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Books > Music > Contemporary popular music > Rock & pop
As the creative force behind Berry Gordy Jr.'s Motown Records in
the mid-Sixties, a writing credit from Holland Dozier Holland was
virtually a guarantee of chart success. From Stop! In The Name Of
Love to How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You, they were the
songwriting and production dream team responsible for some of the
greatest songs of the twentieth century. In this compelling
autobiography, brothers Eddie and Brian Holland share their story
for the first time, starting with growing up in Detroit raised by a
single mother and their grandmother, before shining a light on
their early musical careers. A gifted lyricist, Eddie started out
as a solo singer with Berry Gordy as his manager before partnering
up with his brother Brian and Lamont Dozier, both talented
arrangers and producers. When Holland Dozier Holland came together,
they helped transform Motown Records from a local soul label into a
worldwide hit factory, home to international superstars such as
Marvin Gaye, Martha & The Vandellas, The Supremes, Smokey
Robinson, The Miracles, The Four Tops and The Isley Brothers. After
an awe-inspiring tenure they left Motown in 1968, continuing their
successes at new labels and with new collaborators for years to
come. Featuring honest and open first-hand accounts, Come and Get
These Memories is more than just a behind-the-scenes look at Motown
Records at its peak: Eddie and Brian set the record straight on
both their personal and professional lives and offer a revealing
slice of pop-music history.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Black celebrities in America have always walked a precarious line
between their perceived status as spokespersons for their race and
their own individual success -and between being "not black enough"
for the black community or "too black" to appeal to a broader
audience. Few know this tightrope walk better than Kanye West, who
transformed hip-hop, pop and gospel music, redefined fashion,
married the world's biggest reality TV star and ran for president,
all while becoming one of only a handful of black billionaires
worldwide. Despite these accomplishments, his polarizing behavior,
controversial alliances and bouts with mental illness have made him
a caricature in the media and a disappointment among much of his
fanbase. This book examines West's story and what it reveals about
black celebrity and identity and the American dream.
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