From early accounts of dance customs in medieval Ireland to the present, Helen Brennan offers an authoritative look at the evolution of Irish dance. Every type of dance from social to traditional to clergy is included. Brennan takes care to explain the different styles and traditions that evolved from different parts of Ireland; which results in some lively discussions as people reminisce over old favorites. She also discusses how dance evolved to become such an important part of Ireland's culture and history. An appendix is offered to help explain the various steps involved in each style of dance including the Munster or Southern style, Single Shuffle, Double Shuffle, Treble Shuffle, the Heel Plant, the Cut, the Rock or Puzzle, the Drum, the Sean Nos Dance Style of Connemara, and the Northern Style.

An intimate, coming-of-age memoir by legendary guitarist Kid Congo Powers, detailing his experiences as a young, queer Mexican-American in 1970s Los Angeles through his rise in the glam rock and punk rock scenes. Kid Congo Powers has been described as a "legendary guitarist and paragon of cool" with "the greatest resume ever of anyone in rock music." That unique imprint on rock history stems from being a member of not one but three beloved, groundbreaking, and influential groups--Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, the Cramps, and last but not least, The Gun Club, the wildly inventive punk-blues band he co-founded. Some New Kind of Kick begins as an intimate coming of age tale, of a young, queer, Chicano kid, growing up in a suburb east of East LA, in the mid-'70s, exploring his sexual identity through glam rock. When a devastating personal tragedy crushes his teenage dreams, he finds solace and community through fandom, as founder ('The Prez') of the Ramones West Coast fan club, and immerses himself in the delinquent chaos of the early LA punk scene. A chance encounter with another superfan, in the line outside the Whiskey-A-Go-Go to get into a Pere Ubu concert, changes the course of his life entirely. Jeffrey Lee Pierce, a misfit Chicano punk who runs the Blondie fan club, proposes they form a band. The Gun Club is born. So begins an unlikely transition from adoring fan to lauded performer. In Pierce, he finds brotherhood, a creative voice, and a common cause, but also a shared appetite for self-destruction that threatens to overwhelm them both. Quirky, droll, and heartfelt, with a pitch-perfect evocation of time and place, and a wealth of richly-drawn supporting characters, Some New Kind of Kick is a memoir of personal transformation, addiction and recovery, friendship and belonging, set against the relentless creativity and excess of the '70s and '80s underground music scenes.

This is the first book to comprehensively cover all of the Australian piano music of the 20th century. It is lavishly illustrated with over 300 music examples, giving a very clear picture of the various composers and styles. The composers are listed within various historical and stylistic blocks as well as within consideration of their own pianistic prowess. The large number of scores will help future researchers as well as recording and concert pianists who are searching for new and exciting repertoire. This is an invaluable book certain to appeal to music lovers, the professional musician and amateur, and students. In fact, anyone interested in the piano and its historical evolution will appreciate this volume.

Illustrated throughout with stunning images, this glossy biography tells the story of Taylor Swift's life and music. The definitive biography of a global music icon.

Includes coverage of The Tortured Poets Department and The Eras Tour

Taylor Swift’s rise to mega stardom is the story of the century. Charming fans straight out the gate as a teen country music sensation, Swift has gone on to dominate the music industry as a pop titan.

She is the first woman to have four albums in the Billboard chart’s Top Ten at the same time, is the recipient of fourteen Grammys and forty American Music Awards, and her recent Eras tour broke records to become the highest-grossing tour in history.

A treasured celebrity who has triumphed in the face of haters and intrusive tabloid coverage, Taylor Swift uses her personal life as inspiration for her songwriting, delivering hit after hit, and selling out stadiums the world over. Her music continues to engage, evolve and encapsulate the hearts of fans all over the world.

Taylor’s story is one of love and poetry.

Bob Marley was the first, and possibly the only, superstar to emerge from the Third World. Although he lived a short life, only 36 years, Bob penned an enormous quantity of songs, pioneering a new reggae rhythm and sound that was distinctly Jamaican. An expert lyricist who could more than hold his own with any contemporary hip-hop word slinger, Bob crafted emotionally powerful chains of words that packed a serious punch. Twenty-five years after his death, the music of Bob Marley and the Wailers is as popular and relevant as it was the day it was released. Author David Moskowitz gives readers an inside look at the man behind the legend. Fans from all corners of the globe are a testament to the fact that his music transcends race, color, economic class, even language. From Marley's poverty stricken early childhood in rural Jamaica to break out his faith in Rastafarianism, this biography recounts the life and music of one of the most famous popular artists of the last century, an incredible story for long-time fans as well for a new and ever-increasing audience who were too young to witness Marley's history-making music career firsthand. A timeline, photos, and a rich bibliography of print and electronic sources make this biography ideal for both research purposes and casual reading.

The book is user-friendly and extremely handy as a reference tool. In addition, it makes for enjoyable and highly informative reading.

The Words and Music of Frank Zappa is the first book to move beyond the details of Zappa's biography toward a focused treatment of the rock and pop songs of this great American composer. Frank Zappa worked in a musical realm that is unfamiliar to many radio listeners, but today his music can be appreciated as a whole, allowing it to emerge as a coherent, thoughtful, innovative--if somewhat daunting--body of work. Author Kelly Lowe has left no aspect of that work unexamined, from Zappa's role as a satirist of the highest order, to his place in the genre of "progressive rock," and his importance as one of the foremost critics of American culture and society. Like those of many satirists, Frank Zappa's messages--musical and lyrical--may not always be clear, but they are well worth considering. Kelly Lowe has provided an excellent guide to aid readers in that endeavor. The volume begins with a discussion of Zappa's role as a satirist and a discussion of his musical style, and then proceeds to a prolonged examination of his albums. Through this extended engagement with Zappa's music, a surprisingly clear perspective on his personal views is also provided, shedding light on his treatment of such topics as the falsified notion of love in popular culture, the compromising influence of money on popular music, and the concept of freedom in a systematized society, among other things. The book also features an official discography and a bibliographic essay that discusses the current state of Zappa scholarship.

Bach representa el genio cumbre de la armon a musical, el hombre de bien que sufre las ingratitudes de su tiempo, el creyente de un Ser Supremo y el forjador de un himno de paz para toda la humanidad y la historia. Vivir es triunfar. Y triunfar es resolver dos fuerzas antag nicas. En todo instante estamos viviendo y muriendo. En todo momento somos y no somos. Ser y no ser frase mas profunda que la de la tragedia shakesperiana. Todo es y deja de ser. Todo cambia y es. Inmanente a la vida est el perpetuo fl uir de lo existente. Bach es el nico artista que ha llegado a esas insondables profundidades del oc ano, en donde se funden y se identifi can la luz y la obscuridad. Adalberto Garc a de Mendoza

THE #1 MOST COMPREHENSIVE AND HONEST BOOK FOR ANYONE WHO'S EVER WANTED TO SING ON MAJOR TV COMMERCIALS You have a great voice, but record deals are getting harder and harder to come by. Paid gigs don't pay enough and solo albums aren't selling even with promotion. There is an answer for you VOLUME 4 OF THE 30-30 CAREER: MAKING 30 GRAND IN 30 SECONDS SINGING ON MAJOR TV COMMERCIALS walks you through the lucrative world of commercial jingles. What once was stereotyped as a career for campy, cliche vocalists and songwriters has now become a pathway to generating a hit song and promoting bands and brands at the same time. JINGLES today are sounding more and more like SINGLES. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been made by singers on commercials over the years and the competition is growing tougher and tougher all the time. Whether you are a new comer or veteran in the game, VOLUME 4 of THE 30-30 shows you how to break deeper into this money-making industry right now and have your voice heard locally, nationally and internationally. We break down the SKILL, the NETWORK, and the PSYCHOLOGY of singing on commercials. With the record industry changing day to day, every singer and songwriter should be making extra money in the advertising industry. It's true. You're either NETworking or NOTworking Ever wonder why the politics are never on your side? This book unveils the politics and secrets to working your way onto vocal contracts that get you paid. Start networking today and make "NEW" money by SINGING ON MAJOR TV COMMERCIALS.

Fantasy has had a modern resurgence in cinema due largely to the success of superhero narratives and the two major fantasy series, the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Often regarded as mere escapism, this genre has been neglected as the subject of serious academic work. This volume explores the way in which music and sound articulate the fantastic in cinema and contribute to the creation of fantasy narratives. Fantasy invokes the magical within its narratives as the means by which to achieve what would be impossible in our own reality, as compared to sci-fi's as-yet unknown technologies and horror's dark and deadly supernatural forces. Fantasy remains problematic, however, because it defies many of the conventional mechanisms by which genre is defined such as setting, mood and audience. In a way quite unlike its co-genres, fantasy moves with infinite flexibility between locations - the world (almost) as we know it, historical, futuristic or mythic locations; between moods - heroic, epic, magical; and between audiences - children, teens, adults. In English-language cinema, it encompasses the grand mythic narratives of Lord of the Rings, Legend and The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, the heroic narratives of Superman, Flash Gordon and Indiana Jones and the magical narratives of Labyrinth, Edward Scissorhands and the Harry Potter series, to name just some of films that typify the variety that the genre offers. What these films all have in common is a requirement that the audience accepts the a fundamental break with reality within the diegesis of the filmic narrative, and embraces magic in its many and various forms, sometimes benign, sometimes not. This volume examines music in fantasy cinema across a broad historical perspective, from Bernard Herrmann's scores for Ray Harryhausen, through the popular music scores of the 1980s to contemporary scores for films such as The Mummy and the Harry Potter series, allowing the reader to see not only the way that the musical strategies of fantasy scoring have changed over time but also to appreciate the inventiveness of composers such as Bernard Herrmann, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Danny Elfman and Elliot Goldenthal, and popular musicians such as Queen and David Bowie in evoking the mythic, the magical and the monstrous in their music for fantasy film.