Music (50)

HIP-HOP (AND OTHER THINGS) is about, as it were, rap, but also some other things. It's a smart, fun, funny, insightful book that spends the entirety of its time celebrating what has become the most dominant form of music these past two and a half decades. Tupac is in there. Jay Z is in there. Missy Elliott is in there. Drake is in there. Pretty much all of the big names are in there, as are a bunch of the smaller names, too. There's art from acclaimed illustrator Arturo Torres, there are infographics and footnotes; there's all kinds of stuff in there. Some of the chapters are serious, and some of the chapters are silly, and some of the chapters are a combination of both things. All of them, though, are treated with the care and respect that they deserve. HIP-HOP (AND OTHER THINGS) is the third book in the (And Other Things) series. The first two—Basketball (And Other Things) and Movies (And Other Things)—were both #1 New York Times bestsellers.

Expanded for the occasion of ZZ Top’s 50th anniversary, Billy F Gibbons: Rock + Roll Gearhead throws wide Gibbons’ garage and studio doors for an exclusive look at his exquisite collection of cars and guitars.Love cars, guitars, and ZZ Top? This visually stunning tour through this Grade-A Texas gearhead's weird, wild life, vintage and way-out custom guitars, and influential hot rods and custom cars is mandatory education.From the near-mythical ’59 Les Paul sunburst known as “Pearly Gates” and the “Furry One” of MTV renown to cars like the Eliminator, CadZZilla, and Kopperhed, they’re all here—more than 60 guitars and 15 astounding vehicles, all expounded upon by BFG himself and shown in commissioned color and artistic black-and-white photography. Cars and guitars that have made their way to light since the book's first publication in 2005 are included: Cars: Mexican Blackbird 1958 Thunderbird Quintana ’50 Ford Custom El Camino Grocery-Getter custom Whiskey Runner '34 Ford Coupe ’51 Willys Wagon Guitars: Party Peelers John Bolin Customs Neiman Marcus BFG SG Nacho Telecaster John Bolin "Think Buck" T-style Mexican Blackbird solidbody Mojo Maker Tone Bender Zemaitis custom Marconi Lab Guitar 1929 Dixie Ukelele 1939 Rickenbacker Frying Pan …and more!While BFG’s cars ’n’ guitars are the stuff of legend, no less intriguing are the tales behind his incredible music career. From teenage Houston garage rocker to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the whole story is between these covers, told in the Good Reverend Willie G’s own words and illustrated with photos and memorabilia from his personal archive.As with many rockers, Billy F Gibbons' jones for hot rods and customs is the stuff of legend. But beyond this bona fide bluesman's mastery of the six-string and unrepentant love for internal combustion is a noted collector whose own designs have manifested themselves in hundreds of mind-bending cars and guitars. This is the definitive and official record of that genius.

Andrew Schulman, a fifty-seven-year-old professional guitarist, had a close brush with death on the night of July 16, 2009. Against the odds - and with the help of music - he survived: a medical miracle.Once fully recovered, Andrew resolved to use his musical gifts to help critically ill patients at Mount Sinai Beth Israel’s ICU. In Waking the Spirit, you’ll learn the astonishing stories of the people he’s met along the way - both patients and doctors - and see the incredible role music can play in a modern hospital setting.Schulman expertly weaves cutting-edge research on neuroscience and medicine, as well as what he’s learned as a professional musician, to explore the power of music to heal the body and awaken the spirit.

“A hot-rod joy ride through mid-20th-century American history” (The New York Times Book Review), this one-of-a-kind narrative masterfully recreates the rivalry between the two men who innovated the electric guitar’s amplified sound - Leo Fender and Les Paul - and their intense competition to convince rock stars like the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton to play the instruments they built.In the years after World War II, music was evolving from big-band jazz into rock ’n’ roll - and these louder styles demanded revolutionary instruments. When Leo Fender’s tiny firm marketed the first solid-body electric guitar, the Esquire, musicians immediately saw its appeal. Not to be out-maneuvered, Gibson, the largest guitar manufacturer, raced to build a competitive product. The company designed an “axe” that would make Fender’s Esquire look cheap and convinced Les Paul - whose endorsement Leo Fender had sought - to put his name on it. Thus was born the guitar world’s most heated rivalry: Gibson versus Fender, Les versus Leo.While Fender was a quiet, half-blind, self-taught radio repairman, Paul was a brilliant but headstrong pop star and guitarist who spent years toying with new musical technologies. Their contest turned into an arms race as the most inventive musicians of the 1950s and 1960s - including bluesman Muddy Waters, rocker Buddy Holly, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton - adopted one maker’s guitar or another. By 1969 it was clear that these new electric instruments had launched music into a radical new age, empowering artists with a vibrancy and volume never before attainable.

From the creator of the popular rock 'n' roll true crime podcast Disgraceland comes an off-kilter, hysterical, at times macabre book of stories from the highly entertaining underbelly of music history.You may know Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin, but did you know he shot his bass player in the chest with a shotgun or that a couple of his wives died under extremely mysterious circumstances? Or that Sam Cooke was shot dead in a seedy motel after barging into the manager's office naked to attack her? Maybe not. Would it change your view of him if you knew that, or would your love for his music triumph?Real rock stars do truly insane thing and invite truly insane things to happen to them: murder, drug trafficking, rape, cannibalism and the occult. We allow this behavior. We are complicit because a rock star behaving badly is what's expected. It's baked into the cake. Deep down, way down, past all of our self-righteous notions of justice and right and wrong, when it comes down to it, we want our rock stars to be bad. We know the music industry is full of demons, ones that drove Elvis Presley, Phil Spector, and Sid Vicious and that consumed the Norwegian black metal scene. We want to believe in the myths because they're so damn entertaining.Disgraceland is a collection of the best of these stories about some of the music world's most beloved stars and their crimes. It will mix all-new, untold stories with expanded stories from the first two seasons of the Disgraceland podcast. Using figures we already recognize, Disgraceland shines a light into the dark corners of their fame, revealing the fine line that separates heroes and villains as well as the danger Americans seek out in their news cycles, tabloids, reality shows, and soap operas. At the center of this collection of stories is the ever-fascinating music industry - a glittery stage populated by gangsters, drug dealers, pimps, and groupies, with violence, scandal, and pure unadulterated rock 'n' roll entertainment.

Iconic and never-before-seen images of punk and post punk's quintessential bands.Photographer and filmmaker Michael Grecco was in the thick of things, documenting the club scene in places like Boston and New York, and getting shots on- and backstage with bands such as The Cramps, Dead Kennedys, Talking Heads, Human Sexual Response, Elvis Costello, Joan Jett, the Ramones, and many others. Grecco captured in black and white and color the raw energy, sweat, and antics that characterized the alternative music of the time. Punk, Post Punk, New Wave: Onstage, Backstage, In Your Face, 1978–1991 features stunning, never-before-seen photography from this iconic period in music. In addition to concert photography, he also shot album covers and promotional pieces that round out this impressively extensive photo collection. Featuring a foreword from Fred Schneider of the B-52’s, Punk, Post Punk, New Wave is a quintessential piece of music history for anyone looking for backstage access into the careers of punk and post punk’s most beloved bands.

The first definitive book from hip-hop's original dynasty, for the hard-core Wu-Tang disciple and the recent initiate alike.

Ed Ward covers the first half of the history of rock & roll in this sweeping and definitive narrative - from the 1920s, when the music of rambling medicine shows mingled with the songs of vaudeville and minstrel acts to create the very early sounds of country and rhythm and blues, to the rise of the first independent record labels post-World War II, and concluding in December 1963, just as an immense change in the airwaves took hold and the Beatles prepared for their first American tour. The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 1 shines a light on the far corners of the genre to reveal the stories behind the hugely influential artists who changed the musical landscape forever.In this first volume of a two-part series, Ward shares his endless depth of knowledge and through engrossing storytelling hops seamlessly from Memphis to Chicago, Detroit, England, New York, and everywhere in between. He covers the trajectories of the big name acts like Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, and Ray Charles, while also filling in gaps of knowledge and celebrating forgotten heroes such as the Burnette brothers, the “5” Royales, and Marion Keisker, Sam Phillips’s assistant, who played an integral part in launching Elvis’s career.For all music lovers and rock & roll fans, Ward spins story after story of some of the most unforgettable and groundbreaking moments in rock history, introducing us along the way to the musicians, DJs, record executives, and producers who were at the forefront of the genre and had a hand in creating the music we all know and love today.

For better or worse, Wagner is the most widely influential figure in the history of music. Around 1900, the phenomenon known as Wagnerism saturated European and American culture. Such colossal creations as The Ring of the Nibelung, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal were models of formal daring, mythmaking, erotic freedom, and mystical speculation. A mighty procession of artists, including Virginia Woolf, Thomas Mann, Paul Cézanne, Isadora Duncan, and Luis Buñuel, felt his impact. Anarchists, occultists, feminists, and gay-rights pioneers saw him as a kindred spirit. Then Adolf Hitler incorporated Wagner into the soundtrack of Nazi Germany, and the composer came to be defined by his ferocious antisemitism. For many, his name is now almost synonymous with artistic evil.In Wagnerism, Alex Ross restores the magnificent confusion of what it means to be a Wagnerian. A pandemonium of geniuses, madmen, charlatans, and prophets do battle over Wagner’s many-sided legacy. As readers of his brilliant articles for The New Yorker have come to expect, Ross ranges thrillingly across artistic disciplines, from the architecture of Louis Sullivan to the novels of Philip K. Dick, from the Zionist writings of Theodor Herzl to the civil-rights essays of W.E.B. Du Bois, from O Pioneers! to Apocalypse Now.In many ways, Wagnerism tells a tragic tale. An artist who might have rivaled Shakespeare in universal reach is undone by an ideology of hate. Still, his shadow lingers over twenty-first century culture, his mythic motifs coursing through superhero films and fantasy fiction. Neither apologia nor condemnation, Wagnerism is a work of passionate discovery, urging us toward a more honest idea of how art acts in the world.

Celebrate all the best-loved musicals from the stage and silver screen, from dance halls and vaudeville shows to the greatest Broadway productions. Immerse yourself in the behind-the-scenes world of musical theater, and fall in love all over again with the songs, stories, characters, and legendary stars from every era.

A gorgeous compendium of Joni Mitchell’s handwritten lyrics and drawings, originally handcrafted as a gift for a select group of friends in 1971 and now available to the public for the first time.

Whether you're a new student or an intermediate musician, understanding music theory takes significant time and effort. But learning more about the music you love doesn't have to be a challenge! This updated handbook is a complete guide to mastering the important tools you'll need to read, play, and comprehend music. It's a total educational package, with a helpful audio CD, hundreds of illustrations, and challenging practical exercises.You will learn:• How chords and scales are constructed• How rhythm works and how to understand complex time signatures• How to identify a key and how keys are organized• How composers and musicians think about songwritingEach clear, easy-to-understand chapter includes several Etudes. These focused practice exercises test and reinforce your newfound understanding of music theory. So grab a pencil, tune your instrument, and become a better musician - without missing a beat!

It's no secret that Beethoven went deaf, that Mozart had constant money problems, and that Gilbert and Sullivan wrote musicals. But what were these people—and other famous musicians—really like? What did they eat? What did they wear? How did they spend their time? And—possibly most interesting of all—what did their neighbors think?Discover the fascinating and often humorous stories of twenty famous musicians—people of all shapes, sizes, temperaments, and lifestyles, from various countries and historical periods. Beginning with Vivaldi and ending with Woodie Guthrie, Lives of the Musicians brings musical history to life!

Stevie Nicks is a legend of rock, but her energy and magnetism sparked new interest in this icon. At 68, she's one of the most glamorous creatures rock has known, and the rare woman who's a real rock ‘n' roller.Gold Dust Woman gives "the gold standard of rock biographers" (The Boston Globe) his ideal topic: Nicks' work and life are equally sexy and interesting, and Davis delves deeply into each, unearthing fresh details from new, intimate interviews and interpreting them to present a rich new portrait of the star. Just as Nicks (and Lindsay Buckingham) gave Fleetwood Mac the "shot of adrenaline" they needed to become real rock stars - according to Christine McVie - Gold Dust Woman is vibrant with stories and with a life lived large and hard:- How Nicks and Buckingham were asked to join Fleetwood Mac and how they turned the band into stars- The affairs that informed Nicks' greatest songs- Her relationships with the Eagles' Don Henley and Joe Walsh, and with Fleetwood himself- Why Nicks married her best friend's widower- Her dependency on cocaine, drinking and pot, but how it was a decade-long addiction to Klonopin that almost killed her- Nicks’ successful solo career that has her still performing in venues like Madison Square Garden- The cult of Nicks and its extension to chart-toppers like Taylor Swift and the Dixie Chicks

In Every Little Step, Brown will for the first time tell the full story of his life and set the record straight, particularly about his relationship with Whitney Houston.