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Books > Music
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. -- .
Virtuality has entered our lives making anything we desire
possible. We are, as Gorillaz once sang, in an exciting age where
‘the digital won’t let [us] go…’ Technology has
revolutionized music, especially in the 21st century where the
traditional rules and conventions of music creation, consumption,
distribution, promotion, and performance have been erased and
substituted with unthinkable and exciting methods in which
absolutely anyone can explore, enjoy, and participate in creating
and listening to music. Virtual Music explores the interactive
relationship of sound, music, and image, and its users
(creators/musicians/performers/audience/consumers). Areas involving
the historical, technological, and creative practices of virtual
music are surveyed including its connection with creators,
musicians, performers, audience, and consumers. Shara Rambarran
looks at the fascination and innovations surrounding virtual music,
and illustrates key artists (such as Grace Jones, The Weeknd),
creators (such as King Tubby, Kraftwerk, MadVillain, Danger Mouse),
audiovisuals in video games and performances (such as Cuphead and
Gorillaz), audiences, and consumers that contribute in making this
musical experience a phenomenon. Whether it is interrogating the
(un)realness of performers, modified identities of artists,
technological manipulation of the Internet, music industry and
music production, or accessible opportunities in creativity, the
book offers a fresh understanding of virtual music and appeals to
readers who have an interest in this digital revolution.
The emergence of social media in the early 21st century promised to
facilitate new "DIY" cultural approaches, emphasizing participation
and democratization. However, in recent years these platforms have
been criticized as domineering and exploitative. For DIY musicians
in scenes with lengthy histories of cultural resistance, is social
media a powerful emancipatory and democratizing tool, or a new
corporate antagonist to be resisted? DIY Music explores the
significant challenges faced by artists navigating this fraught
cultural landscape. How do anti-commercial musicians operate in the
competitive, attention-seeking world of social media? How do they
deal with a new abundance of data and metrics? How do they present
their activity as "cultural resistance"? This book shows that a
platform-enabled DIY approach is now the norm for a wide array of
cultural practitioners; this "DIY-as-default" landscape threatens
to depoliticize the call to "do-it-yourself."
Legendary Grammy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated record producer George Martin shares tales from his life and musical career with the Fab Four.
George Martin spotted the Beatles' talent, and recorded and produced The Fab Four from the start right through to The Beatles Anthology. Often called “the fifth Beatle,” Martin not only produced but also arranged some of the band’s most iconic and distinctive songs, including “Yesterday.” In this witty and charming autobiography, Martin describes exactly what it was like to work in the studio with the Beatles―from their first audition (and his decision to scrap Pete Best on drums) to the wild experimentation of Sgt. Pepper, complete with sound effects, animal noises, and full orchestras in evening dress at the direct request of Paul McCartney.
All You Need Is Ears is an intimate insider’s look at the most important pop group of all time, and how they made the music that changed the world: it’s an inimitable look at the Beatles’ creative process, and at the interplay of genius and practical improvisation that gave them their sound. It’s an indispensable read for Beatle lovers and anyone interested in how the world of popular music really works.
He was the "Man in Black," a country music legend, and the quintessential American troubadour. He was an icon of rugged individualism who had been to hell and back, telling the tale as never before. In his unforgettable autobiography, Johnny Cash tells the truth about the highs and lows, the struggles and hard-won triumphs, and the people who shaped him. In his own words, Cash set the record straight -- and dispelled a few myths -- as he looked unsparingly at his remarkable life: from the joys of his boyhood in Dyess, Arkansas to superstardom in Nashville, Tennessee, the road of Cash's life has been anything but smooth. Cash writes of the thrill of playing with Elvis, the comfort of praying with Billy Graham; of his battles with addiction and of the devotion of his wife, June; of his gratitude for life, and of his thoughts on what the afterlife may bring. Here, too, are the friends of a lifetime, including Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, and Kris Kristofferson. As powerful and memorable as one of his classic songs, Cash is filled with the candor, wit, and wisdom of a man who truly "walked the line."
Singing together is a tried and true method of establishing and
maintaining a group's identity. Identity, Intertextuality, and
Performance in Early Modern Song Culture for the first time
explores comparatively the dynamic process of group formation
through the production and appropriation of songs in various
European countries and regions. Drawing on oral, handwritten and
printed sources, with examples ranging from 1450 to 1850, the
authors investigate intertextual patterns, borrowing of melodies,
and performance practices as these manifested themselves in a broad
spectrum of genres including ballads, popular songs, hymns and
political songs. The volume intends to be a point of departure for
further comparative studies in European song culture. Contributors
are: Ingrid Akesson, Mary-Ann Constantine, Patricia Fumerton, Louis
Peter Grijp, Eva Guillorel, Franz-Josef Holznagel, Tine de Koninck,
Christopher Marsh, Hubert Meeus, Nelleke Moser, Dieuwke van der
Poel, Sophie Reinders, David Robb, Clara Strijbosch, and Anne
Marieke van der Wal.
Uncurating Sound performs, across five chapters, a deliberation
between art, politics, knowledge and normativity. It foregrounds
the perfidy of norms and engages in the curatorial as a colonial
knowledge project, whose economy of exploitation draws a straight
line from Enlightenment's desire for objectivity, through sugar,
cotton and tobacco, via lives lost and money made to the violence
of contemporary art. It takes from curation the notion of care and
thinks it through purposeful inefficiency as resistance: going
sideways and another way. Thus it moves curation through the double
negative of not not to "uncuration": untethering knowledge from the
expectations of reference and a canonical frame, and reconsidering
art as political not in its message or aim, but by the way it
confronts the institution. Looking at Kara Walker's work, the book
invites the performance of the curatorial via indivisible
connections and processes. Reading Kathy Acker and Adrian Piper it
speculates on how the body brings us to knowledge beyond the
ordinary. Playing Kate Carr and Ellen Fullman it re-examines
Modernism's colonial ideology, and materialises the vibrational
presence of a plural sense. Listening to Marguerite Humeau and
Manon de Boer it avoids theory but agitates a direct knowing from
voice and hands, and feet and ears that disorder hegemonic
knowledge strands in favour of local, tacit, feminist and
contingent knowledges that demand like Zanele Muholi's photographs,
an ethical engagement with the work/world.
For centuries many have pondered the prospect of an afterlife and
feared what came to be known as 'hell'. In the near future, we map
the elusive 'dark matter' around us, only to find out that it is
hell itself, and it is very real... As the satanic President Razour
attempts to bring forward Armageddon to prevent humanity repenting,
the fate of us all rests in the hands of Cleric20, a hedonistic
loner with a chequered past, and his robot sidekick, GiX. An
action-packed literary shock to the senses that mixes flights of
comic fantasy with bouts of brutal violence. Mankind's only hope
seems to be having a very bad day. Can Cleric20 halt Razour's
devilish plans after an experimental bioweapon deployed to kill him
accidentally gives him superpowers? Has the Devil inadvertently
created a hero who could actually stop him? See why this was voted
as one of Den of Geek UK's Top Books of 2019. Little can prepare
you for this spiritually-charged, cyber-noir thrill ride.
This book discusses WWI-era music in a historical context,
explaining music's importance at home and abroad during WWI as well
as examining what music was being sung, played, and danced to
during the years prior to America's involvement in the Great War.
Why was music so important to soldiers abroad during World War I?
What role did music-ranging from classical to theater music, rags,
and early jazz-play on the American homefront? Music of the First
World War explores the tremendous importance of music during the
years of the Great War-when communication technologies were
extremely limited and music often took the place of connecting
directly with loved ones or reminiscing via recorded images. The
book's chapters cover music's contribution to the war effort; the
variety of war-related songs, popular hits, and top recording
artists of the war years; the music of Broadway shows and other
theater productions; and important composers and lyricists. The
author also explores the development of the fledgling recording
industry at this time. Provides an excellent resource for students
investigating music during the First World War as well as for
adults interested in WWI-era history or music of the pre-twenties
Documents the variety of reasons songs were sung by soldiers in
wartime-to cheer themselves up, boost courage, poke fun at or
stimulate hatred of their enemies, or express grievances or protest
against the war or against authority Covers stage music of the WWI
era, including music hall (British), vaudeville, revues, operettas,
and musicals
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