History & Criticism

This book celebrates Madvillainy as a representation of two genius musical minds melding to form one revered supervillain. A product of circumstance, the album came together soon after MF DOOM's resurgence and Madlib's reluctant return from avant-garde...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781629635507Author Ian GlasperFormat PaperbackPage Count 640Imprint PM PressPublisher PM Press

'Hungry Beat is the story of an all-too-brief era where the short-circuiting of that industry seemed viable. But hell, the times were luminous as was the music these artists made. The songs and many of the players remain, and here they tell their story...

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...

Known for his orchestral, operatic and choral works, James MacMillan (b. 1959) appeals across the spectrum of contemporary music making. James MacMillan appeals across the spectrum of contemporary music making and is particularly celebrated for his...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781250282699Author Alan PaulFormat HardbackPage Count 352Imprint St Martin's PressPublisher St Martin's PressWeight(grams) 611gDimensions(mm) 244mm * 166mm...

From original Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler comes a tale of sex, drugs, excess, hairspray and and intense 20-year struggle with addiction. Guns N' Roses is one of the world's most successful rock bands, with estimated sales of 90 million...

The contribution of the British Isles to the history of the violin family has been consistently under-estimated. For over 200 years England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland have produced many fine makers and an abundance of quality instruments and bows, now...

Popular Music in Theory provides a critical introduction to the key theoretical issues which arise in the study of contemporary popular music. This book is organized in a way that shows how popular music is created across a series of relationships that...

The reverse of Nick Drake's headstone, wedged deep into the earth of an English parish church graveyard, reads: "Now we rise and we are everywhere." The words were penned by Drake in 1974: Thirty years later, they are jarringly prophetic. Like nearly all...

The essays in "The Resistible Demise of Michael Jackson" consummately demonstrate that writing on popular culture can be both thoughtful and heartfelt. The contributors, who include accomplished music critics as well as renowned theorists, are some of...

Homemade records, tape-hiss worship and a taste for a very peculiar kind of psychedelia have carved themselves a weird niche in the contemporary musical landscape under the name of lo-fi. This genreless genre, characterized by poor recordings and...

When Freddie Bulsara arrived in England in 1964, fleeing with his family from a bloody revolution on the streets of his homeland Zanzibar, he already knew that he wanted to be a rock'n'roll star. But before that dream could become a reality, there were...

In the heyday of low-budget television and scrappy genre filmmaking, producers who needed a soundtrack for their commercial entertainments could reach for a selection of library music: royalty-free LPs of stock recordings whose contents fit any mood...

David Bowie: every single song. Everything you want to know, everything you didn't know. David Bowie remains mysterious and unknowable, despite 45 years of recording and performing. His legacy is roughly 600 songs, which range from psychedelia to glam...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781101970393Author Brad TolinskiFormat PaperbackPage Count 400Imprint Anchor BooksPublisher Random House USA IncWeight(grams) 318gDimensions(mm) 201mm *...

This book examines the key ingredients of Radio City's lasting appeal. Virtually anyone who's ever picked up a guitar - whether wood or air - has fantasized about playing onstage alongside his musical hero. Bruce Eaton actually did it. This book is based...

'The Stone Roses have become folk heroes, frozen in time. And their story, with roots in punk through post-punk, scooter boys, skinheads, Northern Soul, psychedelia, acid house and Madchester, is everything that is great about British street culture...

An essential exploration of Nordic composers and musicians, and the distinctive culture that continues to shape them Once considered a musical backwater, the Nordic region is now a musical powerhouse. Conductors from Denmark and Finland dominate the...

The term 'world music' encompasses both folk and popular music across the globe, as well as the sounds of cultural encounter and diversity, sacred voices raised in worship, local sounds, and universal values. It emerged as an invention of the West from...

'No musician or music lover should be without it.' BBC Music MagazineRobert Schumann was far ahead of his time: his music anticipated a multitude of trends that would spread in the 150 years after his death, and almost every major composer who followed...

The definitive biography of one of the world's most famous women.Madonna is the biggest-selling female recording artist in the world and one of our greatest living pop stars. With each pioneering album she has consistently reinvented her music and her...

'I was 22 years old, a hard-on with a pulse: wretched, vice-ridden, too much to burn and not enough minutes in a hour to do so'The action begins in West Des Moines, Iowa, where Corey Taylor, frontman of heavy metal bands Slipknot and Stone Sour,...

This epoch-making record of the late '80s effortlessly combines dense swathes of guitar noise and dance music. This turned out to be their last record, guitarist and studio maestro Kevin Shields having set their standards so high it was impossible to...

Fleetwood Mac is one of the most successful bands of all time. Despite a long and complicated history, the band has survived dysfunction on a scale that would see many others implode, and remains a perennial favourite across generations. Formed in...

Celebrate of the history and significance of both the Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster for the company's 75th anniversary in this combined edition of Dave Hunter's two best-selling books! The Fender Telecaster, created in Les Fender's Fullerton,...

Nicholas Kenyon explores the enduring appeal of the classical canon at a moment when we can access all music-across time and cultures"Nicholas Kenyon is an amiable and enthusiastic guide to a thousand years of classical music."-Neil Fisher, The Times"A...

As countries went into lockdown in 2020, people turned to music for comfort and solidarity. Neighbours sang to each other from their balconies; people participated in online music sessions that created an experience of socially distanced togetherness...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781901447408Author Colin HarperFormat PaperbackPage Count 425Imprint Cherry Red BooksPublisher Cherry Red BooksWeight(grams) 659g

Have you ever been carried away by a piece of classical music? In this funny, evocative, personal book, previously published as 'Music for the People: The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Classical Music', Gareth takes us on a journey of musical discovery that...

Renaissance, a much beloved but highly underrated English progressive rock band, began life in 1969 as an offshoot of The Yardbirds. Keith Relf and Jim McCarty, who had recently left that iconic blues-rock group, decided to put together a new band that...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780262517959Author Steve GoodmanFormat PaperbackPage Count 296Imprint MIT PressPublisher MIT Press LtdWeight(grams) 476gDimensions(mm) 229mm * 178mm * 13mm

The pieces in this album have been selected from several collections of easier piano pieces by this nineteenth-century German composer. Highly romantic and colourful, they are enjoyable to play and provide useful instructional material.ReviewsThey have...

The King's Road in Chelsea was at the epicentre of not one, but two worldwide cultural shifts. In the mid-sixties, it became a focal point and shop window for the new 'swinging' London, encompassing music, theatre, the visual arts, fashion and much more...

Celebrated rock archivist Pete Frame has turned his attention to The Beatles and their contemporaries. Focusing on one of the most exciting periods in British rock history, he has created comprehensive Family Trees for the quintessential groups of the...

Sit back, relax and relive the memories of over 90 more classic albums selected by Tim Burgess from his legendary Listening PartiesIn less than 2 years, tens of thousands of music lovers have pressed play at the same time as legendary musicians to share...

"One day I blew my nose and half my brains came out." Los Angeles, 1976. David Bowie is holed up in his Bel-Air mansion, drifting into drug-induced paranoia and confusion. Obsessed with black magic and the Holy Grail, he's built an altar in the living...

Status Quo are a British institution - a multi-million selling band of epic proportions and while their career was in it's hey day during the 1970s, the hits kept coming through the 1980s along with breakups, lawsuits, line-up changes, substance abuse...

Chart topping-and headline-making-rap artist Eminem shares his private reflections, drawings, handwritten lyrics, and photographs in his New York Times bestseller The Way I Am Fiercely intelligent, relentlessly provocative, and prodigiously gifted,...

Comprised of fans' anecdotes, photographs, personal stories and momentos, the contributors' stories reconstruct the entire history of Beatlemania in America, dating from the earliest whispers about the group to the present day. The stories range from...