Men, Masculinity and The Beatles (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series) by Martin King 2013 | ISBN: 1409422437 | English | 202 pages | PDF | 2 MB
Drawing on methodologies and approaches from media and cultural studies, sociology, social history and the study of popular music, this book outlines the development of the study of men and masculinities, and explores the role of cultural texts in bringing about social change. It is against this backdrop that The Beatles, as a cultural phenomenon, are set, and their four live action films, spanning the years 1964-1970, are examined as texts through which to read changing representations of men and masculinity in 'the Sixties'. Dr Martin King considers ideas about a male revolt predating second-wave feminism, The Beatles as inheritors of the possibilities of the 1950s and The Beatles' emergence as men of ideas: a global cultural phenomenon that transgressed boundaries and changed expectations about the role of popular artists in society. King further explores the chosen Beatle texts to examine discourses of masculinity at work within them. What emerges is the discovery of discourses around resistance, non-conformity, feminized appearance, pre-metrosexuality, the male star as object of desire, and the emergence of The Beatles themselves as a text that reflected the radical diversity of a period of rapid social change. King draws valuable conclusions about the legacy of these discourses and their impact in subsequent decades.
Ian Inglis, "Performance And Popular Music: History, Place And Time" English | ISBN: 0754640566, 0754640574 | 2006 | PDF | 204 pages | 1 MB
Since the emergence of rock'n'roll in the early 1950s, there have been a number of live musical performances that were not only memorable in themselves, but became hugely influential in the way they shaped the subsequent trajectory and development of popular music. Each, in its own way, introduced new styles, confronted existing practices, shifted accepted definitions, and provided templates for others to follow. "Performance and Popular Music" explores these processes by focusing on some of the specific occasions when such transformations occurred An international array of scholars reveal that it is through the (often disruptive) dynamics of performance - and the interaction between performer and audience - that patterns of musical change and innovation can best be recognised. Through multi-disciplinary analyses, which consider the history, place and time of each event, the performances are located within their social and professional contexts, and their immediate and long-term musical consequences considered. From the Beatles and Bob Dylan to Michael Jackson and Madonna, from Woodstock and Monterey to Altamont and Live Aid, this book provides an indispensable assessment of the importance of live performance in the practice of popular music, and an essential guide to some of the key moments in its history.
Kraftwerk: Man, Machine and Music by Pascal Bussy English | Oct 2000 | ISBN: 0946719098 | 200 Pages | PDF | 75 MB
A German band invented the sound of humans and machines making love. Formed by Ralf H?tter and Florian Schneider in 1970, D?sseldorf's Kraftwerk ("power plant") pioneered electronic dance music before Madonna got her first training bra and trusted technology (i.e., the drum machine) before the personal computer. These studies are the first in America to document Kraftwerk's impact. Barr, music commentator for The Face and Dazed & Confused, argues that the German foursome (Wolfgang Fl?r joined in 1973, Karl Bartos in 1975) was the first band since the Beatles to revolutionize popular culture with what started as a backbeat. To prove this, the book opens with Kraftwerk's rapturous comeback at Tribal Gathering '97Aan all-night electro-hop in the English countryside. The same summer, bands influenced by Kraftwerk finally gained popular acceptance and achieved buzz bin status on MTV. After careful consideration of the band's avant-garde mentors, Barr makes another convincing case: in 1977, David Bowie's Low and Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange set the stage for Kraftwerk's first masterstroke, Trans-Europe Express. Barr must love to dance, because his narrative rises and falls like the best dance singles. Bussy, founder of an avant-garde record label, covers the same milestones with a more cerebral style and with one great advantage: H?tter, Schneider, Fl?r, and BartosAnotorious for their silenceAgranted Bussy interviews. The result: more specific explanations of artistic philosophies, recording processes, and the creative differences that caused Fl?r and Bartos to quit in the mid-1980s. Both titles are essential for popular music collections.
Break on through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison By James Riordan, Jerry Prochnicky 1992 | 544 Pages | ISBN: 0688119158 | EPUB + MOBI | 2 MB + 3 MB
Thirty-five years after his death in Paris at age twenty-seven, Jim Morrison's iconic legend remains as powerful as ever, swathed in the mists of mystery. There have been numerous biographies about the self-proclaimed "Lizard King's" life and career. But none have examined his roots and childhood, the intellectual foundations of his music, his wild days with the Doors, and his enigmatic early death as completely and insightfully as Break On Through.
More than simply a fascinating look at a rock legend whose cult following never stops growing, here is the definitive Morrison biography: his angry relationship with his father; the early tragedies and terrible events responsible for the darkness of his artistic vision; his private life and legal trials, including his infamous Miami obscenity bust; and the truth about his final hours. Based on extensive research and featuring dozens of rarely published photographs, this is the authoritative portrait of the poet, the grim visionary, the haunted man, and his haunting music.
Chas Newkey-Burden, "Adele: The Biography" English | ISBN: 1468303538, 1843586770 | 2012 | EPUB | 288 pages | 2,1 MB
Adele's soulful voice, catchy hits, and vulnerable personality have won her critical acclaim and widespread popularity. She has topped the charts in 18 countries and swept the top awards at the 2012 Grammys—but who is she? How has her tempestuous life that influenced her heartbreaking tracks? How did she overcome the challenges that threatened to derail her career?
In Adele, veteran celebrity biographer Chas Newkey-Burden traces her story from her childhood in London, where she began singing at the age of four. During her teenage years she wrote her own music and attended the BRIT school, alongside the likes of Leona Lewis. After posting demos on her MySpace webpage, she earned a record deal and quickly captured hearts.
Adele remains an unlikely icon. Her looks are unusual in a formulaic world of celebrity image, she suffers badly with pre-stage nerves, and she once canceled a crucial promotional trip to the U.S. because she felt too down to travel. This is a full, unflinching portrait of a genuine talent and inspiring, uncompromising woman—the curvy girl next door who conquered the world.
Aretha Franklin: Singer (Black Americans of Achievement) by Heather Lehr Wagner English | August 2010 | ISBN: 1604137126 | 97 pages | PDF | 2,9 MB
One of the giants of American music, Aretha Franklin has released more hit singles than any other female singer in recording history. Dubbed the "Queen of Soul," she has recorded numerous successful albums in a wide range of genres, including gospel, rhythm and blues, American standards, and pop. In 1987, she became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Aretha Franklin's life story is an inspiring account of the evolution of popular music, of a woman determined to shape her career on her terms, and of a child prodigy whose voice continues to thrill and amaze audiences. Read about this remarkable musical pioneer, from her struggles to her successes, and how she continues to influence new generations of singers in Aretha Franklin: Singer.
Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues, Third Edition by Steve Cheseborough English | Sep 10, 2008 | ISBN: 1604731249 | 256 Pages | PDF | 5,8 MB
At a crossroads in the Mississippi Delta, Robert Johnson is said to have sold his soul to the Devil so that he could become a guitar virtuoso and King of the Delta Blues.
Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues will tell you where that legendary deal was supposed to have been made and guide you to all the other hallowed grounds that nourished Mississippi's signature music.
Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, Memphis Minnie, Jimmie Rodgers, Bessie Smith, Muddy Waters, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Howlin' Wolf, B. B. King, Little Milton, Elvis Presley, Bobby Rush, Junior Kimbrough, R. L. Burnside-the list of great artists with Mississippi connections goes on and on.
A trip through Mississippi blues sites is a pilgrimage every music lover ought to make at least once in a lifetime, to see the juke joints and churches, to visit the birthplaces and graves of blues greats, to walk down the dusty roads and over the levee, to eat some barbecue and greens, to sit on the bank of the Mississippi River, and to hear some down-home blues music.
Blues Traveling is the first and only guidebook to Mississippi's musical places and blues history. With photographs, maps, easy-to-follow directions, and an informative, entertaining text, this book will lead you in and out of Clarksdale, Greenwood, Helena (Arkansas), Rolling Fork, Jackson, Natchez, Bentonia, Rosedale, Itta Bena, and dozens of other locales that generations of blues musicians have lived in, traveled through, and sung about. Stories, legends, and lyrics are woven into the text so that each backroad and barroom comes alive.
Touring Mississippi with Blues Traveling is like having a knowledgeable and entertaining guide at your side. Even people with no immediate plans to visit Mississippi will enjoy reading the book for its photos, descriptions, and lore that will broaden their understanding and enhance their appreciation of the blues.
Steve Cheseborough is an independent scholar and blues musician. His work has been published in Living Blues, Blues Access, Mississippi, and the Southern Register.5,8
Scotty Moore and James L. Dickerson, "Scotty and Elvis: Aboard the Mystery Train" English | ISBN: 1617037915, 1617038180 | 2013 | 298 pages | PDF | 4 MB
The true life story of Elvis's original guitarist, the masterful Scotty Moore When Elvis Presley first showed up at Sam Phillips's Memphis-based Sun Records studio, he was a shy teenager in search of a sound. Phillips invited a local guitarist named Scotty Moore to stand in. Scotty listened carefully to the young singer and immediately realized that Elvis had something special. Along with bass player Bill Black, the trio recorded an old blues number called "That's All Right, Mama." It turned out to be Elvis's first single and the defining record of his early style, with a trilling guitar hook that swirled country and blues together and minted a sound with unforgettable appeal. Its success launched a whirlwind of touring, radio appearances, and Elvis's first break into movies. Scotty was there every step of the way as both guitarist and manager, until Elvis's new manager, Colonel Tom Parker, pushed him out. Scotty and Elvis would not perform together again until the classic 1968 "comeback" television special. Scotty never saw Elvis after that. With both Bill Black and Elvis gone, Scotty Moore is the only one left to tell the story of how Elvis and Scotty transformed popular music and how Scotty created the sound that became a prototype for so many rock guitarists to follow. Thoroughly updated, this edition delivers guitarist Scotty Moore's story as never before. Scotty Moore, Nashville, Tennessee, is the sole survivor of the Sun Records sessions of July 1954 during which he, Elvis Presley, and Bill Black, with Sam Phillips at the engineering sound board, blended country and blues into a new art form that would shake up American culture for decades to come. James L. Dickerson, Jackson, Mississippi, is a freelance author and journalist who has published dozens of books.
Kate Bush and Hounds of Love (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series) by Ron Moy English | Sep 30, 2007 | ISBN: 0754657914 | 148 Pages | PDF | 0.5 MB
Kate Bush is widely respected as one of the most unique solo female performers to have ever emerged in the field of popular music. She has achieved that rare combination of great commercial success and critical acclaim, with "Hounds of Love" considered widely to be her masterpiece. The album regularly features in 'best album' lists, and in the 2004 Observer poll was the highest placed work by a solo female artist. The album allows the author, Ron Moy, the critical opportunity to explore a wide range of issues relating to technology, production, authorship, grain of the voice, iconography, critical and commercial impact, collaboration, gender, sexuality, narrative, and social and cultural context.
George Harrison - The Dark Horse Years 1976-1992 by George Harrison English | July 1, 2005 | ISBN: 0634095595 | 312 Pages | PDF | 31,2 MB
(Piano/Vocal/Guitar Artist Songbook). 55 songs from Harrison's record label, including: 1. Breath Away from Heaven 2. Got My Mind Set on You 3. Just for Today 4. That's the Way It Goes 5. This Is Love 6. When We Was Fab and more...
In the Houses of the Holy: Led Zeppelin and the Power of Rock Music by Susan Fast English | Sep 20, 2001 | ISBN: 0195117565 | 272 Pages | PDF | 16 MB
This volume examines the powerful ways in which identity can be shaped by rock music. Through the music, imagery and discourse surrounding one of the most innovative and commercially successful rock bands ever, Susan Fast probes such issues as constructions of gender and sexuality, the creation of myth and the use of ritual, the appropriation of Eastern musics and the blues, the physicality of the music, and the use of the body in performance. The band's influence is examined through socially-situated musical analysis, as well as an ethnographic study of Led Zeppelin fans. Fast draws on academic and journalistic writing as well as a new interview with band member John Paul Jones. Specific pieces examined include "Dazed and Confused," "Kashmir," "Stairway to Heaven," and "Whole Lotta Love."
Увлекательная и драматическая история, написанная музыкальным критиком The New Yorker Алексом Россом, охватывает весь XX век – из Вены до Первой мировой войны в Париж двадцатых, из гитлеровской Германии и сталинской России в нью-йоркский даунтаун шестидесятых – семидесятых, из Пекина наших дней в увлеченную экспериментами Европу.
Книга Росса – это виртуозный проводник по лабиринту музыкальных стилей, который не только укажет путь, но и поведает о самых известных композиторах XX века и связи их произведений с окружающей действительностью. «Дальше – шум» – удивительная летопись XX века, пересказанная с помощью музыки.
Название: Дальше – шум. Слушая ХХ век Автор: Росс А. Издательство: Corpus (АСТ) ISBN: 978-5-17-086985-5 Год: 2007 Страниц: 800 Язык: русский Формат: pdf
Let's Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain by Alan Light 2014 | ISBN: 1476776725 | English | 304 pages | EPUB | 0.35 MB
From the former senior editor of Rolling Stone and author of The Holy or the Broken, called “thoughtful and illuminating” by The New York Times, a new book on the unlikely coming-to-be of Prince’s now legendary album.
Purple Rain is a song, an album, and a film—each one a commercial success and cultural milestone. How did this semi-autobiographical musical masterpiece that blurred R&B, pop, dance, and rock sounds come to alter the recording landscape and become an enduring touchstone for successive generations of fans?
Purple Rain is widely considered to be among the most important albums in music history and often named the best soundtrack of all time. It sold over a million copies in its first week and blasted to #1 on the charts, where it would remain for a full six months and eventually sell over 20 million copies worldwide. It spun off three huge hit singles, won Grammys and an Oscar, and took Prince from pop star to legend.
Coinciding with the thirtieth anniversary year of Purple Rain’s release, acclaimed music journalist Alan Light takes a timely look at the making and incredible popularizing of this once seemingly impossible project. With impeccable research and in-depth interviews with people who witnessed Prince’s audacious vision becoming a reality, Light reveals how a rising but not yet established artist from the Midwest was able not only to get Purple Rain made, but deliver on his promise to conquer the world.
Covering - the musical practice of one artist recording or performing another composer's song - has always been an attribute of popular music. In 2009, the internet database Second Hand Songs estimated that there are 40,000 songs with at least one cover version. Some of the more common variations of this 'appropriationist' method of musical quotation include traditional forms such as patriotic anthems, religious hymns such as Amazing Grace, Muzak's instrumental interpretations, Christmas classics and children's songs. Novelty and comedy collections from parodists such as Weird Al Yankovic also align in the cover category, as does the 'larcenous art' of sampling, and technological variations in dance remixes and mash-ups. Film and television soundtracks and advertisers increasingly rely on versions of familiar pop tunes to assist in marketing their narratives and products. The cover phenomenon in popular culture may be viewed as a postmodern manifestation in music as artists revisit, reinterpret and re-examine a significant cross section of musical styles, periods, genres, individual records and other artists and their catalogues of works. Covering also embraces cultural, commercial and creative contexts. The cover complex, with its multiple variations, issues, contexts and re-contextualizations comprises an important and rich popular culture text. These re-recordings represent artifacts which embody artistic, social, cultural, historical, commercial, biographical, and novel meanings. Through homage, allusion, apprenticeship, and parody, among other modes, these diverse musical quotations express, preserve, and distribute popular culture, popular music and their intersecting historical narratives. "Play it Again" represents the first collection of critical perspectives on the many facets of cover songs in popular music.
Jimi Hendrix: The Stories Behind Every Song (Stories Behind the Songs)
Jimi Hendrix was one of the greatest solo guitarists of all time, and the supreme physical and musical emblem of rock and the 60s cultural revolution. With a theatrical sexuality, Hendrix wrought a molten and massive body of sound that remains awe-inspiring and influential. This Behind the Songs volume pays tribute to his entire body of work, from Are You Experienced? to posthumous releases and studio outtakes.
Pop Culture Russia!: Media, Arts, and Lifestyle (Popular Culture in the Contemporary World)
Pop music is only one aspect of contemporary Russian culture that has taken some unexpected turns in the chaotic aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse. Television and advertising, theater and cinema, athletics and religion, even fashion and food now reflect more exposure to the West, yet remain in essence distinctively Russian.
Pop Culture Russia! introduces readers to the fascinating, often surprising, post-Soviet cultural landscape. With chapters on media, the arts, recreation, religion, and consumerism, the book offers an insightful survey of Russian mass culture from the death of Stalin in 1953 to the present, exploring the historical significance of important events and trends, as well as the social and political contexts from which they emerged.
Led Zeppelin on Led Zeppelin: Interviews and Encounters (Musicians in Their Own Words)
There are lots of wild stories about Led Zeppelin—some true, some false. Led Zeppelin on Led Zeppelin dishes up the facts, in the band’s own words, as they saw them. It shoots down the folklore and assumptions about Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham and presents the band’s full history, from when Jimmy Page was playing skiffle to the day the band was honored by the Kennedy Center for their contribution to American and global culture. Any band is an amalgam of the players, but in very special cases, those players form an entity unto itself. Led Zeppelin on Led Zeppelin captures the ideas of all of the band’s members at the time they created classics like “Whole Lotta Love,” “Stairway to Heaven,” and “Kashmir” but also encapsulates the idea of the band itself as it crafted the music that changed pop culture. In the process, the book offers insight into what made Led Zeppelin tick—and what made it the most popular band in the world. In a series of over fifty interviews from 1957 to 2012, many never before seen in print, this is the story of Led Zeppelin, as it happened, told by the people who knew it best—the members of the band.
Woodstock Revisited: 50 Far Out, Groovy, Peace-Loving, Flashback-Inducing Stories From Those Who Were There
This collection contains fifty stories written by people who attended the original Woodstock Festival in 1969. Since all the books that preceded it have focused on the musicians, promoters, and staff, this book will be the first one that chronicles the audience?s experience in an up close and personal way. This book documents the event itself, but also provides a mesmerizing portrait of America as that tumultuous decade came to a close. It is nostalgic, historical, and a fascinating read that will appeal to all Baby Boomers, their offspring, and anyone who wonders what it was really like?and what became of all those ?hippies.?
On Some Faraway Beach: The Life and Times of Brian Eno
For some a pretentious art-school type who produces 'instrumental doodles' or 'jazz that nobody asked for' for others a lightning rod or touchstone for directions in popular music and culture over the last four decades. Whichever, what's certain is that Brian Eno's address book is a who's who of rock and pop of the last thirty years. A founder member of Roxy Music, he's worked with everyone from Talking Heads and U2 to Pavarotti and David Bowie and is often billed as the founding father of ambient music. A witty and unconventional thinker, ten years ago he had considerable success with A Year With Swollen Appendices, his diary of 1995. He continues to release his own records, frequently appears as a cultural commentator and produces records for the likes of David Bowie and U2. While presently he's too busy presenting the Turner prize, organising concerts for the Stop the War coalition or being a sonic alchemist for others to sit down and write his own autobiography, this book is being written with his co-operation and access to all those who've worked with him.
"British Rock Modernism, 1967-1977" explains how the definitive British rock performers of this epoch aimed, not at the youthful rebellion for which they are legendary, but at a highly self-conscious project of commenting on the business in which they were engaged. They did so by ironically appropriating the traditional forms of Victorian music hall. Faulk focuses on the mid to late 1960s, when British rock bands who had already achieved commercial prominence began to aspire to aesthetic distinction. The book discusses recordings such as the "Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour" album, the "Kinks' The Village Green Preservation Society", and the "Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks", "Here's the Sex Pistols", and television films such as the "Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour" and the "Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus" that defined rock's early high art moment. Faulk argues that these 'texts' disclose the primary strategies by which British rock groups, mostly comprised of young working and lower middle class men, made their bid for aesthetic merit by sampling music hall sounds. The result was a symbolically charged form whose main purpose was to unsettle the hierarchy that set traditional popular culture above the new medium. Rock groups engaged with the music of the past in order both to demonstrate the comparative vitality of the new form and signify rock's new art status, compared to earlier British pop music. "British Rock Modernism" also sets the notion of authenticity in a broader context as well, encompassing in this case the revival of the traditional male artist-hero celebrated by British modernist literature. Situating rock in the more extensive history of modern British musical production offers insight into the gendered division of labour that still frames the reception of British popular music. As demonstrated in the opening chapter, focusing on key women singers of the 1960s, the music hall legacy is partly responsible for both privileging male rock groups with the mantle of artist, and with burdening women with stereotypes that relegated women performers to the status of mere 'entertainers'.