How did Melbourne earn its place as one of the world's 'music cities'? Beginning with the arrival of rock 'n' roll in the 1950s, this book explores the development of different sectors of Melbourne's popular music ecosystem in parallel with broader population, urban planning and media industry changes in the city. The authors draw on interviews with Melbourne musicians, venue owners and policy-makers, documenting their ambitions and experiences across different periods, with accompanying spotlights on the gendered, multicultural and indigenous contexts of playing and recording in Melbourne. Focusing on pop and rock, this is the first book to provide an extensive historical lens of popular music within an urban cultural economy that in turn investigates the contemporary nature and challenges of urban music activities and policy.

The first scholarly discussion on the band, Pearl Jam and Philosophy examines both the songs (music and lyrics) and the activities (live performances, political commitments) of one of the most celebrated and charismatic rock bands of the last 30 years. The book investigates the philosophical aspects of their music at various levels: existential, spiritual, ethical, political, metaphysical and aesthetic. This philosophical interpretation is also dependent on the application of textual and poetic analysis: the interdisciplinary volume puts philosophical aspects of the band's lyrics in close dialogue with 19th- and 20th-century European and American poetry. Through this widespread philosophical examination, the book further looks into the band's immense popularity and commercial success, their deeply loyal fanbase and genuine sense of community surrounding their music, and the pivotal place the band holds within popular music and contemporary culture.

Following the success of Complete Rock Family Trees, Pete Frame documents the story of The Beatles. The trees unfold alongside photographs and memorabilia to document the Liverpool scene. Other froups featured are Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Searchers, and The Swinging Blue Jeans.

Bob Dylan's ways with words are a wonder, matched as they are with his music and verified by those voices of his. In response to the whole range of Dylan early and late (his songs of social conscience, of earthly love, of divine love, and of contemplation), this critical appreciation listens to Dylan's attentive genius, alive in the very words and their rewards.

"Fools they made a mock of sin." Dylan's is an art in which sins are laid bare (and resisted), virtues are valued (and manifested), and the graces brought home. The seven deadly sins, the four cardinal virtues (harder to remember?), and the three heavenly graces: these make up everybody's world -- but Dylan's in particular. Or rather, his worlds, since human dealings of every kind are his for the artistic seizing. Pride is anatomized in "Like a Rolling Stone," Envy in "Positively 4th Street," Anger in "Only a Pawn in Their Game" ... But, hearteningly, Justice reclaims "Hattie Carroll," Fortitude "Blowin' in the Wind," Faith "Precious Angel," Hope "Forever Young," and Charity "Watered-Down Love."

In The "New Yorker, Alex Ross wrote that "Ricks's writing on Dylan is the best there is. Unlike most rock critics -- 'forty-year-olds talking to ten-year-olds, ' Dylan has called them -- he writes for adults." In the "Times (London), Bryan Appleyard maintained that "Ricks, one of the most distinguished literary critics of our time, is almost the only writer to have applied serious literary intelligence to Dylan ..."

Dylan's countless listeners (and even the artist himself, who knows?) may agree with W.H. Auden that Ricks "is exactly the kind of critic every poet dreams of finding."

Has the global phenomenon that is Pop Idol completely ruined pop music, or is it just the natural revolution of a genre of music that has always been manufactured? From Tin Pan Alley via The Monkees and finally to boy bands, this is the complete history of the most successful genre of music ever.;Manufactured acts have been the money-spinning mainstay of the pop industry for decades. "Bubblegum: The History of Plastic Pop" takes a decade-by-decade look at some of the music industry's more cynical creations from the 1950s to the 21st century, encompassing acts such as The Monkees, The Bay City Rollers and The Spice Girls, as well as the phenomenon that is Pop Idol and its siblings. This revealing study includes interviews with the movers and shakers of the pop world and the artistic armies behind their successes, including Chinn and Chapman, Stock, Aitken and Waterman, Simon Fuller, Paula Abdul and Cathy Dennis. The result is a comprehensive look back at some of the fly-by-nights of pop and a DIY guide to becoming a pop star, listing the dos and don'ts of making it in the pop music industry.

What happens in our unconscious minds when we listen to, produce or perform popular music? The Unconscious - a much misunderstood concept from philosophy and psychology - works through human subjects as we produce music and can be traced through the music we engage with. Through a new collaboration between music theorist and philosopher, Smith and Overy present the long history of the unconscious and its related concepts, working systematically through philosophers such as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, psychoanalysts such as Freud and Lacan, to theorists such as Deleuze and Kristeva. The theories offered are vital to follow the psychological complexity of popular music, demonstrated through close readings of individual songs, albums, artists, genres, and popular music practices. Among countless artists, Listening to the Unconscious draws from Prince to Sufjan Stevens, from Robyn to Xiu Xiu, from Joanna Newsom to Arcade Fire, from PJ Harvey to LCD Sound System, each of whom offer exciting inroads into the fascinating worlds of our unconscious musical minds. And in return, theories of the unconscious can perhaps takes us deeper into the heart of popular music.

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.

The definitive account of Jeff Beck's journey from his childhood in 1940s South London to the world-wide success of 2010's album Emotion and Commotion and beyond.Author Martin Power has talked to former Yardbirds members Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty as well as manager Simon Napier-Bell and fellow musicians including Max Middleton, Stanley Clarke, Simon Phillips, Jimmy Hall, Mo Foster, Doug Wimbish and many others. Supported by full album reviews, rare photographs and an up-to-date discography, Hot Wired Guitar is the most complete and comprehensive account of the life and times of Jeff Beck, the man who took the electric guitar and showed the world just what could be done with just six strings and 'one hell of an attitude'.

Smith examines the different ways in which gay men use pop music, both as producers and consumers, and how, in turn, pop uses gay men. He asks what role culture plays in shaping identity and why pop continues to thrill gay men. These 40 essays and interviews look at how performers, from The Kinks' Ray Davies to Gene's Martin Rossiter, have used pop as a platform to explore and articulate, conform to or contest notions of sexuality and gender. A defence of cultural differences and an attack on cultural elitism, Seduced and Abandoned is as passionate and provocative as pop itself.

Elvis Presley stands tall as perhaps the supreme icon of 20th-century U.S. culture. But he was perceived to be deeply un-American in his early years as his controversial adaptation of rhythm and blues music and gyrating on-stage performances sent shockwaves through Eisenhower's conservative America and far beyond. This book explores Elvis Presley's global transformation from a teenage rebel figure into one of the U.S.'s major pop-cultural embodiments from a historical perspective. It shows how Elvis's rise was part of an emerging transnational youth culture whose political impact was heavily conditioned by the Cold War. As well as this, the book analyses Elvis's stint as G.I. soldier in West Germany, where he acted as an informal ambassador for the so-called American way of life and was turned into a deeply patriotic figure almost overnight. Yet, it also suggests that Elvis's increasingly synonymous identity with U.S. culture ultimately proved to be a double-edged sword, as the excesses of his superstardom and personal decline seemingly vindicated long-held stereotypes about the allegedly materialistic nature of U.S. society. Tracing Elvis's story from his unlikely rise in the 1950s right up to his tragic death in August 1977, this book offers a riveting account of changing U.S. identities during the Cold War, shedding fresh light on the powerful role of popular music and consumerism in shaping images of the United States during the cultural struggle between East and West.

Released in 2008, J-pop trio Perfume's GAME shot to the top of Japanese music charts and turned the Hiroshima trio into a household name across the country. It was also a high point for techno-pop, the genre's biggest album since the heyday of Yellow Magic Orchestra. This collection of maximalist but emotional electronic pop stands as one of the style's finest moments, with its influence still echoing from artists both in Japan and from beyond. This book examines Perfume's underdog story as a group long struggling for success, the making of GAME, and the history of techno-pop that shaped it. 33 1/3 Global, a series related to but independent from 33 1/3, takes the format of the original series of short, music-basedbooks 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.

There is no denying that the last couple of years have been tough for all of us. Life has changed drastically due to the Covid 19 pandemic, and this includes rock icons. Suzi Quatro has never had a regular job. Being a rock and roll musician is what she has been doing her whole life. Then suddenly, everything changed, and instead of constantly being on tour, she found herself at home. Suzi is never one to sit around idling her time and the pandemic produced an album that has done very well indeed. It has also produced her third hardcover coffee table book, sharing her thoughts as the days and the weeks passed. Full to the brim with private photographs in colour, Suzi lets us in to her life in this window of time when the world changed. Her thoughts about the state of life as she sees it is meant as an inspiration to us all. "The third in my series of illustrated coffee table books, 1 year in lockdown,1 year on this roller coaster called life, 1 year where you can go through every single emotion you have in 5 minutes. Sometimes you smile, sometimes you cry, many times you just hit the wall. I faithfully did my instagram posts every morning sharing my feelings and tribulations, trying to lift people's spirits. It helps to share. It helps to know you're not alone. Enjoy my moods! ( I blame being a Gemini!!) Suzi Quatro"