Robert Plant is one of the few genuine living rock legends. Frontman of Led Zeppelin, musical innovator and seller of millions of records, Plant has had a profound influence on music for over four decades. But the full account of his life has barely been told ... until now. Robert Plant: A Life is the first complete and comprehensive telling of Plant's story. From his earliest performances in folk clubs in the early 1960s, to the world's biggest stages as Led Zeppelin's self-styled 'Golden God', and on to his emergence as an emboldened solo star. The sheer scale of Zeppelin's success is extraordinary: in the US alone they sold 70 million records, a figure surpassed only by the Beatles. But their success was marred by tragedy. These pages contain first-hand accounts of Plant's greatest highs and deepest lows: the tragic deaths of his son Karac and his friend, Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. Told in vivid detail, this is the definitive story of a man of great talent, remarkable fortitude and extraordinary conviction.

Featuring fresh insights from Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie, Unzipped digs deeper than ever before into the Stones' archives to present a comprehensive collection of Stones artworks, instruments, stage outfits and notebooks alongside key work by some of the legends of rock photography. For almost 60 years the Rolling Stones have helped shape popular culture around the globe. Unzipped captures the compelling character and dynamic spectacle of the band through distinctive photography and interviews with the Stones themselves, tracing their impact and influence on rock music, art, design, fashion, photography and filmmaking. Evocative archive photos, artworks, outtakes and memorabilia, together with dazzling images of the band's instruments and outfits, plunge you into the ever-changing world of the Stones. Many of the instruments and outfits are paired with pertinent archive photos, so you can examine the detail and see the objects in use. Peppered throughout with engrossing and insightful new commentary by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood, the book also features a compelling introduction by Anthony DeCurtis, which chronicles their career, and perceptive articles by some of their most important creative collaborators, including Buddy Guy, Don Was, Anna Sui, John Varvatos, Martin Scorsese, Shepherd Fairey, Patrick Woodroffe and Willie Williams. Bold, glamorous and captivating - and beautifully bound and finished - Unzipped is the perfect showcase for 'the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world'. With 400 illustrations, 370 in colour

'One of the most rewarding pieces of hip-hop criticism ever written' Jeff Chang 'Brilliant' Giles Peterson 'Will Ashon's dazzling study gets to the heart of hip hop, pop culture and the history of contemporary America. Essential' Matt Thorne 'Each of these chambers contains wonders of history, destiny and mythology' Margo Jefferson Will Ashon tells, in 36 interlinked 'chambers', the story of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and how it changed the world. As unexpected and complex as the album itself, Chamber Music ranges from provocative essays to semi-comic skits, from deep scholarly analysis to satirical celebration, seeking to contextualise, reveal and honour this singularly composite work of art. From the FBI's war on drugs to the porn theatres of 42nd street, from the history of jazz to the future of politics, Chamber Music is an explosive and revelatory new way of writing about music and culture.

In 1997 the rap group Racionais MCs (the 'Rational' MCs) recorded the album Sobrevivendo no Inferno (Surviving in Hell), subsequently changing the hip-hop scene in Sao Paulo and firmly establishing itself as the point of reference for youth across Brazil. In an era when rappers needed to defend the very idea that their work was indeed music and a time when neighborhoods such as Capao Redondo, from where Racionais frontman Mano Brown hailed, often topped homicide statistics, Sobrevivendo empowered as it provoked. As one journalist noted, "the underworld of Sao Paulo's working-class suburbs is dominated by cheap thrills and provides little space for representation." Sobrevivendo changed all of that; a brutal but invigorating imagination was born. The lure of Sobrevivendo is the particular combination of word and sound that powerfully involves listeners, especially those millions of young Brazilians who live in the neighborhoods on the periphery of Brazil's megacities. This book celebrates the 25-year anniversary of Sobrevivendo by representing the album's power not only within the hip-hop community but also in other cultural domains such as cinema and literature. The author also provides his own narrative spins on the sentiment of Sobrevivendo, thus making the book a creative mix of cultural analysis and inspired testimony.

Keith Morris is a true punk icon. No one else embodies the sound of Southern Californian hardcore the way he does. With his waist-length dreadlocks and snarling vocals, Morris is known the world over for his take-no-prisoners approach on the stage and his integrity off of it. Over the course of his forty-year career with Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, and OFF!, he's battled diabetes, drug and alcohol addiction, and the record industry...and he's still going strong. My Damage is more than a book about the highs and lows of a punk rock legend. It's a story from the perspective of someone who has shared the stage with just about every major figure in the music industry and has appeared in cult films like The Decline of Western Civilization and Repo Man. A true Hollywood tale from an L.A. native, My Damage reveals the story of Morris's streets, his scene, and his music--as only he can tell it.

'Gillespie is rock and roll's Oliver Twist. A punk rock fairytale, razor sharp on class struggle, music, style, and a singular view of the world resulting in one of the world's great bands. Couldn't put down' Courtney Love Born into a working-class Glaswegian family in the summer of 1961, TENEMENT KID begins in the district of Springburn, soon to be evacuated in Edward Heath's brutal slum clearances. Leaving school at 16 and going to work as a printers' apprentice, Bobby's rock n roll epiphany arrives like a bolt of lightning shining from Phil Lynott's mirrored pickguard at his first gig at the Apollo in Glasgow. Filled with 'the holy spirit of rock n roll' his destiny is sealed with the arrival of the Sex Pistols and punk rock which to Bobby, represents an iconoclastic vision of class rebellion and would ultimately lead to him becoming an artist initially in the Jesus and Mary Chain then Primal Scream. Building like a breakbeat crescendo to the Summer of Love, Boys Own parties, and the fateful meeting with Andrew Weatherall in an East Sussex field, as the '80s bleed into the '90s and a new kind of electronic soul music starts to pulse through the nation's consciousness, TENEMENT KID closes with the release of Screamadelica, the album often credited with 'starting the '90s'. A book filled with the joy and wonder of a rock n roll apostle who would radically reshape the future sounds of fin de siecle British pop, Bobby Gillespie's memoir cuts a righteous path through a decade lost to Thatcherism and saved by acid house.

Having spent his entire career as a professional singer, songwriter, and musician, Thinking About Tomorrow is the amazing tale of rock and roll survivor Keith West. From being inspired by Elvis in the 1950s to pop stardom and working alongside the greats of the music world in the 1960s, Keith was at the eye of the storm alongside peers including The Who, The Beatles, The Kinks, The Small Faces, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix and many, many more. With his Tomorrow bandmates - Steve Howe, Junior and Twink - Keith was a pioneer of psychedelic music in the 1960s with songs such as My White Bicycle, and he also achieved international fame alongside Mark Wirtz with the song Excerpt from a Teenage Opera (popularly remembered by millions of music fans as Grocer Jack). Tomorrow evolved from the R&B and mod bands Four + 1 and The In Crowd and, while their recorded output is small, their influence on other artists and the way rock music would develop is widely-regarded as enormous. Steve Howe went on to continue his incredible guitar adventures in Yes and Asia, and Twink would continue to influence the rock world as a member of pioneering bands The Pretty Things, The Pink Fairies, and Hawkwind. Keith would go on to have a long career in the music business, embracing punk in the late 70s and indie music in the 80s and 90s. But this is no straightforward tale of rock and roll hedonism; the book also pulls back the curtain on the mysterious world of the music industry. It reveals how agents, managers, publishers, record companies, songwriters, artists and the media are all locked together in an endless pursuit of the elusive elixir of their professional lives - a hit. Yet, once lightning has struck, the tragic consequences, the tremendous opportunities and the money generated can still create ripples half a century later...

Ariana Grande captured the hearts of a nation with her One Love Manchester concert. Less than a fortnight after a terrorist killed twenty-two people at her Manchester show, the petite princess stood tall at her tribute concert that united and healed a shaken nation. She was the emotional core of a powerful evening that reminded us all of music's redemptive power. But who is Ariana Grande? This candid book traces the US pop star's story from her childhood in Florida, through her teenage years on Broadway and Nickelodeon, and on to her gleaming pop career which has seen her described as 'the new Mariah Carey'. This unauthorized biography tells the songbird's eventful and inspirational story in full for the first time, and shows how she became an award-winning, chart-topping pop idol, as well as an empowering inspiration for a generation of girls. It reveals that there is more to Ariana than the celebrity we all think we know, explaining how her smooth transition from a squeaky-clean teenage pop product to a sophisticated, bold artist was powered by a restless and resilient personality. A must read for all her fans, this is a full, unflinching portrait of a pop sensation and inspiring, uncompromising woman - the small, sassy girl with the ponytail who conquered the world.

- A comprehensive guide to musicals that are based on musicians' existing back catalogues - how they work, why they work and why they are so successful. - Written for musical theatre students at all levels - primarily on the 150 BA degrees across the UK and North America. - The first book to address this relatively new genre of musical theatre, doing so with in-depth and wide ranging analysis.

Listen to Psychedelic Rock! contains more than 50 entries covering the people, records, places, and events that shaped one of the most exciting and influential periods in popular music. This addition to the Exploring a Music Genre series concentrates solely on psychedelic rock music. Listen to Psychedelic Rock! Exploring a Musical Genre covers over fifty topics, arranged alphabetically, that are central to learning about psychedelic music and will enable readers to understand the breadth and ongoing influence of psychedelia through to the present day. The title contains biographical sketches on selected artists, "song-by-song" descriptions of many albums, and short, informative essays on participants who were influential in the original psychedelic movement. A background section introduces the genre and a legacy section shows how psychedelic music has cemented its place in the world, while another section shows the tremendous impact the music has had on popular culture. Information on record labels and year-of-release dates for all musical entries make it easy for any reader to navigate this title - a must-have for high school and college readers as well as for music scholars and fans of the genre. Provides readers with a thorough overview of artists and albums whose works came to define psychedelic music Addresses the differences between psychedelia in England and in the United States Discusses the intellectual and literary influence on psychedelia in England Provides easy reference to more than fifty individual topics through A-Z organization Contextualizes the music in American history

October 1982: ABC, Culture Club, Shalamar and Survivor dominate the top twenty when the Pogues barrel out from the backstreets of King's Cross, a furious, pioneering mix of punk energy, traditional melodies and the powerfully poetic songwriting of Shane MacGowan. Reviled by traditionalists for their frequently fast, often riotous interpretations of Irish folk songs, the Pogues rose from the sweaty chaos of backroom gigs in Camden pubs to world tours with the likes of Elvis Costello, U2 and Bob Dylan, and had huge commercial success with everyone's favourite Christmas song, 'Fairytale of New York'. Yet, the exuberance of their live performances coupled with relentless touring spiralled into years of hard drinking and excess which eventually took their toll - most famously on Shane, but also on the rest of the band - causing them to part ways seven years later. Here, their story is told with beauty, lyricism and great candour by James Fearnley, founding member and accordion player. He brings to life the youthful friendships, the bust-ups, the amazing gigs, the terrible gigs, the fantastic highs and the dramatic lows in a hugely compelling, humorous, moving and honest account of life in one of our most treasured and original bands.

Decades after the rise of rock music in the 1950s, the rock concert retains its allure and its power as a unifying experience - and as an influential multi-billion-dollar industry. In Rock Concert, acclaimed interviewer Marc Myers sets out to uncover the history of this compelling phenomenon, weaving together ground-breaking accounts from the people who were there. Myers combines the tales of icons like Joan Baez, Ian Anderson, Alice Cooper, Steve Miller, Roger Waters and Angus Young with figures such as the disc jockeys who first began playing rock on the radio; the audio engineers that developed new technologies to accommodate ever-growing rock audiences; music journalists, like Rolling Stone's Cameron Crowe; and the promoters who organized it all, like Michael Lang, co-founder of Woodstock, to create a rounded and vivid account of live rock's stratospheric rise. Rock Concert provides a fascinating, immediate look at the evolution of rock 'n' roll through the lens of live performances, spanning the rise of R&B in the 1950s, through the hippie gatherings of the '60s, to the growing arena tours of the '70s and '80s. Elvis Presley's gyrating hips, the British Invasion that brought the Beatles in the '60s, the Grateful Dead's free flowing jams and Pink Floyd's The Wall are just a few of the defining musical acts that drive this rich narrative. Featuring dozens of key players in the history of rock and filled with colourful anecdotes, Rock Concert will speak to anyone who has experienced the transcendence of live rock.

With a listing of over 3,600 books about individual artists and groups, this is the most accurate and comprehensive bibliography available on Rock/Pop stars. It is the most authoritative source for English-language titles, which are listed in the main directory under an A-Z presentation of artists. For easy access, information is cross-referenced through the use of author, title, and subject indexes. A down-to-the-wire supplement completes the book in a timely fashion. Collectors will be pleased with entries for privately published and/or limited editions, of which many are very rare.

This is the first extensive scholarly study of drone metal music and its religious associations, drawing on five years of ethnographic participant observation from more than 300 performances and 74 interviews, plus surveys, analyses of sound recordings, artwork, and extensive online discourse about music. Owen Coggins shows that while many drone metal listeners identify as non-religious, their ways of engaging with and talking about drone metal are richly informed by mysticism, ritual and religion. He explores why language relating to mysticism and spiritual experience is so prevalent in drone metal culture and in discussion of musical experiences and practices of the genre. The author develops the work of Michel de Certeau to provide an empirically grounded theory of mysticism in popular culture. He argues that the marginality of the genre culture, together with the extremely abstract sound produces a focus on the listeners' engagement with sound, and that this in turn creates a space for the open-ended exploration of religiosity in extreme states of bodily consciousness.

In the 1970s, Northern Soul held a pivotal position in British youth culture. Originating in the English North and Midlands in the late-1960s, by the mid-1970s it was attracting thousands of enthusiasts across the country. This book is a social history of Northern Soul, examining the origins and development of this music scene, its clubs, publications and practices. Northern Soul emerged in a period when working class communities were beginning to be transformed by deindustrialisation and the rise of new political movements around the politics of race, gender and locality. Locating Northern Soul in these shifting economic and social contexts of the English North and Midlands in the 1970s, the authors argue that people kept the faith not just with music, but with a culture that was connected to wider aspects of work, home, relationships and social identities. Drawing on an expansive range of sources, including oral histories, magazines and fanzines, diaries and letters, this book offers a detailed and empathetic reading of a working class culture that was created and consumed by thousands of young people in the 1970s. The authors highlight the complex ways in which class, race and gender identities acted as forces for both unity and fragmentation on the dancefloors of iconic clubs such as the Twisted Wheel in Manchester, Blackpool Mecca, the Torch in Stoke-on-Trent, the Catacombs in Wolverhampton and the Casino in Wigan. Marking a significant contribution to the historiography of youth culture, this book is essential reading for those interested in popular music and everyday life in postwar Britain. -- .

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.

Since 1963 Eric Clapton has contributed to two hundred albums by other artists: from very famous to the obscure and the unexpected: Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Sting, Phil Collins, Rod Stewart, all four of the Beatles, Martha Velez, Jonathan Kelly, Corey Hart, Stephen Bishop, Hawkwind, Ray Charles, Kate Bush, The Tony Rich Project, Toots and the Maytals and Mary J. Blige. If you've never heard (for instance) 'Beat of the Night' by Bob Geldof, 'Sexual Revolution' by Roger Waters or 'I Wish It Would Rain Down' by Phil Collins, this book tells you about Eric's part in those recordings and many more, as well as his more notorious collaborations with the likes of The Beatles, Bob Dylan - and Ed Sheeran! Indeed, this book puts these into context across nearly sixty years of documented sessions. If you've never delved into Eric's contributions to other artist's recordings, then this is a handy guide to help the reader find his way into such a lengthy and successful second career. If his own albums are the main story, then these recordings run alongside: an alternative history of one of rock's most prolific musicians

"Yungblud is like nothing you've seen before. That is, unless you've seen a smiley punk/alt rocker from Doncaster, UK who wears pink socks, black-lipstick, and a skirt, plays a mean guitar, has an endless amount of energy, and an interesting aura of sex appeal. Then, and only then, can you say you've seen someone like Yungblud." - musicinminnesota.com YUNGBLUD. A striking new musical voice has emerged for Gen-Z. Political, provocative and impassioned, Yungblud has in the space of three years become one of the UK's most recognisable artists through his unique blend of pop, punk and emo music - gaining one of the most die-hard fanbases on the planet in the process. From 21st Century Liability, where nothing was sacred - gun violence, psychosis, sex, drugs and suicide - to his sophomore album Weird!, an exploration of oddity and self-acceptance, YUNGBLUD challenges our zeitgeist as much as he channels it. This is the first fully authorised book, featuring photographs by his friend and closest collaborator Tom Pallant. Featuring an amazing selection of rare and unseen photographs, All My Friends Have Deserted charts Yungblud's journey from late 2019 as he toured his debut album across the world, right through releasing his second album during a global pandemic, scoring his first UK #1, returning triumphantly to Reading and Leeds festival mainstage and culminating in his biggest ever headline show, a sold-out Alexandra Palace in London. All My Friends Have Deserted shows YUNGBLUD as a man of multitudes: dominating the stage, screaming into the mic, laughing behind-the-scenes, enjoying quiet creative moments and pulling faces at the camera. The vicious energy of his performances carries onto the page. The result is a rollercoaster of a photo-essay that carries readers on a journey through the highs and lows of Gen-Z's most essential new rock star. "My generation is over being divided. Being divided is an old concept that is rapidly becoming obsolete. We are opinionated. We are full of contradictions. That's the beauty of it. Our intention is to make this world equal. No matter what size you are, what shape you are, what colour you are, what sexuality you are..." Underpinning it all is the message of empathy. Those who his lyrics resonate with are not alone. Authentic and electric, rebellious and irreverent, yet still utterly human, YUNGBLUD is the new face of punk. Here he presents himself through a series of exclusive and unseen photographs, taken by his friend and closest collaborator, photographer Tom Pallant.

This text brings together spokespersons from several different disciplines who can present their arguments for or against rational suicide as a viable concept and, consequently, a realistic option. The pros and cons of the discussion format bring the readers to search for their beliefs, and the final decision of acceptance or rejection of the concept is left to each individual reader.

One of our great essayists and journalists-the Dean of American Rock Critics, Robert Christgau-takes us on a heady tour through his life and times in this vividly atmospheric and visceral memoir that is both a love letter to a New York long past and a tribute to the transformative power of art. Lifelong New Yorker Robert Christgau has been writing about pop culture since he was twelve and getting paid for it since he was twenty-two, covering rock for Esquire in its heyday and personifying the music beat at the Village Voice for over three decades. Christgau listened to Alan Freed howl about rock 'n' roll before Elvis, settled east of Manhattan's Avenue B forty years before it was cool, witnessed Monterey and Woodstock and Chicago '68, and the first abortion speak-out. He's caught Coltrane in the East Village, Muddy Waters in Chicago, Otis Redding at the Apollo, the Dead in the Haight, Janis Joplin at the Fillmore, the Rolling Stones at the Garden, the Clash in Leeds, Grandmaster Flash in Times Square, and every punk band you can think of at CBGB. Christgau chronicled many of the key cultural shifts of the last half century and revolutionized the cultural status of the music critic in the process. Going Into the City is a look back at the upbringing that grounded him, the history that transformed him, and the music, books, and films that showed him the way. Like Alfred Kazin's A Walker in the City, E. B. White's Here Is New York, Joseph Mitchell's Up in the Old Hotel, and Patti Smith's Just Kids, it is a loving portrait of a lost New York. It's an homage to the city of Christgau's youth from Queens to the Lower East Side-a city that exists mostly in memory today. And it's a love story about the Greenwich Village girl who roamed this realm of possibility with him.

No other music reference offers this kind of diversity in one volume. Covering all areas of popular music, from pop to rock, jazz to blues, country to folk, and dance to world music, the updated edition of this unique resource features: more than five thousand of the world's leading musicians, singers, songwriters, producers and celebrities; valuable information on many up-and-coming artists difficult to obtain elsewhere; entries compiled from questionnaires sent to the biographees; career details including major concerts, recordings and compositions, publications, honors and contract address wherever possible; appendices listing international music organizations, record companies, festivals, music agents and management companies involved in the dynamic world of popular music.

This exciting new volume complements the International Who's Who in Music and Musician's Directory, which is already a leading source of classical and light classical music information. Together, these two references form an unrivaled guide to who really in who in all fields of music.

Joe Strummer was one of the twentieth century's iconic rock'n'roll rebels. As frontperson, spokesperson and chief lyricist for The Clash, he played a major role in politicising a generation through some of the most powerful protest songs of the era, songs like 'White Riot', 'English Civil War' and 'London Calling'. At the heart of this protest was the struggle for social justice and equality. The punk rock politics of Joe Strummer examines Strummer's beliefs on a range of issues - including socialism, alienation, exploitation, multiculturalism and humanism - analysing their credibility, influence and impact, and asking where they came from and how they developed over time. Drawing on Strummer's lyrics, various interviews and bootleg recordings, as well as interviews with those he inspired, The punk rock politics of Joe Strummer takes the reader on a journey through the political influences and motivations that defined one of the UK's greatest punk icons. -- .