John Cage imagined an infinite sound palette. But where are today's musical futurists? The Music of the...

It's nearly impossible to discuss the history of rock music without praising the monumental quality, impact, variety, and boldness of Britain's Jethro Tull. Named after an eighteenth-century agriculturalist - and not after their striking frontman Ian...

The 1980s saw Alice Cooper release arguably his most diverse collection of albums, ranging from new wave to metal to full-on radio-friendly rock. They weren't all commercially successful, but all are worth listening to and some are excellent. This...

Porcupine Tree began in 1987 as a solo project for Steven Wilson writing and recording music in his bedroom, but became a four piece band when Steven was joined by Richard Barbieri, Colin Edwin, and Chris Maitland (later replaced by Gavin Harrison)...

The Tastemaker charts the singular life of a man who has been at the beating heart of music's most iconic moments for over sixty years. Leaving school and starting his career at Decca Records in 1958 at the age of sixteen, Tony King would soon find...

Superbly researched and vividly written, The Devil's Music is one of the only books to trace the rise and development of the blues both in relation to other forms of black music and in the context of American social history as experienced by African...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780140062236Author Robert PalmerFormat PaperbackPage Count 320Imprint Penguin USAPublisher Penguin Putnam IncWeight(grams) 249gDimensions(mm) 196mm * 130mm...

One of the biggest names in the musical landscape of the 1970s, Steely Dan released a string of albums that pushed the boundaries of what was possible in a recording studio. With albums like `The Royal Scam' and `Aja', the songs of Walter Becker and...

In this third edition of the classic Verdi, renowned authority Julian Budden offers a comprehensive overview of Verdi the man and the artist, tracing his ascent from humble beginnings to the status of a cultural patriarch of the new Italy, whose cause he...

In this breathtaking cultural history filled with exclusive, never-before-revealed details, celebrated rock journalist Joel Selvin tells the definitive story of the Rolling Stones' infamous Altamont concert, the disastrous historic event that marked the...

This book focuses on the genius of Smith's 1998 debut that remains his defining album. Many albums could be cited to support the claim that great suffering yields great art. Elliott Smith's "XO" should not be one of them. Smith's 1998 major label debut...

The American musical has long provided an important vehicle through which writers, performers, and audiences reimagine who they are and how they might best interact with the world around them. Musicals are especially good at this because they provide not...

In June of 1964, three young, white blues fans set out from New York City in a Volkswagen, heading for the Mississippi Delta in search of a musical legend. So begins Preachin' the Blues, the biography of American blues signer and guitarist Eddie James...

A visual and cultural history of hip hop, charting its meteoric rise from underground trailblazer to global tastemaker To tell the story of contemporary American culture is to tell the story of hip hop. From its humble, underground origins, hip hop...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781627310673Author Ika JohannessonFormat PaperbackPage Count 240Imprint Feral House,U.S.Publisher Feral House,U.S.

What is meant by the term 'English Music'? After discussing the definition and factors for identification involved, Stephen H. Smith explores the shortlist of composers who should be considered, as well as any omissions from such a selection. The book...

A transatlantic perspective that illuminates the Germania Musical Society's crucial role in introducing a "classical," predominantly German, repertory of instrumental works into American musical life. In Good Music for a Free People, author Nancy...

The hidden meanings of the Beatles' most esoteric lyrics and sounds are revealed by a rare insider who spent two decades with the man who made "meditation," "mantra," and "yoga" household words: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. "I absolutely love this book...

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...

______________ 'A beautifully poised series of dialogues about literature, music and politics, and they're a testimony to the enormous gifts and courage of both men' - Tom Paulin, Guardian 'A marvellous eavesdrop on the discourse of exchange...

Praise for the Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die exhibition: "A fascinating look at how punk and new wave music met the eye" New York Times "An absolute joy" Financial Times The...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781913689582Author Paul PurgasFormat PaperbackPage Count 264Imprint Strange Attractor PressPublisher Strange Attractor Press

Fan, musician and writer Roland Link has compiled a wealth of images of the legendary Belfast band through the 1970s and 80s. It includes many previously unseen photographs of the members on the road, on stage, in candid moments and in promotional...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781493068272Author Stan HugillFormat PaperbackPage Count 452Imprint The Lyons PressPublisher Rowman & LittlefieldWeight(grams) 603gDimensions(mm) 230mm *...

What links Taylor Swift to a factory worker? Kanye West to a German engineer? Beyonce to a boardroom mogul? They've all changed the face of the music business, in the most unexpected ways. How Music Got Free is the incredible true story of how online...

'One of the most rewarding pieces of hip-hop criticism ever written' Jeff Chang 'Brilliant' Giles Peterson 'Will Ashon's dazzling study gets to the heart of hip hop, pop culture and the history of contemporary America. Essential' Matt Thorne 'Each...

How has a group conceived as a short-lived commodity outlived many more 'real' bands by nearly fifty years? Why are The Monkees still important, and what does this tell us about their music, their TV show, and our understanding of popular culture today? ...

Derided as one-hit wonders, estranged from their original producer and record label, and in self-imposed exile in Los Angeles, the Beastie Boys were written off by most observers before even beginning to record their second album - an embarrassing...

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...

This selection of over five hundred letters gives us the life of John Cage with all the intelligence, wit, and inventiveness that made him such an important and groundbreaking composer and performer. The missives range from lengthy reports of his early...

Radiohead are not like other bands. For over three decades they have charted a singular course. As their music has become more beautiful, more strange and more uncompromising, the band who make it have become more popular, evolving from the indie clubs...

THE ULTIMATE EDITION - EXPANDED AND UPDATED WITH MORE THAN 70,000 WORDS OF NEW MATERIALCritically acclaimed in its previous editions, The Complete David Bowie is recognized as the foremost source of analysis and information on every facet of Bowie's work...

New Order have produced some of the most influential popular music of the last 40 plus years. A unique vision of alternative electronic rock, forged in Manchester and exported to the world; connecting with the alternative-minded as well as the...

The John Rutter Christmas Piano Album brings together eight of the composer's best-loved seasonal choral pieces as piano transcriptions, made by John Rutter himself, for performance use or enjoyment at home. Designed for pianists at early intermediate...

Shattering longstanding myths, this new biography reveals the robust and positive life of one of the nineteenth century's greatest composers This candid, intimate, and compellingly written new biography offers a fresh account of Robert Schumann's life...

Pink Floyd are one of the most innovative and enduringly successful bands in history. 1973's Dark Side of the Moon, though far from the first concept album, established a new model for quasi-symphonic, long-form investigations into the human condition...

Includes a new chapter on John Cage. Alex Ross's award-winning international best-seller, 'The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century', has become a contemporary classic, establishing him as one of our most popular and acclaimed...

Pop manager extraordinaire Simon Napier-Bell had had enough. He'd had enough of pop groups. He'd had enough of the constant grief at home with his two ex-boyfriends bickering and bleeding him dry; and most of all he'd had enough of the music biz. But...

Disco emerged from the fall-out of the Black Power Movement and an almost exclusively gay scene in a blaze of poppers, strobe lights, tight trousers, hysterical diva vocals and synthesized beats in the late sixties. As a genre, disco radically re-defined...