Existing books on the analysis of popular music focus on theory and methodology, and normally discuss parts of songs briefly as examples. The impression often given is that songs are being chosen simply to illuminate and exemplify a theoretical position. In this book the obverse is true: songs take centre stage and are given priority. The authors analyse and interpret them intensively from a variety of theoretical positions that illuminate the song. Thus, methods and theories have to prove their use value in the face of a heterogeneous, contemporary repertoire. The book brings together researchers from very different cultural backgrounds and encourages them to compare their different hearings and to discuss the ways in which they make sense of specific songs. All songs analysed are from the new millennium, most of them not older than three years. Because the most widely popular styles are too often ignored by academics, this book aims to shed light on how million sellers work musically. Therefore, it encompasses a broad palette, highlighting mainstream pop (Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, Lucenzo, Amy McDonald), but also accounting for critically acclaimed 'indie' styles (Fleet Foxes, Death Cab for Cutie, PJ Harvey), R&B (Destiny's Child, Janelle Monae), popular hard rock (Kings of Leon, Rammstein), and current electronic music (Andres, BjArk). By concentrating on 13 well-known songs, this book offers some model analyses that can very easily be studied at home or used in seminars and classrooms for students of popular music at all academic levels.

The term 'record collecting' is shorthand for a variety of related practices. Foremost is the collection of sound recordings in various formats - although often with a marked preference for vinyl - by individuals, and it is this dimension of record collecting that is the focus of this book. Record collecting, and the public stereotypes associated with it, is frequently linked primarily with rock and pop music. Roy Shuker focuses on these broad styles, but also includes other genres and their collectors, notably jazz, blues, exotica and 'ethnic' music. Accordingly, the study examines the history of record collecting; profiles collectors and the collecting process; considers categories - especially music genres - and types of record collecting and outlines and discusses the infrastructure within which collecting operates. Shuker situates this discussion within the broader literature on collecting, along with issues of cultural consumption, social identity and 'the construction of self' in contemporary society. Record collecting is both fascinating in its own right, and provides insights into broader issues of nostalgia, consumption and material culture.

On the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles in 1965 and 1966 an electrifying scene appeared out of nowhere, exploded into creativity, and then, just as suddenly, vanished. So much remarkable music, art, and social revolution came from one place at one time, it's difficult now to grasp how it all happened. This book tells the story of the astonishing time when rock'n'roll displaced movies as the centre of action in Hollywood. From the moment The Byrds debuted at Ciro's on March 26th 1965-with Bob Dylan joining them onstage-right up to the demonstrations of November 1966, Sunset Strip nightclubs nurtured and broke The Doors, Love, Buffalo Springfield (featuring Neil Young and Stephen Stills), Frank Zappa's Mothers Of Invention, Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, The Turtles, The Mamas and The Papas, and many others. The Strip was a hotbed for garage punk bands such as The Standells, The Electric Prunes, and The Leaves. Folk-rock and psychedelia were born there, while it was also a favourite hangout and inspiration for The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Velvet Underground. Republished to coincide with the 50th anniversary of these incredible times, Riot On Sunset Strip: Rock'n'Roll's Last Stand In Hollywood captures the excitement of this great artistic awakening, telling how the scene came together and then fell apart at the Monterey Pop festival, the tragic grand finale of the Summer of Love. It serves as a startling evocation of the social and artistic revolution that was the 60s.

David Bowie: Critical Perspectives examines in detail the many layers of one of the most intriguing and influential icons in popular culture. This interdisciplinary book brings together established and emerging scholars from a wide variety of backgrounds, including musicology, sociology, art history, literary theory, philosophy, politics, film studies and media studies. Bowie's complexity as a singer, songwriter, producer, performer, actor and artist demands that any critical engagement with his overall work must be interdisciplinary and wide-ranging in its scope. The chapters are organised around the key themes of 'textualities', 'psychologies', 'orientalisms', 'art and agency' and 'performing and influencing' in Bowie's work. This comprehensive book contributes a great deal to the study of popular music, performance, gender, religion, popular media and celebrity.

While she once made headlines with her hedonistic lifestyle, part of Nicks' irresistible appeal is her youthful vulnerability and mystical aura, making her an artist with whom fans have an unbreakable emotional connection. Crowned 'The Reigning Queen Of Rock And Roll' by Rolling Stone, and with gold and quadruple platinum solo albums under her beaded belt, Stevie Nicks has enjoyed the ultimate in rock 'n' roll success in her life as a recording artist - but this charmed life has come as a result of hard graft, self-belief and a devotion to creativity above all; hers has been a journey of intense highs and lows.This book, a celebration of the Stevie Nicks phenomenon, takes us on her journey from peripatetic mid-West childhood to her explosion onto the music scene as chiffon-swathed rock goddess, right up to present day. Including exclusive interviews with some of Stevie's associates and collaborators from over the years, author Zoe Howe explores the mystique while retaining the magic of this modern-day musical sorceress and wise woman of rock. This revised edition will include information about the full line-up Fleetwood Mac tour dates ('On With The Show'), the 24 Karat Gold self-portrait collection exhibition Stevie curated in Hollywood to coincide with her 24 Karat Gold album. Her work with the LA band Haim, coping with the loss of her close friends Glenn Frey and Prince, being a Rolling Stone cover girl again and more.

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.

Song & Social Change in Latin America offers seven essays from a diverse group of scholars on the topic of music as a reflection of the many social-political upheavals throughout Latin America from the 20th century to the present. Topics covered include: the Tropicalia movement in Brazil, the Nueva Cancion in Central America, Rock in Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Peru, the Vallenato in Colombia, Trova in Cuba, and urban music of Puerto Rico in the mid-20th century. The collection also includes five interviews from prominent and up-and-coming musicians -Ruben Blades, Roy Brown, Habana Abierta, Ana Tijoux, and Mare- representing a variety of musical genres and political issues in Central America, the Caribbean, South America, and Mexico.

Known the world over for her unique musical style, distinctive look and a voice that propelled her into the charts time and time again, Dusty Springfield was undoubtedly one of the biggest and brightest musical stars of the twentieth century.Never one to be shy of the spotlight, Dusty broke the mould as the first female entertainer to publicly admit she was bisexual, and was famously deported from South Africa for refusing to play to segregated audiences during apartheid in 1964, just a year after the launch of her solo career.Combining brand-new material, meticulous research and frank interviews with friends, lovers, employees and confidants, journalist Karen Bartlett reveals sensational new details about the soul diva's unconventional upbringing, tumultuous relationships and unbridled addictions, including a lifelong struggle to come to terms with her sexuality.Named one of the Sunday Times's best musical biographies of 2014, this is the intimate portrait of an immensely complicated and talented woman - the definitive account of one of music's most legendary figures.

Ewan MacColl is widely recognized as a key figure in the English folk revival, who tried to convey traditional music to a mass audience. Dominant in the movement during the 1950s and much of the 1960s, his position has come under attack in more recent years from some scholars. While it would be arrogant to claim to 'set the record straight', this book will contribute significantly to the debate surrounding MacColl's importance. MacColl gave two extended interviews with co-editor Giovanni Vacca in 1987 and 1988, not long before his death, and these provide the impetus for a re-examination of his methods, his politics and his aesthetic aims. The book also provides critical overviews of MacColl's activities in the revival and of his practices, particularly as writer and singer. The time is ripe for such a contribution, following Peter Cox's study of the Radio Ballads, and in the context of biographies by Joan Littlewood and Frankie Armstrong. The contributions locate MacColl in his own historical context, attempting to understand some of the characteristic techniques through which he was able to write and sing such extraordinary songs, which capture so well for others the detail and flavour of their lives. Great emphasis is placed on the importance of seeing MacColl as not only a British, but a European folk activist, through discussion of his hitherto barely known work in Italy, enabling a re-contextualization of his work within a broader European context. The interviews themselves are fluent and fascinating narrations in which MacColl discusses his life, music, and experiences in the theatre and in the folk music revival as well as with a series of issues concerning folk music, politics, history, language, art and other theoretical issues, offering a complete description of all the repertories of the British Isles. Peggy Seeger contributes a Foreword to the collection.

Recording Artists don't always enjoy success with their first release. A hit record relies on any number of factors: the right song, a memorable performance, a healthy promotional budget, great management, a spot of luck, and even some intangibles. Take choice of a name. For a single artist, duo, vocal group or band, the name can carry a lot of weight. Some recording artists changed their name to appeal to an entirely different demographic, like when country superstar Garth Brooks recorded as Chris Gaines to score on the pop charts. The Beefeaters became the Byrds-and they spelled the band name with a "y" in the wake of the meteoric success of the Beatles, whose letter "A" turned the image of a nasty bug into something intriguing. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel amassed a litany of aliases-Simon went by True Taylor, Jerry Landis, and Paul Kane; Art Garfunkel as Artie Garr; together they were Tom & Jerry before finally using their very ethnic-sounding given names. Bob Leszczak has amassed several hundred examples of musical pseudonyms in The Encyclopedia of Pop Music Aliases, 1950-2000, describing the history of these artists from their obscure origins under another name to their rise to prominence as a major musical act. Music trivia buffs, rock historians, and popular music fans will uncover nugget after nugget of eye-opening information about their favorite acts and perhaps learn a thing or two about a number of other acts. Leszczak goes the extra yard of gathering critical data directly from many of these famous recording artists through in-person interviews and archival research. Whether skipping around randomly or reading from cover-to-cover, readers will find The Encyclopedia of Pop Music Aliases, 1950-2000 a must-have for that music library.

Bringing together exciting new interdisciplinary work from emerging and established scholars in the UK and beyond, Litpop addresses the question: how has writing past and present been influenced by popular music, and vice versa? Contributions explore how various forms of writing have had a crucial role to play in making popular music what it is, and how popular music informs 'literary' writing in diverse ways. The collection features musicologists, literary critics, experts in cultural studies, and creative writers, organised in three themed sections. 'Making Litpop' explores how hybrids of writing and popular music have been created by musicians and authors. 'Thinking Litpop' considers what critical or intellectual frameworks help us to understand these hybrid cultural forms. Finally, 'Consuming Litpop' examines how writers deal with music's influence, how musicians engage with literary texts, and how audiences of music and writing understand their own role in making 'Litpop' happen. Discussing a range of genres and periods of writing and popular music, this unique collection identifies, theorizes, and problematises connections between different forms of expression, making a vital contribution to popular musicology, and literary and cultural studies.

Black Music, Black Poetry offers readers a fuller appreciation of the diversity of approaches to reading black American poetry. It does so by linking a diverse body of poetry to musical genres that range from the spirituals to contemporary jazz. The poetry of familiar figures such as Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes and less well-known poets like Harryette Mullen or the lyricist to Pharaoh Sanders, Amos Leon Thomas, is scrutinized in relation to a musical tradition contemporaneous with the lifetime of each poet. Black music is considered the strongest representation of black American communal consciousness; and black poetry, by drawing upon such a musical legacy, lays claim to a powerful and enduring black aesthetic. The contributors to this volume take on issues of black cultural authenticity, of musical imitation, and of poetic performance as displayed in the work of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, Amiri Baraka, Michael Harper, Nathaniel Mackey, Jayne Cortez, Harryette Mullen, and Amos Leon Thomas. Taken together, these essays offer a rich examination of the breath of black poetry and the ties it has to the rhythms and forms of black music and the influence of black music on black poetic practice.

This Companion is the first academic introduction to the 1960s/70s 'Krautrock' movement of German experimental music that has long attracted the attention of the music press and fans in Britain and abroad. It offers a structured approach to this exceptionally heterogeneous and decentralized movement, combining overviews with detailed analysis and close readings. The volume first analyzes the cultural, historical and economic contexts of Krautrock's emergence. It then features expert chapters discussing all the key bands of the era including Can, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Neu!, Faust, Ash Ra Tempel, Cluster and Amon Duul II. The volume concludes with essays that trace the varied, wide-ranging legacy of Krautrock from a variety of perspectives, exploring in particular the impact of German experimental music in the Anglosphere, including British post-punk and Detroit Techno. A final chapter examining the current bands that continue the Krautrock sound closes this comprehensive overview of the Krautrock phenomenon.

In Feedback: The Who and Their Generation, historian Casey Harison offers a cultural and social history of one of the most successful bands of the 1960s British Invasion. In this historically sensitive account of the superband's impact during its first decade, Harison describes the key role played by The Who in the formation of the "Atlantic Generation" of rock 'n' roll fans. When the band first burst onto the scene, they quickly established their reputation for amping up the volume, pushing distortion effects (feedback), and destroying instruments on stage at the end of performances. If The Who did nothing else for their generation, they would have easily secured a place in rock 'n' roll history for high volume, smashed guitars, and kicked over drum sets. Ever since, The Who's stage antics have achieved iconic status in rock 'n' roll. But we should not forget how startling this on-stage violence was and what it signified. Audiences had never experienced music so loud, a band so energetic, and stage destruction so redolent of the frustrations they shared. If anything, who'd have thought the three in combination-with excellent songwriting and studio production-would emerge as a formula for success? Feedback: The Who and Their Generation begins with the roots of rock music, setting the stage for The Who when its four band members came together in 1964 to produce their most successful work over the next decade. Throughout, Harison looks at the musical and social cross-Atlantic feedback that characterized The Who's reception and impact. From distorted guitars to "big sound" drum solos, The Who mirrored youth culture-its anger and its frustrations, from the class conflicts of England and Europe to the Vietnam protest movements of the United States. The Who, like no other British Invasion band, assumed a signal role in the transatlantic cultural traffic. From the American music traditions they borrowed-rock, blues, R&B-they transformed and returned to America the very music that served as their source of anger, echoing audiences' angst while developing enormous fan bases in Europe and America.

Before The Beatles landed on American shores in February 1964 only two British acts had topped the Billboard singles chart. In the first quarter of 1964, however, the Beatles alone accounted for sixty percent of all recorded music sold in the United States; in 1964 and 1965 British acts occupied the number one position for 52 of the 104 weeks; and from 1964 through to 1970, the Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, the Dave Clark Five, the Animals, the Kinks, the Hollies, the Yardbirds and the Who placed more than one hundred and thirty songs on the American Top Forty. In The British Invasion: The Crosscurrents of Musical Influence, Simon Philo illustrates how this remarkable event in cultural history disrupted and even reversed pop culture's flow of influence, goods, and ideas-orchestrating a dramatic turn-around in the commercial fortunes of British pop in North America that turned the 1960s into "The Sixties." Focusing on key works and performers, The British Invasion tracks the journey of this musical phenomenon from peripheral irrelevance through exotic novelty into the heart of mainstream rock. Throughout, Philo explores how and why British music from the period came to achieve such unprecedented heights of commercial, artistic, and cultural dominance. The British Invasion: The Crosscurrents of Musical Influence will appeal to fans, students and scholars of popular music history-indeed anyone interested in understanding the fascinating relationship between popular music and culture.

American composer Louise Talma (1906-1996) was the first female winner of two back-to-back Guggenheim Awards (1946, 1947), the first American woman to have an opera premiered in Europe (1962), the first female winner of the Sibelius Award for Composition (1963), and the first woman composer elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1974). This book analyses Talma's works in the context of her life, focusing on the effects on her work of two major changes she made during her adult life: her conversion to Catholicism as an adult, under the guidance of Nadia Boulanger, and her adoption of serial compositional techniques. Employing approaches from traditional musical analysis, feminist and queer musicology, and women's autobiographical theory to examine Talma's body of works, comprising some eighty pieces, this is the first full-length study of this pioneering composer. Exploring Talma's compositional language, text-setting practices, and the incorporation of autobiographical elements into her works using her own letters, sketches, and scores, as well as a number of other relevant documents, this book positions Talma's contributions to serial and atonal music in the United States, considers her role as a woman composer during the twentieth century, and evaluates the legacy of her works and career in American music.

(FAQ). Prog Rock FAQ traces the controversial, but much misunderstood musical genre through its five-decade history, highlighting the rise, eventual decline, and recent resurgence of one of the most inventive and storied popular musical forms of the latter half of the 21st century. Prog Rock FAQ digs deep to deliver a view of progressive rock as you've never known it: Technical wizards, cosmic messengers, visionary producers, groundbreaking album-cover illustrators, and even innovative musical instrument vendors separate memory from myth, fact from fiction, to recount prog rock's most historically significant milestones and little-known tales. This interview-rich, unapologetic volume addresses topics taboo and burning alike, while welcoming the reader on an enthralling journey replete with rapturous visions, wondrous stories, and endless enigmas.

Simon Frith has been one of the most important figures in the emergence and subsequent development of popular music studies. From his earliest academic publication, The Sociology of Rock (1978), through to his recent work on the live music industry in the UK, in his desire to 'take popular music seriously' he has probably been cited more than any other author in the field. Uniquely, he has combined this work with a lengthy career as a music critic for leading publications on both sides of the Atlantic. The contributions to this volume of essays and memoirs seek to honour Frith's achievements, but they are not merely 'about Frith'. Rather, they are important interventions by leading scholars in the field, including Robert Christgau, Antoine Hennion, Peter J. Martin and Philip Tagg. The focus on 'sociology and industry' and 'aesthetics and values' reflect major themes in Frith's own work, which can also be found within popular music studies more generally. As such the volume will become an essential resource for those working in popular music studies, as well as in musicology, sociology and cultural and media studies.

Exploring U2: Is This Rock 'n' Roll? features new writing in the growing field of U2 studies. Edited by Scott Calhoun, with a foreword by Anthony DeCurtis, Exploring U2 contains selections from the 2009 inaugural gathering of "The Hype and The Feedback: A Conference Exploring The Music, Work and Influence of U2." In keeping with U2's own efforts to remove barriers that have long prevented dialogue for understanding and improving the human experience, this collection of essays examines U2 from perspectives ranging from the personal to the academic and is accessible to curious music fans, students, teachers, and scholars alike. Four sections organize sixteen essays from leading academics, music critics, clergy, and fans. From the academic disciplines of literature, music, philosophy, and theology, essays study U2's evolving use of source material in live performances, the layering of vocal effects in signature songs, the crafting of a spiritual community at live concerts, U2's success as a business brand, Bono's rhetorical presentation of Africa to the Western consumer, and readings of U2's work for irony, personhood, hope, conservatism, and cosmic-time. Official band biographer Neil McCormick considers U2 as a Dublin-shaped band, and Danielle Rheaume tells how discovering and returning Bono's lost briefcase of lyrics for the album October propelled her along her own artistic journey. This thoughtful and timely collection recognizes U2's music both as art and commentary on personal journeys and cultural dialogues about contemporary issues. It offers insights and critical assessments that will appeal not only to scholars and students of popular music and culture studies but to those in the fields of theology, philosophy, the performing arts, literature, and all intellectually curious fans of U2.

From Prince's superstardom to studio seclusion, this second book in the award-winning Prince Studio Sessions series spotlights how Prince, the biggest rock star on the planet at the time, risked everything to create some of the most introspective music of his four-decade career. Duane Tudahl takes us on an emotional and intimate journey of love, loss, rivalry, and renewal revealed through unprecedented access to dozens of musicians, singers, studio engineers, and others who worked with him and knew him best-with never-before-published memories from the Revolution, the Time, the Family, and Apollonia 6. Also included is a heartfelt foreword by musical legend Elton John about his time and friendship with Prince.

This is a study of the way in which popular words and music relate to American life. The question of what popular song was, and why it came into existence, as well as how each song fit within the context of the larger 20th Century society are considered and explained clearly and fruitfully. Songs of the Jazz Age and Swing Era are considered primarily in terms of song-types and their relation to the times. Post World War II songs are shown to have splintered into a multitude of different styles and variations within each style. Many 20th Century songs came to be closely identified with particular singers and performance groups, shifting the attention to the styles identified with particular performers and the audiences they reached. Tawa avoids overly-technical vocabulary, making this examination of hundreds of popular songs accessible to a wide variety of readers seeking to better their understanding of the often perplexing musical landscape of the time.

As humanly possible, this book attempts to evaluate every track that Paul McCartney has released on a major label. Thus, the premise of this book: to sift the gems from the chaff and examine what's driven McCartney up and down for fifty years. There are plenty of tracks suitable for casual fans, adolescents, even pre-schoolers. But there are tracks for an older audience too, tracks so good they can supply grown-ups with a rewarding soundtrack for a lifetime. It's these that make for a playlist worth keeping. From 1970 and beyond, the songwriting McCartney seemed to be saddled with a rickety who-cares system that generated iffy results. Gone were 'Eleanor Rigby' and 'Penny Lane'. Instead, came the thought-free 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' and 'Bip Bop', songs The Beatles wouldn't have considered for a second. Troubles swarmed around him as he searched for his place. The Beatles had theirs - where was his? Was he overly obsessed with perfection? Maybe. Or was it insecurity? His next record couldn't be a forward-thinking experiment, with sales falling wherever they may. It had to - had to - be a chart topper adored all over the world.

K-pop, described by Time Magazine in 2012 as "South Korea's greatest export", has rapidly achieved a large worldwide audience of devoted fans largely through distribution over the Internet. This book examines the phenomenon, and discusses the reasons for its success. It considers the national and transnational conditions that have played a role in K-pop's ascendancy, and explores how they relate to post-colonial modernisation, post-Cold War politics in East Asia, connections with the Korean diaspora, and the state-initiated campaign to accumulate soft power. As it is particularly concerned with fandom and cultural agency, it analyses fan practices, discourses, and underlying psychologies within their local habitus as well as in expanding topographies of online networks. Overall, the book addresses the question of how far "Asian culture" can be global in a truly meaningful way, and how popular culture from a "marginal" nation has become a global phenomenon.

In 1982, aged twenty-three, Simon Parkes paid GBP1 for a virtually derelict building in Brixton. Over the next fifteen years he turned it into Britain's most iconic music venue. And now he's telling his story: full of fond - and wild - reminiscences of the famous musicians who played at the venue, including Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Lou Reed, The Ramones, New Order, the Beastie Boys and The Smiths. This is about one man's burning desire for success against the odds, his passion for live music and the excitement of those wilderness years, a far cry from the corporate world that controls the scene today. From rock-star debauchery and mixing it up with Brixton gangsters to putting on the first legal raves in the UK and countless backroom business deals, this is the story of how to succeed in business with no experience and fulfil your teenage fantasies.