Breaking is the first and most widely practiced hip-hop dance in the world today, with an estimated one million participants taking part in this dynamic, multifaceted artform. Yet, despite its global reach and over 40 years of existence, historical treatments of the dance have largely neglected the African Americans who founded it. Dancer and scholar Serouj "Midus" Aprahamian offers, for the first time, a detailed look into the African American beginnings of breaking in the Bronx, New York, during the 1970s. Given the pivotal impact the dance had on hip-hop's formation, this book also challenges numerous myths and misconceptions that have permeated studies of hip-hop culture's emergence. Aprahamian draws on untapped archival material, primary interviews, and detailed descriptions of early breaking to bring this buried history to life, with a particular focus on the early aesthetic development of the dance, the institutional settings in which hip-hop was conceived, and the movement's impact on sociocultural conditions in New York throughout the 1970s. By featuring the overlooked first-hand accounts of over 50 founding b-boys and b-girls, this book also shows how indebted breaking is to African American culture and interrogates the disturbing factors behind its historical erasure.

The definitive biography of Chuck Berry, legendary performer and inventor of rock and roll.

Best known as the groundbreaking artist behind classics like "Johnny B. Goode," "Maybellene," "You Never Can Tell" and "Roll Over Beethoven," Chuck Berry was a man of wild contradictions, whose motives and motivations were often shrouded in mystery. After all, how did a teenage delinquent come to write so many songs that transformed American culture? And, once he achieved fame and recognition, why did he put his career in danger with a lifetime's worth of reckless personal behaviour? Throughout his life, Berry refused to shed light on either the mastery or the missteps, leaving the complexity that encapsulated his life and underscored his music largely unexplored--until now.

In Chuck Berry, biographer RJ Smith crafts a comprehensive portrait of one of the great American entertainers, guitarists, and lyricists of the 20th century, bringing Chuck Berry to life in vivid detail. Based on interviews, archival research, legal documents, and a deep understanding of Berry's St. Louis (his birthplace, and the place where he died in March 2017), Smith sheds new light on a man few have ever really understood. By placing his life within the context of the American culture he made and eventually withdrew from, we understand how Berry became such a groundbreaking figure in music, erasing racial boundaries, crafting subtle political commentary, and paying a great price for his success. While celebrating his accomplishments, the book also does not shy away from troubling aspects of his public and private life, asking profound questions about how and why we separate the art from the artist.

Berry declined to call himself an artist, shrugging that he was good at what he did. But the man's achievement was the rarest kind, the kind that had social and political resonance, the kind that made America want to get up and dance. At long last, Chuck Berry brings the man and the music together.

A blend of This Is Spinal Tap and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the cult classic confessions of a debauched rock 'n' roller and his adventures in excess on the '80s hair-metal nostalgia tour through Middle America--available again, and now revised and updated.

Once upon a time at the start of the new century, the unheard-of Unband got a chance to drink, fight, and play loud music with '80s metal bands like Dio and Def Leppard. To the mix they brought illegal pyrotechnics, a giant red inflatable hand with movable digits, a roadie dubiously named Safety Bear, a high tolerance for liver damage, and an infectious love of rock & roll and everything it represents.

Unband bassist Michael Ruffino takes us on an epic joyride across a surrealistic American landscape where we meet mute Christian groupies, crack-smoking Girl Scouts, beer-drinking chimps, and thousands of head-bangers who cannot accept that hair metal is dead. Here, too, are uncensored portraits of Ronnie James Dio, Anthrax, Sebastian Bach, Lemmy of Motorhead, and others.

Adios, Motherfucker is gonzo rock storytelling at its finest--excessive, incendiary, intelligent, hilarious, and utterly original.

Although David Bowie has famously characterized himself as a "leper messiah," a more appropriate moniker might be "rock god" someone whose influence has crossed numerous sub-genres of popular and classical music and can at times seem ubiquitous. By looking at key moments in his career (1972, 1977-79, 1980-83, and 1995-97) through several lenses--theories of sub-culture, gender/sexuality studies, theories of sound, post-colonial theory, and performance studies Waldrep will examine Bowie's work in terms not only of his auditory output but his many reinterpretations of it via music videos, concert tours, television appearances, and occasional movie roles. Future Nostalgia will look at all aspects of Bowie's career--musical recordings, live concerts, music videos, film performances, and television appearance--in an attempt to trace Bowie's contribution to the performative paradigms that constitute contemporary rock music.

Sex, death and nostalgia are among the impulses driving Beatles fandom: the metaphorical death of the Beatles after their break-up in 1970 has fueled the progressive nostalgia of fan conventions for 48 years; the death of John Lennon and George Harrison has added pathos and drama to the Beatles' story; Beatles Monthly predicated on the Beatles' good looks and the letters page was a forum for euphemistically expressed sexuality. The Beatles and Fandom is the first book to discuss these fan subcultures. It combines academic theory on fandom with compelling original research material to tell an alternative history of the Beatles phenomenon: a fans' history of the Beatles that runs concurrently with the popular story we all know.

Experience the K-Pop phenomenon of BTS in this best-selling Ultimate Fan Book! BTS are much more than just a group of seven talented individuals, they are a band acclaimed for their record-smashing, barrier-breaking, trend-setting dance-pop and hip-hop tunes and personal philosophies. Featuring brand new content and sensational new photos, BTS - The Ultimate Fan Book includes everything you need to know about Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook, as well as the BTS ARMY. A celebration of the K-Pop phenomenon, exploring in stunning technicolour detail the group's origins, members and super rise to success, this Ultimate Fan Book is beautifully accompanied by photographs showcasing the band's kaleidoscope of personalities and passions that have made them famous. BTS are more than just a boy band - they are a way of life.

Explore the fascinating history of the Muscle Shoals Sound.

You can tell a lot about somebody in a minute. If you choose the right minute. As a journalist (for Rolling Stone, the "New York Times", and elsewhere) and bestselling author, Neil Strauss considers it his job to hang around celebrities, rock gods, porn queens, up-and-coming starlets, and iconic superstars long enough - whether it takes moments or months - to find that minute, the one when the curtain finally falls away and the real person is revealed. In this new collection, Strauss offers up 120 of those singular, hit-you-in-the guts, perception-altering, revolutionary minutes, as only he can - with total honesty, deadpan wit, and unmatched style. Among the game-changing moments collected here are interviews with: Tom Cruise; Snoop Dogg; Madonna; Johnny Cash; Cher and Dave Navarro; Oasis; Julian Casablancas of The Strokes; Brian Wilson; Eric Clapton; and, Hugh Hefner. Wickedly illustrated throughout with sketches by artist Sian Pattenden, Strauss' first-ever collection of rock journalism is equally raw and revealing (Tom Cruise on Scientology, Brian Wilson on drugs and alcohol), hilarious (Snoop Dogg on record companies and baby diapers), and deeply honest (Eric Clapton on the death of Kurt Cobain and his own struggle with depression). "Everyone Loves You When You're Dead" is Neil Strauss, cultural journalist, at his finest.

Rock 'n' roll is a style that was born out of the great American melting pot. An outgrowth of the blues, rock 'n' roll music combines driving rhythms, powerful chords, and lyrics that communicate the human experience to audiences around the world. Although rock singing was once seen as a vulgar use of the human voice and was largely ignored by the academic community, voice teachers and singers around the world have recently taken a professional interest in learning specialized techniques for singing rock 'n' roll. So You Want to Sing Rock 'n' Roll gives readers a comprehensive guide to rock history, voice science, vocal health, audio technology, technical approaches to singing rock, and stylistic parameters for various rock subgenres. Matthew Edwards, assistant professor of voice at Shenandoah Conservatory, provides easy-to-understand explanations of technical concepts, with tips for practical application, and suggestions for listening and further reading. So You Want to Sing Rock 'n' Roll includes guest-authored chapters by singing voice researchers Dr. Scott McCoy and Dr. Wendy LeBorgne, as well as audio and visual examples available from the website of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. This work is not only the ideal guide to singing professionals, but the perfect reference work for voice teachers and their students, lead and back-up singers, record producers and studio engineers. The So You Want to Sing series is produced in partnership with the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Like all books in the series, So You Want to Sing Rock 'n' Roll features online supplemental material on the NATS website. Please visit www.nats.org to access style-specific exercises, audio and video files, and additional resources.

With hits including `Child in Time', and the iconic `Smoke on the Water', Deep Purple established themselves as one of Britain's greatest rock bands From the moment he saw Elvis Presley on screen, Ian Gillan, a working class teenager from Hounslow, was inspired to become a rock star. That wish was to come true when the opportunity arose to join Deep Purple, and global fame soon followed. The ensuing years were thrilling but punishing. The band recorded six albums in just four years and tensions within the band, as well as issues with alcohol, brought Ian to breaking point. Ian describes the rock `n' roll lifestyle in disarming detail while never taking himself too seriously, making this an entertaining read for any rock fan.

John Lennon wrote Skywriting by Word of Mouth, an impressive collection of writings and drawings, while Yoko was pregnant with Sean, and always planned to have it published. It was a wish that seemed to end with his assassination in 1980 and the subsequent theft of the manuscript from the Lennons' home in 1982. When it was recovered and first published in 1986, Skywriting received immediate critical and popular acclaim. Written in Lennon's extraordinary voice, and lavishly illustrated with his own drawings, the collection reveals his fertile creative spirit up close and in full force. Included in Skywriting is Two Virgins, written when the public learned that John and Yoko were living together as husband and wife, and John's only autobiography. In addition there are notes on his falling in love with Yoko, the breakup of the Beatles, his persecution by the U.S. authorities and his withdrawal from public life. This is a book with John Lennon's spirit on every page -- a spirit the world needs to remember.

"Candid and scathing....It's no wonder Lennon's fans grow more in love with him as time goes by... his great influence on popular music makes him impossible to forget; so does this book." --Houston Chronicle

"Marvelous, delightful reading, and for Lennon fans a must." --Publishers Weekly