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Books > Music > Contemporary popular music
If given another chance to write for the series, which albums would
33 1/3 authors focus on the second time around? This anthology
features compact essays from past 33 1/3 authors on albums that
consume them, but about which they did not write. It explores often
overlooked and underrated albums that may not have inspired their
33 1/3 books, but have played a large part in their own musical
cultivation. Questions central to the essays include: How has this
album influenced your worldview? How does this album intersect with
your other creative and critical pursuits? How does this album
index a particular moment in cultural history? In your own personal
history? Why is the album perhaps under-the-radar, or a buried
treasure? Why can't you stop listening to it? Bringing together 33
1/3's rich array of writers, critics, and scholars, this collection
probes our taste in albums, our longing for certain tunes, and our
desire to hit repeat--all while creating an expansive "must-listen"
list for readers in search of unexplored musical territories.
This is the story of the last acrimonious days of the Beatles, a
final chapter reconstructing for the first time the seismic events
of 1969, the year that saw the band reach new highs of musical
creativity and new lows of internal strife. Two years after Flower
Power and the hippie idealism of the Summer of Love, the Sixties
dream had perished on the vine. By 1969, violence and
vindictiveness had replaced the Beatles' own mantra of peace and
love, and Vietnam and the Cold War had supplanted hope and
optimism. And just as the decade foundered on the altar of a cold,
harsh reality, so too did the Beatles. In the midst of this
rancour, however, emerged the disharmony of Let It Be and the
ragged genius of Abbey Road, their incredible farewell love letter
to the world.
Following the Drums: African American Fife and Drum Music in
Tennessee is an epic history of a little-known African American
instrumental music form. John M. Shaw follows the music from its
roots in West Africa and early American militia drumming to its
prominence in African American communities during the time of
Reconstruction, both as a rallying tool for political militancy and
a community music for funerals, picnics, parades, and dances.
Carefully documenting the music's early uses for commercial
advertising and sports promotion, Shaw follows the strands of the
music through the nadir of African American history during
post-Reconstruction up to the form's rediscovery by musicologists
and music researchers during the blues and folk revival of the late
1960s and early 1970s. Although these researchers documented the
music, and there were a handful of public performances of the music
at festivals, the story has a sad conclusion. Fife and drum music
ultimately died out in Tennessee during the early 1980s. Newspaper
articles from the period and interviews with music researchers and
participants reawaken this lost expression, and specific band
leaders receive the spotlight they so long deserved. Following the
Drums is a journey through African American history and Tennessee
history, with a fascinating form of music powering the story.
At Home in Our Sounds illustrates the effect jazz music had on the
enormous social challenges Europe faced in the aftermath of World
War I. Examining the ways African American, French Antillean, and
French West African artists reacted to the heightened visibility of
racial difference in Paris during this era, author Rachel Anne
Gillett addresses fundamental cultural questions that continue to
resonate today: Could one be both black and French? Was black
solidarity more important than national and colonial identity? How
could French culture include the experiences and contributions of
Africans and Antilleans? Providing a well-rounded view of black
reactions to jazz in interwar Paris, At Home in Our Sounds deals
with artists from highly educated women like the Nardal sisters of
Martinique, to the working black musicians performing at all hours
throughout the city. In so doing, the book places this phenomenon
in its historical and political context and shows how music and
music-making constituted a vital terrain of cultural politics-one
that brought people together around pianos and on the dancefloor,
but that did not erase the political, regional, and national
differences between them.
As one of the people who defined punk's protest art in the 1970s
and 1980s, Gee Vaucher (b. 1945) deserves to be much better-known.
She produced confrontational album covers for the legendary
anarchist band Crass and later went on to do the same for Northern
indie legends the Charlatans, among others. More recently, her work
was recognised the day after Donald Trump's 2016 election victory,
when the front page of the Daily Mirror ran her 1989 painting Oh
America, which shows the Statue of Liberty, head in hands. This is
the first book to critically assess an extensive range of Vaucher's
work. It examines her unique position connecting avant-garde art
movements, counterculture, punk and even contemporary street art.
While Vaucher rejects all 'isms', her work offers a unique take on
the history of feminist art. -- .
Most die-hard Brazilian music fans would argue that Getz/Gilberto,
the iconic 1964 album featuring "The Girl from Ipanema," is not the
best bossa nova record. Yet we've all heard "The Girl from Ipanema"
as background music in a thousand anodyne settings, from cocktail
parties to telephone hold music. So how did Getz/Gilberto become
the Brazilian album known around the world, crossing generational
and demographic divides? Bryan McCann traces the history and making
of Getz/Gilberto as a musical collaboration between leading figure
of bossa nova Joao Gilberto and Philadelphia-born and New
York-raised cool jazz artist Stan Getz. McCann also reveals the
contributions of the less-understood participants (Astrud
Gilberto's unrehearsed, English-language vocals; Creed Taylor's
immaculate production; Olga Albizu's arresting,
abstract-expressionist cover art) to show how a perfect balance of
talents led to not just a great album, but a global pop sensation.
And he explains how Getz/Gilberto emerged from the context of Bossa
Nova Rio de Janeiro, the brief period when the subtle harmonies and
aching melodies of bossa nova seemed to distill the spirit of a
modernizing, sensuous city. 33 1/3 Global, a series related to but
independent from 33 1/3, takes the format of the original series of
short, music-based books and brings the focus to music throughout
the world. With initial volumes focusing on Japanese and Brazilian
music, the series will also include volumes on the popular music of
Australia/Oceania, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and more.
""Is there jazz in China?"" This is the question that sent author
Eugene Marlow on his quest to uncover the history of jazz in China.
Marlow traces China's introduction to jazz in the early 1920s, its
interruption by Chinese leadership under Mao in 1949, and its
rejuvenation in the early 1980s with the start of China's opening
to the world under Premier Deng Xiaoping. Covering a span of almost
one hundred years, Marlow focuses on a variety of subjects--the
musicians who initiated jazz performances in China, the means by
which jazz was incorporated into Chinese culture, and the musicians
and venues that now present jazz performances. Featuring unique,
face-to-face interviews with leading indigenous jazz musicians in
Beijing and Shanghai, plus interviews with club owners, promoters,
expatriates, and even diplomats, Marlow marks the evolution of jazz
in China as it parallels China's social, economic, and political
evolution through the twentieth and into the twenty-first century.
Also featured is an interview with one of the extant members of the
Jimmy King Big Band of the 1940s, one of the first major
all-Chinese jazz big bands in Shanghai. Ultimately, Jazz in China:
From Dance Hall Music to Individual Freedom of Expression is a
cultural history that reveals the inexorable evolution of a
democratic form of music in a Communist state.
Rock Atlas has hundreds of stories which deliver a fresh, new
insight into the lives of the UK and Ireland's rock and pop stars.
This fact-packed look at rock and pop, from an entirely different
perspective, throws up many new revelations about our favourite
musicians. When you ve finished reading the stories, you can visit
the places. Every one of the book's 800 entries is followed by
directions for how to find the iconic venues, record shops,
statues, album cover shoots, childhood homes and festival sites.
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Free Jazz
(Hardcover)
Jeff Schwartz
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R2,164
R1,867
Discovery Miles 18 670
Save R297 (14%)
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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"Yungblud is like nothing you've seen before. That is, unless
you've seen a smiley punk/alt rocker from Doncaster, UK who wears
pink socks, black-lipstick, and a skirt, plays a mean guitar, has
an endless amount of energy, and an interesting aura of sex appeal.
Then, and only then, can you say you've seen someone like
Yungblud." - musicinminnesota.com YUNGBLUD. A striking new musical
voice has emerged for Gen-Z. Political, provocative and
impassioned, Yungblud has in the space of three years become one of
the UK's most recognisable artists through his unique blend of pop,
punk and emo music - gaining one of the most die-hard fanbases on
the planet in the process. From 21st Century Liability, where
nothing was sacred - gun violence, psychosis, sex, drugs and
suicide - to his sophomore album Weird!, an exploration of oddity
and self-acceptance, YUNGBLUD challenges our zeitgeist as much as
he channels it. This is the first fully authorised book, featuring
photographs by his friend and closest collaborator Tom Pallant.
Featuring an amazing selection of rare and unseen photographs, All
My Friends Have Deserted charts Yungblud's journey from late 2019
as he toured his debut album across the world, right through
releasing his second album during a global pandemic, scoring his
first UK #1, returning triumphantly to Reading and Leeds festival
mainstage and culminating in his biggest ever headline show, a
sold-out Alexandra Palace in London. All My Friends Have Deserted
shows YUNGBLUD as a man of multitudes: dominating the stage,
screaming into the mic, laughing behind-the-scenes, enjoying quiet
creative moments and pulling faces at the camera. The vicious
energy of his performances carries onto the page. The result is a
rollercoaster of a photo-essay that carries readers on a journey
through the highs and lows of Gen-Z's most essential new rock star.
"My generation is over being divided. Being divided is an old
concept that is rapidly becoming obsolete. We are opinionated. We
are full of contradictions. That's the beauty of it. Our intention
is to make this world equal. No matter what size you are, what
shape you are, what colour you are, what sexuality you are..."
Underpinning it all is the message of empathy. Those who his lyrics
resonate with are not alone. Authentic and electric, rebellious and
irreverent, yet still utterly human, YUNGBLUD is the new face of
punk. Here he presents himself through a series of exclusive and
unseen photographs, taken by his friend and closest collaborator,
photographer Tom Pallant.
Listen to Hip Hop! Exploring a Musical Genre provides an overview
of hip-hop music for scholars and fans of the genre, with a focus
on 50 defining artists, songs, and albums. Listen to Hip Hop!
Exploring a Musical Genre explores non-rap hip hop music, and as
such it serves as a compliment to Listen to Rap! Exploring a
Musical Genre (Greenwood Press, Anthony J. Fonseca, 2019), which
discussed at length 50 must-hear rap artists, albums, and songs.
This book aims to provide a close listening/reading of a diverse
set of songs and lyrics by a variety of artists who represent
different styles outside of rap music. Most entries focus on
specific songs, carefully analyzing and deconstructing musical
elements, discussing their sound, and paying close attention to
instrumentation and production values-including sampling, a staple
of rap and an element used in some hip hop dance songs. Though some
of the artists included may be normally associated with other
musical genres and use hip hop elements sparingly, those in this
book have achieved iconic status. Finally, sections on the
background and history of hip hop, hip hop's impact on popular
culture, and the legacy of hip hop provide context through which
readers can approach the entries. Provides readers with a history
of non-rap hip hop music Offers critical analysis of 50 must-hear
songs, albums, and musicians that define the genre Explores both
the musical and lyrical dimensions of hip hop music Discusses the
impact on popular culture as well as the legacy of hip hop
Breaking is the first and most widely practiced hip-hop dance in
the world today, with an estimated one million participants taking
part in this dynamic, multifaceted artform. Yet, despite its global
reach and over 40 years of existence, historical treatments of the
dance have largely neglected the African Americans who founded it.
Dancer and scholar Serouj "Midus" Aprahamian offers, for the first
time, a detailed look into the African American beginnings of
breaking in the Bronx, New York, during the 1970s. Given the
pivotal impact the dance had on hip-hop's formation, this book also
challenges numerous myths and misconceptions that have permeated
studies of hip-hop culture's emergence. Aprahamian draws on
untapped archival material, primary interviews, and detailed
descriptions of early breaking to bring this buried history to
life, with a particular focus on the early aesthetic development of
the dance, the institutional settings in which hip-hop was
conceived, and the movement's impact on sociocultural conditions in
New York throughout the 1970s. By featuring the overlooked
first-hand accounts of over 50 founding b-boys and b-girls, this
book also shows how indebted breaking is to African American
culture and interrogates the disturbing factors behind its
historical erasure.
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