When many people think of African music, the first ideas that come to mind are often of rhythm, drums, and dancing. These perceptions are rooted in emblematic African and African-derived genres such as West African drumming, funk, salsa, or samba and, more importantly, essentialized notions about Africa which have been fueled over centuries of contact between the "West," Africa, and the African diaspora. These notions, of course, tend to reduce and often portray Africa and the diaspora as primitive, exotic, and monolithic. In Africanness in Action, author Juan Diego Diaz explores this dynamic through the perspectives of Black musicians in Bahia, Brazil, a site imagined by many as a diasporic epicenter of African survivals and purity. Black musicians from Bahia, Diaz argues, assert Afro-Brazilian identities, promote social change, and critique racial inequality by creatively engaging essentialized tropes about African music and culture. Instead of reproducing these notions, musicians demonstrate agency by strategically emphasizing or downplaying them.

Hip hop is remarkably self-critical as a genre. In lyrics, rappers continue to debate the definition of hip hop and question where the line between underground artist and mainstream crossover is drawn, who owns the culture and who runs the industry, and most importantly, how to remain true to the culture's roots while also seeking fame and fortune. The tension between the desires to preserve hip hop's original culture and to create commercially successful music promotes a lyrical war of words between mainstream and underground artists that keeps hip hop very much alive today. In response to criticisms that hip hop has suffered or died in its transition to the mainstream, this book seeks to highlight and examine the ongoing dialogue among rap artists whose work describes their own careers. Proclamations of hip hop's death have flooded the airwaves. The issue may have reached its boiling point in Nas's 2006 album Hip Hop is Dead. Nas's album is driven by nostalgia for a mythically pure moment in hip hop's history, when the music was motivated by artistic passion, instead of base commercialism. In the course of this same album, however, Nas himself brags about making money for his particular record label. These and similar contradictions are emblematic of the complex forces underlying the dialogue that keeps hip hop a vital element of our culture. Is Hip Hop Dead? seeks to illuminate the origins of hip hop nostalgia and examine how artists maintain control of their music and culture in the face of corporate record companies, government censorship, and the standardization of the rap image. Many hip hop artists, both mainstream and underground, use their lyrics to engage in a complex dialogue about rhyme skills versus record sales, and commercialism versus culture. This ongoing dialogue invigorates hip hop and provides a common ground upon which we can reconsider many of the developments in the industry over the past 20 years. Building from black traditions that value knowledge gained from personal experience, rappers emphasize the importance of street knowledge and its role in forging a career in the music business. Lyrics adopt models of the self-made man narrative, yet reject the trajectories of white Americans like Benjamin Franklin who espoused values of prudence, diligence, and delayed gratification. Hip hop's narratives instead promote a more immediately viable gratification through crime and extend this criminal mentality to their work in the music business. Through the lens of hip hop, and the threats to hip hop culture, author Mickey Hess is able to confront a range of important issues, including race, class, criminality, authenticity, the media, and personal identity.

Do you remember when certain songs connected you to that special someone and related to a certain time and location as if the recording artist knew what you were going through? Those were the days of doo-wop, better known as the good old days. The songs were magical, they touched you. Songs like: "Tears On My Pillow"-by Little Anthony & The Imperials, "Lovers Never Say Goodbye"-The Flamingoes, "Oh What a Night"-The Dells, "For Your Precious Love"-Jerry Butler & The Impressions. Even a song like "Soldier Boy"- by the Shirelles today relate to our troops, friends and love ones in combat. Fighting to preserve our freedom. The magical legacy carried over into the sixties and seventies. "Yes I'm Ready"-Barbara Mason, "Hey There Lonely Girl"- Eddie Holman, "Storm Warning"- The Volcanos, "Love Aint Been Easy"-The Trammps. These songs and the late Weldon McDougal III inspired me to write the true story of "The Volcanos" and "The Trammps." You will read about the beginning of my hunger to be in show business, the success and the unheard-of phenomenon that took place behind- the-curtains with "The Volcanos" and The Grammy Award Winning "Trammps." Jerry Blavat would say "You Only Rock Once" Read on and relive the days of doo-wop, disco, and memories. It's show time So Let the show begin..............

U2's significant career far exceeds that of most average successful rock bands, with a prolific output of thirteen well-received studio albums and a sometimes relentless touring schedule. The band is famous for uniquely drawing together music, art, faith, and activism, all within a lucrative career that has given each of these elements an unusual degree of social and cultural resonance. Broad-minded musically and intellectually, U2'soutput is thematically rich, addressing a slew of topics, from questions of faith to anxieties about commercialism to outright political statements. With one of the largest fan bases in the history of rock music, U2 and their work require contextualization and exploration. In U2: Rock 'n' Roll to Change the World, Timothy D. Neufeld takes up this challenge. Neufeld explores U2's move from the youthful idealism of a band barely able to play instruments through its many phases of artistic expression and cultural engagement to its employment of faith and activism as a foundation for its success. This book outlines how U2 reshaped the very musical and even political culture that had originally shaped it, demonstrating through close readings of its musical work the dynamic interplay of artistic expression and social engagement.

Bob Dylan: All the Songs focuses on Dylan's creative process and his organic, unencumbered style of recording. It is the only book to tell the stories, many unfamiliar even to his most fervent fans, behind the more than 500 songs he has released over the span of his career. Organized chronologically by album, and updated to include all of his most recent work including the 2020 release of his 39th album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, Margotin and Guesdon detail the origins of his melodies and lyrics, his process in the recording studio, the instruments he used, and the contribution of a myriad of musicians and producers to his canon.

Few Mexican musicians in the twentieth century achieved as much notoriety or had such an international impact as the popular singer and songwriter Agustin Lara (1897-1970). Widely known as "el flaco de oro" ("the Golden Skinny"), this remarkably thin fellow was prolific across the genres of bolero, ballad, and folk. His most beloved "Granada," a song so enduring that it has been covered by the likes of Mario Lanza, Frank Sinatra, and Placido Domingo, is today a standard in the vocal repertory. However, there exists very little biographical literature on Lara in English. In AgustinLara: A Cultural Biography, author Andrew Wood's informed and informative placement of Lara's work in a broader cultural context presents a rich and comprehensive reading of the life of this significant musical figure. Lara's career as a media celebrity as well as musician provides an excellent window on Mexican society in the mid-twentieth century and on popular culture in Latin America. Wood also delves into Lara's music itself, bringing to light how the composer's work unites a number of important currents in Latin music of his day, particularly the bolero. With close musicological focus and in-depth cultural analysis riding alongside the biographical narrative, Agustin Lara: A Cultural Biography is a welcome read to aficionados and performers of Latin American musics, as well as a valuable addition to the study of modern Mexican music and Latin American popular culture as a whole."

Breaking new ground in the field of Sound Studies, this book provides an in-depth study of the culture and physicality of dancehall reggae music. The reggae sound system has exerted a major influence on music and popular culture. Every night, on the streets of inner city Kingston, Jamaica, Dancehall sessions stage a visceral, immersive and immensely pleasurable experience of sonic dominance for the participating crowd. "Sonic Bodies" concentrates on the skilled performance of the crewmembers responsible for this signature of Jamaican music: the audio engineers designing, building and fine-tuning the hugely powerful "set" of equipment; the selectors choosing the music tracks played; and, MCs (DJs) on the mic hyping up the crowd. Julian Henriques proposes that these dancehall "vibes" are taken literally as the periodic movement of vibrations, and offers an analysis of how a sound system operates - not only at auditory, but also at corporeal and sociocultural frequencies. "Sonic Bodies" formulates a fascinating auditory critique of visual dominance and the dualities inherent in ideas of image, text or discourse. This innovative book questions the assumptions that reason resides only in the mind, that communication is an exchange of information and that meaning is only ever representation.

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Beneath the ever-changing and unstable political climate of Iran lies a rich youth culture centered around rock music. Reaching beyond a social, historical and political overview of music, Bronwen Robertson looks deeper and seeks to decipher how members of the underground scene invent and express different versions of 'being Iranian, ' through the production and distribution of their music. Robertson spent a year undercover in Tehran conducting research and interviews within this complex and fascinating culture. While the author explores each individual's relationship to their music, she also demonstrates how the underground scene as a whole becomes an expression of collective and anti-authoritarian identities. Robertson discusses concepts ranging from inspiration and ingenuity to the notion of being 'global, ' and how these musicians perceive their political and artistic impact. This illuminating work demonstrates that rock music, a global genre, gains significance as it is performed in a local context, disrupting pre-conceived notions of what it means to be 'Iranian.' >

Philosophy and Hip-Hop: Ruminations on Postmodern Cultural Form opens up the philosophical life force that informs the construction of Hip-hop by turning the gaze of the philosopher upon those blind spots that exist within existing scholarship. Traditional Departments of Philosophy will find this book a solid companion in Contemporary Philosophy or Aesthetic Theory. Inside these pages is a project that parallels the themes of existential angst, corporate elitism, social consciousness, male privilege and masculinity. This book illustrates the abundance of philosophical meaning in the textual and graphic elements of Hip-hop, and thus places Hip-hop within the philosophical canon.

Finally A hip, fun and culturally relevant series of music appreciation books, perfect for modern music-loving families who want to take advantage of this era of exploding musical access Get a personal guided tour through an amazing historical back-catalog of music that was previously unavailable. "Music Lab: We Rock "" A Fun Family Guide for Exploring Rock Music History" is a guided tour through thrilling corners of the musical universe that should not be missed This book highlights great songs in rock history, shares insights and stories on the artists, details the social and historical influences at play, and offers fun activities for families to do together. Detailed listening guides help music fans understand song structure, lyrics, and instrumentation. Related listening lists introduce readers to other exciting artists in similar genres. Set into 52 "music labs," these stories can be explored at will by individuals and families or used as a curriculum for community groups and educators. There really are no other books out there like thisa that are music appreciation books for a general audience that focus on popular musica so pick up yours today and soon have your whole family singing "We Rock." Upcoming volumes on Blues & Jazz and DJs, Dance, and Electronica are forthcoming."

As recommended by USA Today and excerpted on Rolling Stone.com! More than forty years after breaking up, The Beatles remain the biggest-selling and most influential group in the history of popular music. Fans endlessly replay their songs, craving more, while thousands of cover versions of their songs have been recorded and performed. Band biographies, pop music histories, song books, and academic titles on the Fab Four clutter shelves. But never has there been a definitive guide to the finest songs of The Beatles after they called it quits. Still the Greatest is a love song to the songwriting and recording achievements of Paul, John, George, and Ringo after each struck out on his own. In this creative history, Jackson selects the best songs in each solo career and organizes them into fantasy albums they might have formed had the legendary group stayed together. This romp through the post-Beatles history of each artist delves into the circumstances behind the composition, recording, and reception of each work, offering a refreshing take on how spectacular much of The Beatles' second act truly is. Jackson assesses the more than seventy albums and nine hundred songs the four collectively released, selecting the creme de la creme of their output. Still the Greatest brims with facts (release dates, writing and performing credits, and information about production techniques) and insightful analyses of the music and lyrics. In telling the stories behind the songs, Jackson recounts the remarkable influence the Post Fab Four continued to have long after the big split. Both a handy reference and an engrossing cover-to-cover read, Still the Greatest is an invaluable companion for those who thought it all ended with the 1970 album Let It Be.

'This book is a must for everyone interested in illuminating the idea of unexplainable genius' - QUESTLOVE Equal parts biography, musicology, and cultural history, Dilla Time chronicles the life and legacy of J Dilla, a musical genius who transformed the sound of popular music for the twenty-first century. He wasn't known to mainstream audiences, and when he died at age thirty-two, he had never had a pop hit. Yet since his death, J Dilla has become a demigod, revered as one of the most important musical figures of the past hundred years. At the core of this adulation is innovation: as the producer behind some of the most influential rap and R&B acts of his day, Dilla created a new kind of musical time-feel, an accomplishment on a par with the revolutions wrought by Louis Armstrong and James Brown. Dilla and his drum machine reinvented the way musicians play. In Dilla Time, Dan Charnas chronicles the life of James DeWitt Yancey, from his gifted Detroit childhood to his rise as a sought-after hip-hop producer to the rare blood disease that caused his premature death. He follows the people who kept Dilla and his ideas alive. And he rewinds the histories of American rhythms: from the birth of Motown soul to funk, techno, and disco. Here, music is a story of what happens when human and machine times are synthesized into something new. This is the story of a complicated man and his machines; his family, friends, partners, and celebrity collaborators; and his undeniable legacy. Based on nearly two hundred original interviews, and filled with graphics that teach us to feel and "see" the rhythm of Dilla's beats, Dilla Time is a book as defining and unique as J Dilla's music itself. Financial Times Music Book of the Year 2022

What are the interactions between transnational communication and national cultures? This work attempts to answer this critical question in the study of culture and communication. It takes as its vehicle of study the music industry and music making in 13 different cultures, presenting an insider's view of a global cultural experience. Of interest to musicologists and sociologists alike, plus anyone fascinated by distant cultures and how they are affected by external as well as internal communication systems.

The chapters are a collection of research findings produced for the International Communications and Youth Cultures Consortium (ICYC), an informal group of international scholars in many disciplines who are committed to understanding the economic and social factors that influence cultures and youth. Their point of view in this work is their individual country and the tensions that arise from the development of international communication systems. Each view is from inside the country; external influences are not subjects of study in themselves but are viewed as part of a complex scene along with other variables operating in various national situations.

'I see my story as a suite of songs that have a magical connection. I never understood that connection until I sat down to write. It was then that the magic started to flow.' Let Love Rule is a work of deep reflection. Lenny Kravitz looks back at his life with candor, self-scrutiny, and humour. 'My life is all about opposites,' he writes. 'Black and white. Jewish and Christian. The Jackson 5 and Led Zeppelin. I accepted my Gemini soul. I owned it. I adored it. Yins and yangs mingled in various parts of my heart and mind, giving me balance and fueling my curiosity and comfort.' Let Love Rule covers a vast canvas stretching from Manhattan's Upper East Side, Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant, Los Angeles's Baldwin Hills, Beverly Hills, and finally to France, England and Germany. It's the story of a wildly creative kid who, despite tough struggles at school and extreme tension at home, finds salvation in music. We see him grow as a musician and ultimately a master songwriter, producer, and performer. We also see Lenny's spiritual growth-and the powerful way in which spirit informs his music. The cast of characters surrounding Lenny is extraordinary: his father, Sy, a high-powered news executive; his mother, Roxie Roker, a television star; and Lisa Bonet, the young actress who becomes his muse. The central character, of course, is Lenny, who, despite his great aspirational energy, turns down record deal after record deal until he finds his true voice.The creation of that voice, the same voice that is able to declare 'Let Love Rule' to an international audience, is the very heart of this story. 'Whether recording, performing, or writing a book,' says Lenny, 'my art is about listening to the inspiration inside and then sharing it with people. Art must bring the world closer together.'

Exploring the interactions between Shakespeare and popular music, this book links these seeming polar opposites, showing how musicians have woven the Bard into their sounds. How have Shakespearean characters, words, texts and iconography been represented and reworked through popular music? Do all types of popular music represent Shakespeare in the same ways? And how do the links between Shakespeare and popular music challenge what we think we know about both Shakespeare and popular music? One of the enduring myths about how Shakespeare and popular music relate is that they don't - after all the antagonism between high culture and pop music could be considered mutual. In the first book of its kind, Adam Hansen shows what happens to Shakespeare when he exists in and becomes popular music, in all its diverse and glorious forms. Exploring these interactions reveals as much about the functions of the diverse genres of popular music as it does about Shakespeare as a global cultural form. Discussing a wide range of examples in a critically-informed but lively and accessible style, this book brings something new to Shakespeare and popular music, capturing the excitement and energy of both for its readers.

Rudi Blesh Harriet Janis THEY ALL PLATED RAGTIME The True Story of an American Music Alfred A. Knopf New Tork 1950 To the memory of SCOTT JOPLIN Here is the genius whose spirit., though diluted, was filtered through thousands of cheap songs and vain imitations. JOHN STARK S LIBRARY D ODDI Difisai ny MO. PUBLIC LIBRARY mh go way man, I can hypnotize dis nation, I can shake de earth s foundation wid de Maple Leaf Rag Oh go way man, just holdyo breath a minit, For theres not a stunt thafs in it, wid de Maple Leaf Rag MAPLE LEAP RAG SONG Music by Scott Joplin Words by Sydney Brown ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IRITING the first book on ragtime presented special problems. In the virtual absence of written source material, it was necessary, and in any event would have been desirable, to rely almost exclusively on personal interviews or correspond ence with the actual personalities who made ragtime one of the greatest musical crazes in history. The majority of these personalities were not easy to find. Many, of course, were dead. Most of those who had survived, thirty years since the ragtime craze ended and over half a century since it began, had lapsed into obscurity. We were fortunate, however, in lo cating all the important surviving key figures and the relatives and friends of those who are dead. Too profuse thanks cannot be given to the scores of people who talked with and played for us, for without the help they gave so enthusiastically this book would have been impossible to write. The story of Sedalia, the cradle of ragtime, and much of that of St. Louis, its quondam capital, are from the words of Arthur Marshall, G. Tom Ireland, the Reverend Alonzo Hayden, C. W. Gravitt, and William G. Flynn. TheSedalia picture was filled out by correspondence with Charles R. IX THEY ALL PLAYED BAG-TIME Hanna, music critic of the Sedalia Democrat, and Mrs. Julia Cross, sister of Scott Hayden. S. Branson Campbell The Rag time Kid, an early friend of Scott Joplin, generously furnished us with a part of the early stories of Joplin and Sedalia and permitted us to quote from his short history. When Ragtime Was Young which appeared in installments in the Jazz Journal, London, St. Louis history was unfolded by Sam Patterson, Artie Matthews, Charley Thompson, George Reynolds, Webb Owsley, Lester A. Walton, Mrs. Edward Mellinger, Charles Warfield who also contributed to the Chicago picture, Sylvestre Chauvin, nephew of Louis Chauvin, and the St. Louis ragtime enthusiast Dr. Hubert S. Pruett. The New Orleans chapter was filled out by George Pops Foster, Miss Ida Jackson and Mrs. Mariah Sutton sisters of the late Tony Jackson, Sammy Davis, Tony Parenti, and Dr. Edmond Souchon, and by Jelly Roll Morton posthu mously through his interviews with Alan Lomax and the 1938 documentary records he made for the Library of Congress archives. The rights to use this material were granted to Circle Records by the Morton Estate and its Executor, Hugh E. MacBeth, thus making it available to the authors. Invaluable, too, in the New Orleans connection were the reminiscences of the perennial prophet of ragtime, Roy J. Carew. To him also go our thanks for permission to quote from one of his published articles, for access to his sheet-music collection, and for his patient hours of playing the old rag time masterpieces for us. The life story of the late James Scott of Neosho and Kansas City was reconstructed from interviewsand correspondence with his sister, Mrs. Lena King, with his brothers, Howard and Oliver, and with his cousins, Mrs. Patsy L. Thomas, Mrs. Ruth Callahan, and the late Ada Brown, and with a fellow musician of Scotts, Lawrence Denton. Chicagos large part in ragtime was related by Nettie Compton, Glover Compton who also contributed much about Louisville, Charlie Elgar, Hugh Swift, Hurley and Horace Diemer, and George Filhe. The story of the first and most successful of the chains of ragtime schools was told by X ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Carle Christensen for his father...

This is the untold story of black music - its triumph over racism, segregation, undercapitalised record labels, media discrimination and political anxiety - told through the perspective of the most powerful office in the world: from Louis Armstrong's spat with President Eisenhower and Eartha Kitt's stormy encounter with Lady Bird Johnson to James Brown's flirtation with Nixon, Reaganomics and the 'Cop Killer' scandal. Moving, insightful and wide-ranging, Hey America! charts the evolution of sixties soul from the margins of American society to the mainstream, culminating in the rise of urban hip-hop and the dramatic stand-off between Donald Trump and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Bringing together the voices of scholars from Europe and North America with those of key contest stakeholders, Performing the 'New' Europe: Identities, Feelings, and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest argues that this popular music competition is a symbolic contact zone between European cultures: an arena for European identification in which both national solidarity and participation in a European identity are confirmed, and a site where cultural struggles over the meanings, frontiers and limits of Europe are enacted. This exciting collection explores the ways in which European artists perform, disavow, and contest their racial, national, and sexual identities in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), and asks difficult questions about European inclusions and exclusions the contest reflects. It suggests the ESC as an ever-evolving network of peoples and places transcending both historical and geographical boundaries of Europe that brings into being new understandings of the relationship between culture, space, and identities.