Here is the story of the boy from Brixton who became one of the most famous artists of the 20th century, returned to prominence in the 21st with music and visions informed by a sense of his own mortality and who through his life and work, changed lives and those of generations to come. David Bowie's music is loved by many and known by all as the soundtrack to the world of changes that was heralded by the creation of Ziggy Stardust. Through the hits and personas that followed, the work in art, drama, film and fashion, Bowie's voice rang clearly across the decades summoning everyone to a party where strangeness would be celebrated and the 'now' would always be new. Yet David Bowie remained forever the outsider, observing, creating, collaborating, inspiring and moving forward. This book follows a life that as much as any other was a personal journey but one in which so many joined and made part of their own.

This is the first extensive scholarly study of drone metal music and its religious associations, drawing on five years of ethnographic participant observation from more than 300 performances and 74 interviews, plus surveys, analyses of sound recordings, artwork, and extensive online discourse about music. Owen Coggins shows that while many drone metal listeners identify as non-religious, their ways of engaging with and talking about drone metal are richly informed by mysticism, ritual and religion. He explores why language relating to mysticism and spiritual experience is so prevalent in drone metal culture and in discussion of musical experiences and practices of the genre. The author develops the work of Michel de Certeau to provide an empirically grounded theory of mysticism in popular culture. He argues that the marginality of the genre culture, together with the extremely abstract sound produces a focus on the listeners' engagement with sound, and that this in turn creates a space for the open-ended exploration of religiosity in extreme states of bodily consciousness.

This book celebrates Madvillainy as a representation of two genius musical minds melding to form one revered supervillain. A product of circumstance, the album came together soon after MF DOOM's resurgence and Madlib's reluctant return from avant-garde jazz to hip-hop. Written from the alternating perspectives of three fake music journalist superheroes-featuring interviews with Wildchild, M.E.D., Walasia, Daedalus, Stones Throw execs, and many other real individuals involved with the album's creation-this book blends fiction and non-fiction to celebrate Madvillainy not just as an album, but as a folkloric artifact. It is one specific retelling of a story which, like Madvillain's music, continues to spawn infinite legends.

With a listing of over 3,600 books about individual artists and groups, this is the most accurate and comprehensive bibliography available on Rock/Pop stars. It is the most authoritative source for English-language titles, which are listed in the main directory under an A-Z presentation of artists. For easy access, information is cross-referenced through the use of author, title, and subject indexes. A down-to-the-wire supplement completes the book in a timely fashion. Collectors will be pleased with entries for privately published and/or limited editions, of which many are very rare.

This volume is the first book-length study of hooks in popular music. Hooks - those memorable musical moments for listeners such as a riff or catchy melodic phrase - are arguably the guiding principle of much modern popular music. The concept of the hook involves aspects of melody, rhythm, harmony, production, lyrical and cultural meaning - and how these interact within a song's topline and backing track. Hooks are also inherently related to the human capacities for memory and attention, and interact with our previous experiences with music. Understanding hooks in popular music requires a new interdisciplinary approach drawing from popular music studies, pop musicology, and music psychology, and this book draws from each of these disciplines to understand the hooks present in a broad range of popular music styles from the last thirty years.

No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller. 'Can't fail to move' The Sunday Times ALL AUTHOR PROCEEDS DONATED TO THE AMY WINEHOUSE FOUNDATION. As an artist, she had few peers. Her lyrical prowess and timeless contralto vocals made her an instant revelation when her debut album Frank was released in 2003. And as her star continued to rise it became evident that this seemingly delicate girl from north London was much more than just a precocious talent. Genius, inspiration, icon; there are many ways to describe Amy Winehouse, but it was her wit, charm and lust for life that cemented her place in the hearts of her fans. Here, using exclusive extracts from his own personal diaries, Amy's father and confidant Mitch celebrates what influenced his daughter. Documenting her early years from Sylvia Young to the Brit School, and the darker side of her life as she struggled to cope with her addictions under the glare of the media spotlight, he gives new insights. With never before seen photos, notes and drawings, this book brings together the many layers of Amy's life - the personal, the private and the public - to create an honest and intensely moving account of the life of the most talented recording artist of her generation.

When Cream broke up in 1968 it was by no means a foregone conclusion that it would be Eric Clapton who would enjoy continued commercial success. After all, it was Jack Bruce who had the looks, and who co-wrote and sang all the band's major hits, including "Sunshine of Your Love", "I Feel Free" and "White Room". But he was a singular talent who wanted to be a pioneer, not just a pop star, and he was never happy resting on his reputation. Cream split in their prime but their influence endured, and when they reformed in 2005 tickets were selling for nearly GBP 2000 on e-bay. In the 40 years since Cream split Bruce has continued his musical adventures with the likes of John McLaughlin, Billy Cobham, Carla Bley and Mick Taylor, never quite achieving the success and recognition he deserves. It has been an often troubled life - heroin addiction, management rip-offs, family tragedy, and a failed liver transplant, all of which he speaks about frankly in this book, telling a story that is sometimes funny, sometimes bleak, and always honest.

Literacy in a Long Blues Note: Black Women's Literature and Music in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries traces the evolution of Black women's literacy practices from 1892 to 1934. A dynamic chronological study, the book explores how Black women public intellectuals, creative writers, and classic blues singers sometimes utilize singular but other times overlapping forms of literacies to engage in debates on race. The book begins with Anna J. Cooper's philosophy on race literature as one method for social advancement. From there, author Coretta M. Pittman discusses women from the Woman's and New Negro Eras, including but not limited to Angelina Weld Grimke, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, and Zora Neale Hurston. The volume closes with an exploration of Victoria Spivey's blues philosophy. The women examined in this book employ forms of transformational, transactional, or specular literacy to challenge systems of racial oppression. However, Literacy in a Long Blues Note argues against prevalent myths that a singular vision for racial uplift dominated the public sphere in the latter decade of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century. Instead, by including Black women from various social classes and ideological positions, Pittman reveals alternative visions. Contrary to more moderate predecessors of the Woman's Era and contemporaries in the New Negro Era, classic blues singers like Mamie Smith advanced new solutions against racism. Early twentieth-century writer Angelina Weld Grimke criticized traditional methods for racial advancement as Jim Crow laws tightened restrictions against Black progress. Ultimately, the volume details the agency and literacy practices of these influential women.

As a founding father of bebop and brilliant jazz improviser, Charlie Parker has secured a reputation and legacy second to none since his birth nearly 100 years ago. Because of his excellence as an improviser, however, his compositions - while admired and still played - have taken a back seat. In this exciting and timely new volume, author Henry Martin rebalances our understanding of Parker by spotlighting his significance as a jazz composer. Beginning with a review of Parker's life and musical training, Charlie Parker, Composer critically analyzes Parker's compositions, situating them within both his individual musicianship and early bebop style. Proposing that Parker composed up to 84 pieces, Martin examines their development and aesthetic qualities, their similarities and dissimilarities within a range of seven types of jazz composition. Also discussed are eight tunes credited to Parker but never performed by him, along with an evaluation of where - if at all - they fit in his oeuvre. Providing the first assessment of a major jazz composer's output in its entirety, Charlie Parker, Composer offers a thorough reexamination, through music-theoretical, historical, and philosophical lenses, of one of the most influential jazz musicians of all time.

Shooting at the Moon celebrates the music and lyrics of Kevin Ayers, one of the great bohemian voices of British music. Kevin Ayers was an English singer-songwriter who was a major influential force in the English psychedelic movement and a founding member of the band Soft Machine in the 60s. With introductions by Galen Ayers, Josh Payne and Robert Wyatt, this book includes all the lyrics from Ayers' solo career and documents a period of the UK music scene between Psychedelia and Glam Rock. Immerse yourself in the world of this influential cult singer-songwriter, with pages from his own notebooks, exclusive photographs, Ayers' own collages and the occasional recipe.

This text brings together spokespersons from several different disciplines who can present their arguments for or against rational suicide as a viable concept and, consequently, a realistic option. The pros and cons of the discussion format bring the readers to search for their beliefs, and the final decision of acceptance or rejection of the concept is left to each individual reader.

Released in 1986, Hunters and Collectors' album Human Frailty is one of the most important Australian albums of the last two decades of the twentieth century. It was pivotal in the group's career and marked the group's move into pub rock. It is unashamedly concerned with love and desire. The album challenged traditional understandings of Australian masculinity while playing music to predominantly male audiences. No other Australian group would have dared, or indeed been able, to get their audience to roar 'You don't make me feel like a woman anymore,' the culminating line off Hunan Frailty's first track, and the first single taken from the album, "Say Goodbye". The second track on the album, "Throw Your Arms Around Me" has become an Australian standard, an anthem sung drunkenly more by women than men, in pubs, at weddings and similar occasions. Human Frailty is an album that transcended the critical categories of its time.

Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, George Michael was raised in a family of Greek Cypriot immigrants in North London, and dreamed of stardom when he was a little boy. At just twelve years old he met Andrew Ridgeley and the two of them went on to achieve stunning success in the early 1980s with Wham!, creating music that remains popular to this day. Yet despite the enormous success of Wham!, George wanted more, and so set about recreating himself as a serious solo artist, reaching heights of even greater success. Ironically, however, even from the early days he was plagued with insecurity about his sexuality, which, combined with the calamity of losing his first lover to AIDS and his mother to cancer, plunged him into a lifelong struggle with drug addiction. He died, at the tragically early age of just fifty-three, on Christmas Day 2016. George Michael's life and career brought him international fame, and his sudden and unexpected death shocked the world. His unrivalled popularity as an artist, however, and the music he made, have turned him into one of the immortal greats of pop music. As Emily Herbert shows in this new biography, his legacy is not just his music, but his many extraordinary, and often anonymous, acts of charity.

Endorsed by Jamey Aebersold, James Moody, Dave Liebman, and others, The Jazz Theory Book presents all the information any student of jazz needs in an easy-to-understand, yet thorough, manner. For intermediate to advanced players, and written by one of the acknowledged masters of jazz, it is used by universities around the world.

No other music reference offers this kind of diversity in one volume. Covering all areas of popular music, from pop to rock, jazz to blues, country to folk, and dance to world music, the updated edition of this unique resource features: more than five thousand of the world's leading musicians, singers, songwriters, producers and celebrities; valuable information on many up-and-coming artists difficult to obtain elsewhere; entries compiled from questionnaires sent to the biographees; career details including major concerts, recordings and compositions, publications, honors and contract address wherever possible; appendices listing international music organizations, record companies, festivals, music agents and management companies involved in the dynamic world of popular music.

This exciting new volume complements the International Who's Who in Music and Musician's Directory, which is already a leading source of classical and light classical music information. Together, these two references form an unrivaled guide to who really in who in all fields of music.

Gender Issues in Scandinavian Music Education: From Stereotypes to Multiple Possibilities introduces much-needed updates to research and teaching philosophies that envision new ways of considering gender diversity in music education. This volume of essays by Scandinavian contributors looks beyond the dominant Anglo-American lens while confronting a universal need to resist and rethink the gender stereotypes that limit a young person's musical development. Addressing issues at all levels of music education-from primary and secondary schools to conservatories and universities- topics discussed include: the intersection of social class, sexual orientation, and teachers' beliefs; gender performance in the music classroom and its effects on genre and instrument choice; hierarchical inequalities reinforced by power and prestige structures; strategies to fulfill curricular aims for equality and justice that meet the diversity of the classroom; and much more! Representing a commitment to developing new practices in music education that subvert gender norms and challenge heteronormativity, Gender Issues in Scandinavian Music Education fills a growing need to broaden the scope of how gender and equality are situated in music education-in Scandinavia and beyond.

Following a run of New Year's concerts at San Francisco's legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by logic or time, she draws us into her private wonderland, with no design yet heeding signs, including a talking sign that looms above her, prodding and sparring like the Cheshire Cat. In February, a surreal lunar year begins, bringing with it unexpected turns, heightened mischief, and inescapable sorrow. In a stranger's words, "Anything is possible: after all, it's the year of the monkey." For Patti Smith - inveterately curious, always exploring, tracking thoughts, writing the year evolves as one of reckoning with the changes in life's gyre: with loss, aging, and a dramatic shift in the political landscape of America.

Smith melds the Western landscape with her own dreamscape. Taking us from Southern California to the Arizona desert; to a Kentucky farm as the amanuensis of a friend in crisis; to the hospital room of a valued mentor; and by turns to remembered and imagined places - this haunting memoir blends fact and fiction with poetic mastery. The unexpected happens; grief and disillusionment. But as Patti Smith heads toward a new decade in her own life, she offers this balm to the reader: her wisdom, wit, gimlet eye, and above all, a rugged hope of a better world.

Riveting, elegant, often humorous, illustrated by Smith's signature Polaroids, Year of the Monkey is a moving and original work, a touchstone for our turbulent times.