Product Description
Twenty years ago, SPIN magazine began with the promise to feature uncompromising writing about the music that was turning on/freaking out the Reagan generation. Through the introduction of MTV and the alternative rock revolution, it's been many things. Rude. Brilliant. Soulful. Snotty. Angry. Delirious.

In the past two decades, genres have spawned like mad, from goth, indie rock, and gangsta rap to emo and the garage rock revival. This twentieth-anniversary tribute celebrates the passion and fury of the music, with original essays, quotes, and photographs by contributors who are as hopelessly obsessed with it as you are.

SPIN: 20 Years of Alternative Music features: Alan Light on Beastie Boys, Ann Powers on U2, Charles Aaron on R.E.M., Dave Eggers on The Smiths + Morrissey, Marc Spitz on Goth, Simon Reynolds on Depeche Mode + Synth-pop, Dave Itzkoff on ’80s Teen Movies, Chuck Klosterman on Weezer, Will Hermes on Radiohead, Neil Strauss on Nine Inch Nails + Industrial, Sacha Jenkins on Public Enemy, Andy Greenwald on Emo, RJ Smith on Gangsta Rap, Jon Dolan on The White Stripes, Chris Norris on Nirvana, Doug Brod on Oasis + Britpop, Jim DeRogatis on Smashing Pumpkins, Laura Sinagra on Courtney Love, Ta-Nehisi Coates on Tupac ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Madonna? Alternative? This book is NOT about alternative rock!
Since when does an unoriginal who has simply trend hopped and who has spawned more talentless airheads in her own image than one can role call and who has countless top ten hits, qualify as "alternative?" Someone at SPIN was obviously trying to kiss madonna's masculine behind because there is absolutely no reason for her to be mentioned in this rambling, misguided attempt at covering the alternative music scene of the late 80's to 90's. Ani diFranco, Courney Love, L7, Bikini Kill and PJ Harvey yes. madonna, a resounding no. This just proves that SPIN was a "madonna magazine" largely. No thanks!

Finally, a non-pop music book for the twenty-somethings of today
I have been reading SPIN magazine off and on since I picked up my first issue at age 15.It has been one of the more compelling periodicals available about music that tends to adhere to a non-biased approach that all journalists claim but none practice.
When I heard of a book from SPIN commemorating 20 years in the alternative music scene I was very excited.When I bought and read this book I was even more thoroughly pleased.
Mixing big name staying-power acts lie Prince and Modonna with live-in-the-moment scenes/groups like Nirvana and NWA, this book finally gives a great perspective on music and it's effect on American culture, just like SPIN magazine has been striving to do for decades (but not always succeeding).
I felt it covered all pertinent points of alternative music throughout the past several years and was well informative on music movements that I had missed out on.
I especially enjoyed reading about hip-hop legends like Run DMC, Public Enemy, NWA, and Tupac as I can be easily classified as a southern white boy sheltered from the extremities of rap music.
I also enjoyed the essays written about outside-music influences like ecstasy, heroin, and MTV (all equally mind-numbing)
Things I did not like was the fixation on Nine Inch Nails as the sole pioneers of industrial music (have we never heard of Ministry, KMFDM, or My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult).Also thought the piece on Radiohead was a bit much, I think they can easily be classified into Britpop along with Blur and Oasis.
This is definitely a great read, something new at each turn of the page to fuel both excitement and nostalgia.

excellent overview of the mag's first 20 years
i just got this the other day and have already spent a fair amount of time browsing thru it.sure it would have been great to have collected the best articles from the last 20 years; howeverthe problem with that (and something the book acknowledges) is sometimes what is viewed at the time as important and groundbreaking turns out to have been not such a big deal.the great thing about this book is the advantage of perspective, being able to go back and identify what really turned out to have been influential and then weeding out the chaff.in the appendix section the editors show some magazine covers that in retrospect demonstrate that sometimes the "next big thing" often ends up in the "where are they now file" ie Lisa Stansfield, Creed, etc.

i found the book to be immensely readable, one you can pick up and start anywhere, jump to whatever interests you, and even learn about music or artists that at the time you didn't care about.

a great book about a great magazine, and should be of interest to any music fan, especially one like myself who when i was younger read SPIN religiously.

Interesting in parts, but often almost impenetrable prose
Spin: 20 Years of Alternative Music is certainly interesting in parts (I enjoyed the bits about Courtney Love, Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, Foo Fighters, etc.), but my God the prose is almost impenetrable! These writers seem to know little about creating a flowing sentence. Run-on sentences abound. And many sentences are filled with so many asides that I was left glassy-eyed after one paragraph. Information dense and pretentious prose!

I was also very surprised by the inclusion of Madonna in this book. I love Madonna, but since when is the biggest selling female artist of all time an "alternative" act?

Could've Been Better
When I read that this was coming out, I was pretty excited, because there have been some amazing articles in Spin over the past 20 years.I thought that it would be a compilation of some of the best articles that they had published.

Instead, it's new writing on various topics and artists, with snippets of what I consider the classic articles thrown in.It's frustrating to read the R.E.M. chapter, for instance, and see two--and only two--paragraphs from an article from 1987 that you remember being really good.

Even so, it's still a somewhat interesting book.I just feel that if it had included all of content of some of the classic articles, it could've been so much better. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a dynamic collection of twenty-four social songs, dances, and flute songs. Also included are several guided listening experiences and instructions for making traditional and contemporary instruments. This collection is the culmination of years of exploration by Bryan Burton, who is of Caddo, Choctaw, and European descent. Included are pieces from the Pueblo, Lakota, Kiowa, Nanticoke, Hidatsa, Haliwa-Saponi, and Seneca people among others. Each selection was taught directly to Bryan Burton by group members. This well rounded collection blends the old with the new. From ceremonial pieces to American Indian rock, the songs presented here are heard at intertribal pow wows, cultural centers, and blasting from radios. Appropriate for use with students in grades K-12, college music education classes, ethnomusicology and Native American Studies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Incorrect author information
Bryan Burton is the sole author of this text Phyllis whoever should NOT be listed as a co-author. I am reporting this issue to the publisher, World Music Press for appropriate action. ... Read more

Product Description
In 1932 Florence Reece, the wife of a Kentucky coal miner, wrote one of the classic topical songs preserved in the folk musical revival. The song, "Which Side Are You On?," contrasts the lot of the working class and the bosses, and asks the listener to choose. This politically charged song was performed again during the Civil Rights Movement, with its lyrics appropriate to the 1960s. It was recorded more recently by Billy Bragg. Indeed, the story of this song might serve as a microcosm of the entire history of the folk music revival.

Dick Weissman, former member of the Journeymen and a musician still releasing CDs of his original compositions, brings his personal and professional involvement to this definitive history. Which Side Are You On? includes chapters and sections on the Lomaxes, Harry Smith, the little known Lawrence Gellert, Woody Guthrie, Josh White, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, groups such as the Weavers and the Kingston Trio, Dave Van Ronk, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Natalie Merchant, Ani Difranco, Bela Fleck, Nickel Creek, the Indigo Girls, and many others.

Which Side Are You On? also explores the folk music business in depth: how it all works, where the power really lies, how the artists have been manipulated and often exploited, the dynamic between artist and audience.

Though he writes as a historian, Weissman also has seen it all from the inside, and includes anecdotes that are both funny and poignant: My friend and guitarist-singer Artie Traum took care of one of two houses that Bob Dylan owned in Woodstock, some thirty five years ago. The house had thirty seven rooms! Artie was instructed not to give out Dylan’s phone number to any caller. The first caller was Joan Baez, and Artie followed instructions, calling Dylan at the other house to relay the call. During Artie’s house-sitting chores, I visited him. He took me on a brief tour of the house. In one room were sacks of mail. We randomly opened a half-dozen letters. The one that I remember was by a female fan in North Dakota. She had been to a Dylan concert and reminded him that they had met. There was something touching though pathetic about the letter. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not to be missed by any serious about American popular music history
Dick Weissman worked with the Journeymen and here uses a popular song from the 1930s to fuel chapters discussing the history and culture of American folk music from Joan Baez to Ani DiFanco, Peter Paul and Mary and more. Here are discussions of all the top names in American folk, written with authority because author Weissman is more than a historian here - he was a participant in the folk movement of the times, and adds persona anecdotes about the folk music business and its artists. From pop artists to the re-emergence of female blues singers, Which Side Are You On? An Inside History Of The Folk Music Revival In America is not to be missed by any serious about American popular music history.

A Five-Star Insider's Look At the Folksong Revival
What exactly was the folk song craze?How did it happen?Who was involved?What is its legacy today?
Dick Weissman, a five-string banjo virtuoso formerly of the folk group The Journeymen, is perhaps the first to tackle this complex subject in depth.He takes a hard look at a wide range of topics with sharp observation, unsentimental analysis, and occasional wit.
Weissman, who partly in self-defense has made himself an authority on the music business, uses that insight to get under the skin of folk entertainers like the Weavers, the Kingston Trio and the many lesser-knowns who, in the early 1950s, put together the folk craze.He goes on to take a look at developments as diverse as skiffle amd blugrass, electric folk and fusion.
But he begins much further back:in the late 19th (Francis James Child and the ballads) and early 20th century with Cecil Sharp, the Lomaxes, and the other folk collectors -- including the lesser-known Lawrence Gellert, who pioneered in collecting songs that got even closer to the black experience.He takes us through the Golden Age recordings of early country music and blues, and early protest music, including People's Artists, and how they influenced what we all thought folk music was.From there he traces the route to 1949 and the breakout of the Weavers - culminating in the blacklisting that shut down some folk entertainers including Pete Seeger along with a number of Hollywood's finest.
"Which Side Are You On" takes in a very broad sweep that makes most other books on the subject look narrow.This is probably the first book ever to put side by side in the same context people as disparate as Alan Lomax, Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson, Bill Monroe, cowboy singers and poets, Ewan MacColl, Peter, Paul and Mary, Doc Watson, Laura Nyro, The Band, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Tom Waits, New Age music, newgrass, John Fahey, Eliza Gilkyson, Bruce Springsteen, Nanci Griffith, Paul Simon, Sheryl Crow, Jewel, and 21st century folk pop -- not to mention parallel developments in ethnic music such as Cajun, Zydeco, Canadian, Celtic, Hispanic, American Indian, Hawaiian, children's music (who else covers Raffi?) and more.
That makes this book unique in my estimation.Most writers on folk music carve themselves out a stylistic niche - traditional songs, bluesmen, country musicians, folk-rockers -- and stay within it.Weissman takes the opposite approach, showing how widely folksong has been impacted by developments in popular, ethnic, rock and other forms of music, and how its ways of thinking and performing have been changed by them.The result is a first chance to see the folk scene as a grand parade leading onward into the future, triumphs, foibles and all.
The "folk superstars" are here:Leadbelly.Woody Guthrie.Odetta.Dylan.Phil Ochs.Peter, Paul and Mary.Simon and Garfunkel.Joan Baez.Judy Collins.Joni Mitchell.So are many names that will be new to nearly every reader, with fascinating stories that place them in the ongoing folk thread that winds through American music.Tracing stardom as well as the obscure through the 1970s, 80s and 90s, Weissman brings the story of the folk era up to date with incisive coverage of what the thing we call "folk" means now, today:everything from Ani DiFranco and Nickel Creek to the Dixie Chicks and "O Brother Where Art Thou."
There is astute coverage of trends and backgrounds:Folkways, Elektra, Vanguard and the other folk record labels.The folk scene in various parts of the US and abroad, most prominently New York's Greenwich Village, but also Philadelphia, Boston, Newport, Chicago, Denver, Austin, California and elsewhere.How music informed the Civil Rights Movement.Feminist music and musicians.Singer-songwriters.Musical instruments.Radio, folk organizations, print music and performing venues.Folk-rock and country-rock.
Along the way Weissman poses some tough questions folkniks often prefer to duck.What about authenticity vs. "selling out?"What did stardom mean for the few folkies who achieved it?What did "going electric" mean for singers who believed their roots lay in casual home-made music of centuries past?How did folk-inspired songwriting change as it grew?What has it meant to "bourgeoisify" and commodify folk music?And how did the business of folk music change the music and the people who made it?These are only some of the questions this book addresses.
"Which Side Are You On" is frankly a survey, covering a lot of territory.Hence it cannot go deeply into some of its subject matter.Still there are surprising moments of insight, and enough detail to feast on for hours.
If you want a smart practitioner's bird's-eye view of what folk is, does, and means - and are ready for a few side trips into allied kinds of music that draw intriguing parallels - this is the book for you.
... Read more

Product Description
The interplay between emotional and intellectual elements feature heavily in the research of a variety of scientific fields, including neuroscience, the cognitive sciences and artificial intelligence (AI).This collection of key introductory texts by top researchers worldwide is the first study which introduces the subject of artificial intelligence and music to beginners.
Eduardo Reck Miranda received a Ph.D. in music and artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.He has published several research papers in major international journals and his compositions have been performed worldwide. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good introduction on music and AI
I was pleased to come across this book during my research for my master's thesis on music and artificial intelligence.Although there are a number of books on the subject, they tend to be collections of previously published articles or conference papers and are intended for an audience that already knows the subject of AI fairly well.This book, however, is not a compilation of articles, but a collection of chapters by various authors who were commissioned to write new material for the book.The result is a book with good introductory material in the field of AI and music, covering composition, analysis, knowledge representation, connectionism, and even music education/intelligent tutoring systems.At the end of each chapter, there is a bibliography pointing the reader towards more sources on that particular topic.I also think this would make a good textbook for an introductory class on AI and music for undergraduates (upper division) and graduate students that would appeal to all majors: theory and composition, musicology, and music education (and perhaps to a lesser extent, performance majors).I only wish this book had been available when I first began my research for my thesis - it would have made life a lot simpler!I highly recommend this book as the first book for any reader interested in this subject. ... Read more

Product Description
What is postmodern music and how does it differ from earlier styles, including modernist music? What roles have electronic technologies and sound production played in defining postmodern music? Has postmodern music blurred the lines between high and popular music? Addressing these and other questions, this ground-breaking collection gathers together for the first time essays on postmodernism and music written primarily by musicologists, covering a wide range of musical styles including concert music, jazz, film music, and popular music. Topics include: the importance of technology and marketing in postmodern music; the appropriation and reworking of Western music by non-Western bands; postmodern characteristics in the music of Gorecki, Rochberg, Zorn, and Bolcom, as well as Bjork and Wu Tang Clan; issues of music and race in such films as The Bridges of Madison County, Batman, Bullworth, and He Got Game; and comparisons of postmodern architecture to postmodern music. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

After-Post Modernity, what is it,?Who knows!
Music is always behind in theory,in cultural critique, in appraisals of its theoretical implications. Simpy compare the art world in the level of discussion and dialogue with the corridors of serious music, and you will find a large gulf.
The Impressionists,the Expressionists eras were over before music caught up with the conceptual trajectories that produced this art.Not that I adhere to strict categorical paralleles for it does have its conceptual limitations.But music seems mired in itself, and it has only bee recently(the last ten years) where we even find writersfinding useful parallels from music to social dimensions, culture or politics.And there is no excuse for it with perceptive writers as Theodor Adorno and Pierre Bourdieu to lead the way. For instance we have musicologists today that are still contemplating the "mysterious" harmonic schemes of Wagner's prelude to "Tristan und Isolde",or finding the "golden circles through set theory with differeing pitch configurations while in the other arts vigorous fascinating work abound in theory,in concept,in technique in dialogues in discussion of the lifeworld interbreed with philosophy and culture where we may find where the limits of post-modernity reside.
So this is a welcome book if only because it helps situate music a realm even the likes of Lyotard and Jameson hardly speak about, or only as generally and opaque as possible.It hasn't been since Jacques Attali(a relative novice in music) where his book "Noise" we have some all-encompassing subversive, drawing in categories of the economic, production,and composition.
So What is post-modern music?,it really doesn't matter anymore, and when it did the various music scholars were silent, or confused, or both. Well musical post-modernity is that where it has given up the torch of modernity and we can even include the gravitas of Boulez and Stockhausen,Cage and Berio into this transgressiveness for they, their music has been, in various ways, bit by the buzz, the fashionable, the accessible,the market even the more serial orthodox compositional extremes ofBrian Ferneyhough has loosened his vigorous grip on hisoverdetermined complexity , where rhythms and textures are simpler than ever seen in his oeuvre.
For music I guess it was the late Sixties with the rebellions in Europe and campus demonstrations here that seemed to spark something, a democratization of culture, where (as a Cage canon has it) we are all composers. We have now a levelling-down of modernity, modernity made more "user=friendly". It is much easier to become a composer today in that reading music is no longer a prerequisite, even consummate rocker Elvis Costello can have/write serious music for orchestra today.

The tardiness here again here refers to the fact that we no longer use the term post-modernity, we have (according to theorist Hal Foster) long past the post, we are in the era After-Post, and I hope it stops there for nothing is illuminated. The Market, the Glorious Buck controls everything now, serious music is whatever anyone wants to pay for it or produce it, to distribute it, that's todays definition,or guideline also in terms of bourgeois prizes handed to some composers who really (let's face it gents and ladies) really don't deserve it. But that's another trajectory of the bureauocracitization of the avant-garde or music.

Some of the essays here are simply general expose of particular composers as Lachenmann and Ferneyhough, but all the more valuable for it helps situate their work within a larger whole. There is quite a number of topics here all worth contemplating as multi-ethnicity,and composition, profiles of composers, how they work. Politics(a forever important realm for the creative artist) seems to have been forsakened here,examining the larger framework of where commissions emanate from,why are artists marginalized (censored really) who gets what, when and How. But that's a small reservation compared to the value of this book.

... Read more

Product Description
Designed to accompany and supplement the author's survey, Twentieth-Century Music: A History of Musical Style in Modern Europe and America, this selection of 29 works or groups of works by 24 composers covers a time span from 1903 to 1983.Since the music is characterized principally by its diversity - by the different schools and movements moving forward simultaneously - it poses special problems for those lacking extensive analytical experience. Therefore, Morgan has included, for each selection, an analytical essay in which he discusses the overall character of the music in question, avoiding special terminology and technical jargon wherever possible. All musical genres are represented and only complete works, movements or integral sections are included. To assist the reader, the book includes instructions on how to read a score and a chart of instrumental names and abbreviations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good...not Great
The 20th Century was a very innovative time period in music. The influence of globalism and technology undeniably effected the musical atmosphere of the world in the 1900s. Yet Morgan seems far more concerned with atonalism and anti-classicism than the influence of jazz, popular music, recording technology, and even cinematography. While he does not fail to mention these influences, I believe that he did not emphasize their importances adequately. However, there is much to discuss in the world of 20th century music, and Morgan provides excellent insight into the topics that he chose to focus on. A good study of the era but not quite a great one.

Anthology of 20th Century Music
The order came very quickly.However, the discription wasn't accurate on the product.There is some staining on the last couple of pages and on one page, the last few lines have been completely cut out, as if with scissors.Overall the book is fine, but I thought it would be in better condition. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the indispensable consumer's guide to the music of Nick Drake. It gives a thorough analysis of every officially released album by Drake, from the early albums that were largely overlooked at the time of their release in the late Sixties and early Seventies to more recent posthumous collections. It includes track by track analysis, information on when and where the music was recorded, a special index of compilation, archive and posthumous releases, a track index for easy reference. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Nick Drake - guide to the music of - by Peter Hogan
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2LGR9L2BXBLMS Nick Drake: The Complete Guide to His Music. Peter Hogan (Complete Guide to the Music of...) ... Read more

Product Description
Written in straight-forward language by professional gigging musicians, Making Money Making Music guides artists through every aspect of achieving financial success through cover gigs. This easy-to-use reference shows readers how to start or join a cover band, choose the right cover songs, land the first gigs or get better ones, handle marketing and promotion, use proper sound and lighting systems, and much more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

OK, but not great
First, making money playing music is an oxymoron.It doesn't happen for the vast majority of musicians.We play because we love music.We have day jobs to feed our families.That being said, if you have never played in a band and gigged out, then this gives you the basic information you need to start a band and get gigs.If you have been in bands and played gigs, save your money, there is nothing really new or ground-breaking in here.You already know the drill. ... Read more

Product Description
Suddenly Robert Johnson is everywhere. Though the Mississippi bluesman died young and recorded only twenty-nine songs, the legacy, legend, and lore surrounding him continue to grow. Focusing on these developments, Patricia R. Schroeder's Robert Johnson, Mythmaking, and Contemporary American Culture breaks new ground in Johnson scholarship, going beyond simple or speculative biography to explore him in his larger role as a contemporary cultural icon.

Part literary analysis, part cultural criticism, and part biographical study, Robert Johnson, Mythmaking, and Contemporary American Culture shows the Robert Johnson of today to be less a two-dimensional character fixed by the few known facts of his life than a dynamic and contested set of ideas.

Represented in novels, in plays, and even on a postage stamp, he provides inspiration for "highbrow" cultural artifacts--such as poems--as well as Hollywood movies and T-shirts. Schroeder's detailed and scholarly analysis directly engages key images and stories about Johnson (such as the Faustian crossroads exchange of his soul for guitar virtuosity), navigating the many competing interpretations that swirl around him to reveal the cultural purposes these stories and their tellers serve.

Unprecedented in both range and depth, Schroeder's work is a fascinating examination of the relationships among Johnson's life, its subsequent portrayals, and the cultural forces that drove these representations. With penetrating insights into both Johnson and the society that perpetuates him, Robert Johnson, Mythmaking, and Contemporary American Culture is essential reading for cultural critics and blues fans alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Contemporary Interpretations of Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson (1911? -- 1938)recorded only 29 songs during his brief life and was little-known when he died. In the 1960s, a release of his songs attracted great attention from British rockers and from young Americans, and a subsequent release of "The Complete Robert Johnson," including alternate takes, went platinum.With his haunting voice and astonishing guitar technique, and with the legends that have come to surround his life, the memory of Robert Johnson has evolved from early Delta blues singer to cultural icon. Johnson's photo appeared upon a commemorative United States postage stamp in 1994, with, notoriously, the cigarette dangling from his lip in the original photograph removed.

Patricia Schroeder's book "Robert Johnson: Mythmaking and Contemporary American Culture" (2004) explores the mystique that surrounds Robert Johnson and shows the widely divergent interpretations his life and music continue to evoke. Patricia Schroeder is professor of English at Ursinus College where she teaches courses in the blues in American literature, African American literature, and American literature and drama.Her book is part of an outstanding series of scholarly studies title "Music in American life" which explore a wide range of musical forms and figures, from blues to classical and much else, and their impact in the United States.

The great virtue of Professor Schroeder's work is that it shows how much there is to be learned from serious study of the blues in general and Robert Johnson in particular.Her work is informed, and teaches a great deal about, postmodern critical theory.She shows how a figure such as Johnson has been transformed in American culture from a Delta bluesman -- a living person -- to a symbol and, finally, to an icon or myth separate from and bearing little resemblance to the original flesh and blood man.The ways in which Robert Johnson has been mythologized reflect the preoccupations of the mythmakers who
turn to Johnson more than they help in the understanding of Johnson himself.Thus, in the 1960s, Johnson was discovered as a romantic, authentic figure who spurned commercialism, and wandered through the Delta and elsewhere in pursuit of himself and of his art.Later visions of Johnson have seen him as reflecting the spirit of American pluralism and diversity, as the symbol of an inclusive American community, as exemplifying the spirit of the blues, as a victim of the racial injustice pervading the deep South in the 1930s, as the voice of individualism, and as much else.

Thus, after a brief chapter in which she gives a biographical summary of the Johnson's life, emphasizing competing versions and contradictory accounts at key points, Professor Schroeder offers in successive chapters, accounts of how Robert Johnson has been portrayed in contemporary novels, dramas, film documentaries, and poetry.It is an impressive account of a body of literature, most of which had been unknown to me, and it shows well how Johnson's life has been used in the service of a wide variety of viewpoints on American culture. Professor Schroeder discusses this literature fully, ably and well.I was most impressed, of all the material she discusses, with a 1996 poem by Susan Noguere titled "Whirling Round the Sun" in which the poet discusses eloquently her response to Johnson's music.Professor Schroeder quotes the poem in full (p.161) and expounds it nicely.Proressor Schroeder also discusses how Johnson has fared in cyberspace with an exploration of the many threads devoted to Johnson and an analysis of the comments that his music and life inspire over the Web.

I found that there was too much emphasis in the book on postmoderistic theory.Professor Schroeder shows that this theory can be put to good use in understanding Johnson, or any important cultural figure, but she overdoes it.The book is jargon-filled, and the relativism and skepticism to which postmodernism leads seems to me unnecessary to her discussion of Johnson and the myths he has inspired.In addition, there is too little focus in the book on Johnson's music and lyrics themselves.Johnson's music will always be the strongest reasons for his appeal -- as is the case with any musician or performer.There are times, particularly when she discusses Johnson on the Internet, that Professor Schroeder gets bogged down in jargon and in a second or third-level realm of analysis and almost forgets explaining her subject -- Robert Johnson in contemporary American culture.

Those interested in this book will also enjoy a recent scholarly study by Elijah Wald, "Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues." (2004)Wald is also aware of the mythmaking surrounding this great blues artist, but he is not as enamored with postmodernistic theory as is Professor Schroeder.Wald thinks we can form some reasonably accurate ideas about Robert Johnson the man and what he hoped to do with his music.I found his account for the most part convincing.Wald also offers more in the way of musical and literary analysis of Johnson's songs than does Professor Schroeder.

I am pleased that Johnson's music and the blues are receiving sustained and insightul critical attention in Professor Schroeder's book, in Wald's book, and elsewhere.Readers with a serious interest in Robert Johnson and the blues will enjoy Professor Schroeder's study.

Robin Friedman ... Read more

Product Description
Technology revolutionized the ways that music was produced in the 20th century. As that century drew to a close and a new century began a new revolution in roles was underway. The separate categories of composer, performer, distributor and listener are being challenged, while the sounds of the world itself become available for musical use. All kinds of sounds are now brought into the remit of composition, enabling the music of others to be sampled (or plundered), including that of unwitting musicians from non-western cultures. This sound world may appear contradictory - stimulating and invigorating as well as exploitative and destructive. This book addresses some of the issues now posed by the brave new world of music produced with technology. ... Read more

Product Description
Here s an advanced snare study containing the rhythms and techniques of twentieth century composers. Demonstrating a graduated series of exercises, this book will greatly enhance the reader s ability to deal with contemporary musical literature.
JRP50
UPC:JRP50
Joel Rothman Publications
Author: Garwood Whaley/Joseph M. Mooney

Drum
$14.95 ... Read more

Product Description
This terrific collection features five-finger piano arrangements of seven songs sung by Disney heroines - with a full-color illustration of each! Includes: Colors of the Wind * A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes * I Wonder * Just Around the Riverbend * Part of Your World * Something There * A Whole New World. ... Read more

Product Description
In this first musicological history of rap music, Cheryl L. Keyes traces the genre's history from its roots in West African bardic traditions, the Jamaican dancehall tradition, and African American vernacular expressions to its permeation of the cultural mainstream as a major tenet of hip-hop lifestyle and culture. Rap music, according to Keyes, is a forum that addresses the political and economic disfranchisement of black youths and other groups, fosters ethnic pride, and displays culture values and aesthetics.Blending popular culture with folklore and ethnomusicology, Keyes offers a nuanced portrait of the artists, themes, and varying styles reflective of urban life and street consciousness. Drawing on the music, lives, politics, and interests of figures including Afrika Bambaataa, the "godfather of hip-hop," and his Zulu Nation, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, Grandmaster Flash, Kool "DJ" Herc, MC Lyte, LL Cool J, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Ice-T, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, and The Last Poets, Rap Music and Street Consciousness challenges outsider views of the genre.The book also draws on ethnographic research done in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit and London, as well as interviews with performers, producers, directors, fans, and managers.Keyes' vivid and wide-ranging analysis covers the emergence and personas of female rappers and white rappers, the legal repercussions of technological advancements such as electronic mixing and digital sampling, the advent of rap music videos, and the existence of gangsta rap, Southern rap, acid rap, and dance-centered rap subgenres. Also considered are the crossover careers of rap artists in movies and television; rapper-turned-mogul phenomenons such as Queen Latifah; the multimedia empire of Sean "P. Diddy" Combs; the cataclysmic rise of Death Row Records; East Coast versus West Coast tensions; the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Christopher "The Notorious B.I.G." Wallace; and the unification efforts of the Nation of Islam and the Hip-Hop Nation. ... Read more

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The first comprehensive study of Chinese popular music in a Western language. Drawing on extensive interviews with singers, songwriters and critics, as well as cultural, sociological, musical, and textual analysis, the book portrays the disparate ways in which China's state-run popular music industry and burgeoning underground rock music subculture represented by Cui Jian have been instrumental to the cultural and political struggles that culminated in the Tienanmen democracy movement of 1989. It also examines the links between popular music and contemporary debates about cultural identity and modernization, as well as the close connections between rock music, youth culture, and student protest. ... Read more

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Dated but generally relevant
"Like a Knife" is a great look into the relationship between Chinese popular music ("tongsu yinyue") and contemporary rock music in China. The author discusses the dichotomy in terms of both the genres themselves and their musical styles, influences, and histories, but also in terms of ideology and opposition to state repression and censorship (in the case of rock).

The thesis that rock musicians, officially denied access to media by the state, and operating on the margins of the musical landscape, engage in both negotiated and oppositional social discourses, with the underlying ideology that rock music's purpose, as opposed to state sanctioned tongsu popular music, is that of providing an alternate public sphere in which fans and listeners are freed from the prohibitions of the mainstream Chinese society.

I agree with most of this, as it is mainly so in Western nations as well, where rock music is usually seen as an "anti" to whatever the prevailing cultural or political environment is. It is the Contrarian. However, the book suffers from its dated perspective (early 1990s). Since the publishing of the book Chinese rock musicians have become less "underground" and there are state produced and disseminated rock songs as well. It would be interesting to do a revisit of the rock scene to see how these new situations fit into the old theoretical framework. Is it the state that is liberalizing, or the artists that are capitulating to state demands in order to gain popularity and access to the media? ... Read more

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'Professional gospel performer, composer, and scholar Horace Clarence Boyer presents the first definitive history of the vibrant, visceral tradition of black gospel music. Originally published as "How Sweet the Sound", this authoritative work is beautifully illustrated with Lloyd Year wood's arresting photographs of gospel's greatest performers backstage and in the heat of performance'.'Skillfully blending music history and social context, Boyer traces the development of gospel from its earliest beginnings through the Golden Age (1945-55) and into the 1960s when gospel entered the concert hall. He introduces dozens of the genre's most gifted contributors, from Thomas A. Dorsey and Mahalia Jackson to the Soul Stirrers and Aretha Franklin, evoking their distinctive styles and distinguishing among the characteristic sounds of gospel music in Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, St. Louis, and other locations. Capturing the essence of a thrilling performance tradition, "The Golden Age of Gospel" clearly establishes gospel's importance as an authentic American art form and a musical statement of profound belief'. ... Read more

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Amazing
What a Blessing this book has been to me. I have really enjoyed learningnot only about Gospel music but about the African American culture that birthed this music/style into existence. So this book has really enlightened me and I am very thankful for it's Historical detail. It is a must read!!!!!

Inaccuracies
The book is intersesting however there are several inaccuracies which suprised me. Dr Boyer was there during the "Golden Age of Gospel" Photo personnel are also incorrect. One lists the Caravans when it's really the Gospel Harmonettes. William Bobo of the Dixie Hummingbirds was listed as playing the guitar when indeed it is Howard Carroll. Cissy Houston and the Drinkard Singers were in Newark, NewJersey not Detroit. I am a great fan of the Boyer Brothers and still play their recordings, however we must be careful with our History. ... Read more

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Focusing on the lives and work of several prominent singersand songwriters from a wide range of musical genres, Inside the Musicexplores the influence spirituality has had on their lives andwork. Includes profiles of Jeff Buckley, Billy Bragg, Leonard Cohen,Dead Can Dance, Perry Farrell, Michael Franti, Allen Ginsberg, PhilipGlass, Al Green, Robyn Hitchcock, Ziggy Marley, Moby, Meredith Monk,Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Iggy Pop, Joan Osborne, PM Dawn, Vernon Reid,and the Reverend Run of Run DMC. ... Read more

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Really interesting stuff! Not new age, but full of insight.
This book is full of interviews with musicians and the author got them allto talk about thieir inner expereince as creative people. The cool thingis, it's not too soppy or mushy. There's a sense of humor and a sharpnessto the writing that makes it really readbale. I really recommend it toanyone inter4ested in music, spirituality, and the place where those twoareas mix.

Nancy Jimenez ... Read more

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How does a Middle Eastern community create a modern image through its expression of heritage and authenticity? In Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria, Jonathan H. Shannon investigates expressions of authenticity in Syria's musical culture, which is particularly known for embracing and preserving the Arab musical tradition, and which has seldom been researched in depth by Western scholars. Music plays a key role in the process of self-imaging by virtue of its ability to convey feeling and emotion, and Shannon explores a variety of performance genres, Sufi rituals, song lyrics, melodic modes, and aesthetic criteria. Shannon shows that although the music may evoke the old, the traditional, and the local, these are re-envisioned as signifiers of the modern national profile. A valuable contribution to the study of music and identity and to the ethnomusicology of the modern Middle East, Among the Jasmine Trees details this music and its reception for the first time, offering an original theoretical framework for understanding contemporary Arab culture, music, and society. ... Read more

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Culture Wars? Music within National Self-Image
Jonathan Holt Shannon, author of this book, is an anthropologist whose research uses the performance, forms, and religious, political, and social aspects of music as the focus to examine the roles of traditions or heritage versus and modernity in Syria specifically, and also among Levantine Arabs. The conservative forces of authenticity are in conflict with the often liberal elite views of incorporating modern, i.e., European or Western classical and popular, structures in music. The problem arises from the very existence of Syria as a relatively new nation (1946)carved out of the centuries old Ottoman Empire. For a Mediterranean area at the crossroads of empires, East and West, authenticity is a highly moot matter among indigenous scholars, critics, and musicians. Aside some agrarian folk tunes and dances, perhaps, how much of Arabian music is truly Arabian when Turkish, Persian, Byzantine, Kurdish, Andalusian, and Syriac Christian influences are found? Even the oud is closely related to the Chinese pipa, lutes having developed, shared, and adopted along the length of the Silk Road. This book seems to present more questions than answers: a very good thing, since Orientialism and stereotypes have influenced Arabs and Western scholars alike. Even the number, names, and origins of maqam modes are debated.

Scholarly but highly readable, Among the Jasmin Trees is a perfect follow-up book to Racy's Making Music in the Arab World, Waugh's Memory, Music, and Religion, and Marcus's survey and documentary CD, Music in Egypt. The scholar-musician tells delightful anecdotes, and interviews with many Syrian experts send him, and us, on a grand tour of the complex musical and cultural issues confronting this people. If these questions seems esoteric and not germane to our own contemporary life, consider when and how the United States developed its own unique American (not including Native American) music after 1776. This surprising, worthwhile book has lessons for us as well. After reading it, Arabic music is no longer a simple category.

A treat to read.
This book on music and people deals with authenticity and its construction in a place where music is much more than just music.Scholarly in its orientation, it is written so clearly that one needn't be an ethnomusicologist or anthropologist to read it.It has important implications for the way that we all approach the aesthetics of our identity.

The jasmine is sweet.
This is a beautifully written book that illuminates many aspects of Syrian music and culture. I will teach it often in my graduate and undergraduate courses. ... Read more

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Unlocking the Groove is a groundbreaking, award-winning, music-driven analysis of electronic dance music (EDM). Author Mark Butler interweaves traditional and non-traditional musical analysis with consideration of the genre's history and social significance, deconstructing several typical examples of electronic dance music and focusing on the interaction of beat and rhythmic structure in creating an overall musical design. Interviews with DJs, listeners, and producers flesh out the book, providing insight into the perceptions and performance world of EDM, and making a vivid case for the musical artistry of EDM disc jockeys. The CD included with the book illustrates the analysis with multiple musical examples, both in excerpts and full songs. Butler's work propels the study of popular music in exciting new directions, and will impact the range from popular music studies, music theory, ethnomusicology, and musicology.

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Required reading for any electronic music enthusiast!
If you want to come to a deeper understanding of techno and the world of electronic music, this is the book.Butler is a pioneer in an area of music that the academic world is just beginning to explore and understand. ... Read more

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World Café(R) has been one of public radio's most entertaining and important music shows for over 15 years. Airing weekdays on 185 radio stations nationwide from its home station of WXPN-FM in Philadelphia, it is a uniquely formatted program that features live interviews and performances with the greatest established and up-and-coming performers of today. Host David Dye originated the show in 1991 to offer listeners a new eclectic mix of musical styles including blues, rock, folk, and alt-country. Every week since the show's inception, Dye has brought out the best in such celebrated musicians as Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Wilco, and Beck, as well as introducing many listeners to newcomers like Damien Rice, My Morning Jacket, and Coldplay, among thousands of others.

In The Best of World Café, Dye offers a stunning retrospective of the show, digging into its impressive vault of content to highlight the show's greatest interviews, quotes, moments, and memories. The book also includes an original 50-minute DVD (available exclusively with this edition) about World Café that features interviews with current and past staff giving insider accounts of the show's history and daily operation, behind-the-scenes footage, and select performances and interviews. ... Read more

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Great book for music lovers !!
I bought this book for my daughter for Christmas who is a huge Independant music fan and a musician in Minneapolis. She is 21 and loved it !! She was raised on WXPN in the Philadelphia area.

Interviews by David Dye, the Terry Gross of inde music.
The Best of World Cafe: Great Conversations from NPR's Most Popular Contemporary Music ShowHow great! David Dye has published some of his best interviews of his many done at the "World Cafe" WXPNs wonderful program that now has a world wide exposure to the new music scene. For anyone wishing to know about the backgrounds of your inde music groups and singer songwriters this book is a delight. The live shows are broadcast on NPR from the Philadelphia venue. A fun read. ... Read more