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Books > Music
Today, teachers and performers of Turkish classical music
intentionally cultivate melancholies, despite these affects being
typically dismissed as remnants of the Ottoman Empire. Melancholic
Modalities is the first in-depth historical and ethnographic study
of the practices socialized by musicians who enthusiastically teach
and perform a present-day genre substantially rooted in the musics
of the Ottoman court and elite Mevlevi Sufi lodges. Author Denise
Gill analyzes how melancholic music-making emerges as pleasurable,
spiritually redeeming, and healing for both the listener and
performer. Focusing on the diverse practices of musicians who
deploy and circulate melancholy in sound, Gill interrogates the
constitutive elements of these musicians' modalities in the context
of emergent neoliberalism, secularism, political Islamism, Sufi
devotionals, and the politics of psychological health in Turkey
today. In an essential contribution to the study of ethnomusicology
and psychology, Gill develops rhizomatic analyses to allow for
musicians' multiple interpretations to be heard. Melancholic
Modalities uncovers how emotion and musical meaning are connected,
and how melancholy is articulated in the world of Turkish classical
musicians. With her innovative concept of "bi-aurality," Gill's
book forges new possibilities for the historical and ethnographic
analyses of musics and ideologies of listening for music scholars.
Owning the Masters provides the first in-depth history of sound
recording copyright. It is this form of intellectual property that
underpins the workings of the recording industry. Rather than being
focused on the manufacture of goods, this industry is centred on
the creation, exploitation and protection of rights. The
development and control of these rights has not been
straightforward. This book explores the lobbying activities of
record companies: the principal creators, owners and defenders of
sound recording copyright. It addresses the counter-activity of
recording artists, in particular those who have fought against the
legislative and contractual practices of record companies to claim
these master rights for themselves. In addition, this book looks at
the activities of the listening public, large numbers of whom have
been labelled 'pirates' for trespassing on these rights. The public
has played its own part in shaping copyright legislation. This is
an essential subject for an understanding of the economic, artistic
and political value of recorded sound.
'A really great book.' Bruce Springsteen With a foreword by Billy
Bragg. Few artists have captured the American experience of their
time as wholly as folk legend Woody Guthrie. Singer, songwriter and
political activist, Guthrie drew a lifetime of inspiration from his
roots on the Oklahoma frontier in the years before the Great
Depression. His music -- scathingly funny songs and poignant folk
ballads -- made heard the unsung life of field hands, migrant
workers, and union organisers, and showed it worthy of tribute.
Though his career was tragically cut short by the onset of a
degenerative disease that ravaged his mind and body, the legacy of
his life and music had already made him an American cultural icon,
and has resounded with every generation of musician and music lover
since. In this definitive biography, renowned journalist Joe Klein
creates an unforgettable portrait of a man as gifted, restless and
complicated as the American landscape he came from.
Sin Documentos is a landmark album in Spanish popular culture and
continues to maintain considerable popularity more than two decades
after its release. The characteristic guitar riff of the title
song, a kind of rumba-rock, still occupies a place at every party
in Spain. Los Rodriguez's success came after a decade characterized
by the rise and fall of local-language punk and new wave bands. By
the time Sin Documentos appeared, however, rock journalism was
fascinated by the thriving indie scene, where the bands were
singing in English and had turned to grunge and noise rock. This
book evaluates the influence of Latin American pop-rock in the
modernization of Spanish popular music from the 1950s, despite the
Anglophilia of Spanish rock scenes, especially in the 1990s.
Through interviews with members of the band and members of the
record label DRO, analysis of the media coverage of the album and a
cultural analysis of its meanings, it delves into the cultural
trends of Spain throughout the 1990s and beyond.
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