The Routledge Handbook of Pink Floyd is intended for scholars and researchers of popular music, as well as music industry professionals and fans of the band. It brings together international researchers to assess, evaluate and reformulate approaches to the critical study and interpretation of one of the world's most important and successful bands. For the first time, this Handbook will 'tear down the wall,' examining the band's collective artistic creations and the influence of social, technological, commercial and political environments over several decades on their work. Divided into five parts, the book provides a thoroughly contextualised overview of the musical works of Pink Floyd, including coverage of performance and sound; media, reception and fandom; genre; periods of Pink Floyd's work; and aesthetics and subjectivity. Drawing on art, design, performance, culture and counterculture, emergent theoretical resources and analytical frames are evaluated and discussed from across the social sciences, humanities and creative arts. The Handbook is intended for scholars and researchers of popular music, as well as music industry professionals. It will appeal across a range of related subjects from music production to cultural studies and media/communication studies.

This book examines the diverse facets of popular music in Malta, paying special attention to ghana (Malta's folk song), the wind band tradition, and modern popular music. Ciantar provides intriguing discussions and examples of how popular music on this small Mediterranean island country interacts with other aspects of the island's life and culture such as language, religion, history, customs, and politics. Through a series of ethnographic vignettes, the book explores the music as it takes place in bars, at festivals, and during village celebrations, and considers how it is talked about in the local press, at group gatherings, and on social media. The ethnography adopted here is that of a native musician and ethnomusicologist and therefore marries the author's memories with ongoing observations and their evaluation.

A lively examination of the most legendary (and least understood) rivalry in the annals of rock 'n' roll: ""Beatles vs. Stones" is one of the best rock biographies I have seen this year...If you thought you knew everything there was to know about these two groups, think again" ("Seattle Post-Intelligencer").
In the 1960s an epic battle was waged between the two biggest bands in the world--the lovable Beatles and the bad-boy Rolling Stones. Both groups liked to maintain that they weren't really "rivals"--that was just a media myth, they politely said--and yet they plainly competed for commercial success and aesthetic credibility. On both sides of the Atlantic, fans often aligned themselves with one group or the other. In "Beatles vs. Stones," John McMillian gets to the truth behind the ultimate rock and roll debate.
Painting an eye-opening portrait of a generation dragged into an ideological battle between Flower Power and New Left militance, McMillian reveals how the Beatles-Stones rivalry was created by music managers intent on engineering a moneymaking empire. He explores how the Beatles were marketed as cute and amiable, when in fact they came from hardscrabble backgrounds in Liverpool. By contrast, the Stones were cast as an edgy, dangerous group, even though they mostly hailed from the chic London suburbs. For many years, writers and historians have associated the Beatles with the gauzy idealism of the "good" sixties, placing the Stones as representatives of the dangerous and nihilistic "bad" sixties. "Beatles vs. Stones" is "balanced, informed, yet still passionate...Even the most gnarled and intransigent veterans of the debate will emerge enlightened by this book....McMillian negotiates these thickets with insight, care, and a willingness to unsettle cliches" ("The New York Times Book Review").

'Genuinely funny; indeed, the story will keep you entertained for a very long time' Sunday Times Joy Division changed the face of music. Godfathers of the enduring alternative scene, they reinvented rock in the post-punk era, creating a sound - dark, hypnotic, intense - that would influence U2, Morrissey, R.E.M., Radiohead and many others. This is the rollercoaster story of Joy Division - the friendships, fights, fall-outs; the rehearsals and recording sessions; the larger than life characters - told by the band's legendary bassist, Peter Hook. 'Hook has restored a flesh-and-blood rawness to what was becoming a standard tale. Few pop music books manage that' Guardian 'An honest, enthusiastic account . . . it's a window like no other into the reality of life in this most aloof of bands' Metro 'An immense account of Joy Division's rise . . . having read Hook's book, you'll feel like you were the fifth member of the band' GQ 'A bittersweet, profanity-filled recollection . . . if you like Joy Division, you really have to read it' Q Magazine 'Hook lifts the lid on the real Ian Curtis' NME 'He's frank, incredibly funny, and it isn't shy' Artrocker

The New York Times bestseller and the definitive portrait of Kurt Cobain--as relevant as ever, as we remember the impact of Cobain on our culture twenty-five years after his death--now with a new preface and an additional final chapter from acclaimed author Charles R. Cross. It has been twenty-five years since Kurt Cobain died by his own hand in April 1994; it was an act of will that typified his short, angry, inspired life. Veteran music journalist Charles R. Cross fuses his intimate knowledge of the Seattle music scene with his deep compassion for his subject in this extraordinary story of artistic brilliance and the pain that extinguished it. Based on more than four hundred interviews; four years of research; exclusive access to Cobain's unpublished diaries, lyrics, and family photos; and a wealth of documentation, Heavier Than Heaven traces Cobain's life from his early days in a double-wide trailer outside of Aberdeen, Washington, to his rise to fame, success, and the adulation of a generation. Charles Cross has written a new preface for this edition, giving readers context for the time in which the book was written, six years after Kurt's death, and reminding everyone how fresh that cultural experience was when the interviews for the book were done. The new final chapter will update the story since, regarding investigations into Cobain's death, Nirvana's induction into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, and how their place in rock history has only risen over the decades.

This book presents an analysis of 100 rock concert performances and answers the question "What makes a truly great rock performance?" Author Peter Smith, an experienced concert goer, delves into his own recollections of experiencing rock performances over the last 50+ years and, with the support of his daughter, Laura Smith, analyzes 100 selected performances covering the themes of icons, persona, energy, fandom, venues, communities, politics, art-rock, authenticity and maturity. The approach taken is based upon qualitative analysis, reflection, and autoethnography. The selected performances cover a range of diverse acts such as the Rolling Stones, ABBA, Sex Pistols, Barbara Streisand, David Bowie, etc.

This book considers the intersection of music, politics and identity, focusing on music (genres) across the world as a form of political expression and protest, positive identity formations, but also how the criminalisation, censuring, policing and prosecution of musicians and fans can occur. All-encompassing in this book is analyses of the unique contribution of music to various aspects of human activity through an international, multi-disciplinary approach. The book will serve as a starting point for scholars in those areas where there has been an uncertain approach to this subject, while those from disciplines with a more established canon of music analysis will be informed about what each perspective can offer. The approach is international and multi-disciplinary, with the contributing authors focusing on a range of countries and the differing social and cultural impact of music for both musicians and fans. Academic disciplines can provide some explanations, but the importance of the contribution of practitioners is vital for a fully rounded understanding of the impact of music. Therefore, this book takes the reader on a journey, beginning with theoretical and philosophical perspectives on music and society, proceeding to an analysis of laws and policies, and concluding with the use of music by educational practitioners and the people with whom they work. This book will appeal to students and scholars in subjects such as sociology, criminology, cultural studies, and across the wider social sciences. It will also be of interest to practitioners in youth justice or those with other involvement in the criminal justice system.

From Punk to Riot Grrl, Soul to Indie, this is a ground-breaking new study of women in popular music-making. The author, a sociologist and musician, interviewed over 100 women in British bands from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. Amongst others, interviewees include Skin from Skunk Anansie, Debbie Smith from Echobelly, Candida Doyle from Pulp, Gail Greenwood from Belly and L7, Natasha Atlas from Transglobal Underground, and Vie Subversa from Poison Girls.

Although female vocalists have always been common, women playing instruments in bands are still relatively rare. Frock Rock explores the social factors that keep women from playing and those routes that have enabled women's involvement. The book then examines the everyday worlds of women's music-making from bands just starting up to the professional stage: songwriting, rehearsing, the first gig, getting a manager, record companies, recording, and touring.

This book illustrates how social meanings provided by music are experienced throughout the course of life. To this end, the author examines in depth the concepts of self, identity, socialization, and the life course itself. Social scientists have traditionally focused on music experiences among different generations, one at a time, with an emphasis on young audiences. This book explores appreciation for and use of music as a dynamic process that does not begin when we enter adolescence, nor end when we become adults. It demonstrates the relationship between the experience of music and the experience of self as a fundamental feature of the more general relationship of the individual to society. Music completes the circle of life. The author bases his analysis on observations made through a variety of qualitative studies and methodologies, as well as his own music autobiography. Clear and jargon free, this book is a timely application of key concepts from the everyday life sociologies for scholars and students in the sociology of music and culture and other related disciplines such as anthropology and ethnomusicology. It will be of interest for upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses in culture, music, symbolic interaction, social psychology, and qualitative research methods.

This book illustrates how social meanings provided by music are experienced throughout the course of life. To this end, the author examines in depth the concepts of self, identity, socialization, and the life course itself. Social scientists have traditionally focused on music experiences among different generations, one at a time, with an emphasis on young audiences. This book explores appreciation for and use of music as a dynamic process that does not begin when we enter adolescence, nor end when we become adults. It demonstrates the relationship between the experience of music and the experience of self as a fundamental feature of the more general relationship of the individual to society. Music completes the circle of life. The author bases his analysis on observations made through a variety of qualitative studies and methodologies, as well as his own music autobiography. Clear and jargon free, this book is a timely application of key concepts from the everyday life sociologies for scholars and students in the sociology of music and culture and other related disciplines such as anthropology and ethnomusicology. It will be of interest for upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses in culture, music, symbolic interaction, social psychology, and qualitative research methods.

This collection analyses the remaking of culture and music spaces during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Its central focus is how cultural producers negotiated radically disrupted and uncertain conditions by creating, designing, and curating new objects and events, and through making alternative combinations of practices and spaces. By examining contexts and practices of remaking culture and music, it goes beyond being a chronicle of how the pandemic disrupted cultural life and livelihoods. The book also raises crucial questions about the forms and dynamics of post-pandemic spaces of culture and music. Main themes include the affective and embodied dimensions that shape the experience, organisation, and representation of cultural and musical activity; the restructuring of industries and practices of work and cultural production; the transformation of spaces of cultural expression and community; and the uncertainty and resilience of future culture and music. This collection will be instrumental for researchers, practitioners, and students studying the spatial, material, and affective dimensions of cultural production in the fields of cultural sociology, cultural and creative industries research, festival and event studies, and music studies. Its interdisciplinary nature makes it beneficial reading for anyone interested in what has happened to culture and music during the global pandemic and beyond.

Performing Punk is a rich exploration of subcultural contrasts and similarities among punks. By investigating how punk is made, for whom, and in opposition to what, this book takes the reader on a journey through the lesser-known aspects of the punk subculture.

When Genres Collide is a provocative history that rethinks the relationship between jazz and rock through the lens of the two oldest surviving and most influential American popular music periodicals: Down Beat and Rolling Stone. Writing in 1955, Duke Ellington argued that the new music called rock 'n' roll "is the most raucous form of jazz, beyond a doubt." So why did jazz and rock subsequently become treated as separate genres? The rift between jazz and rock (and jazz and rock scholarship) is based on a set of received assumptions about their fundamental differences, but there are other ways popular music history could have been written. By offering a fresh examination of key historical moments when the trajectories and meanings of jazz and rock intersected, overlapped, or collided, it reveals how music critics constructed an ideological divide between jazz and rock that would be replicated in American musical discourse for decades to follow. Recipient of and Honorable Mention in the PROSE Award, Music & the Performing Arts 2018.

This scholarly analysis of the music of Taylor Swift identifies how and why she is one of the early 21st century's most recognizable and most popular stars. By the age of 13, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift had already inked a development deal with a major record label. This early milestone was an appropriate predictor of what accomplishments were to come. Now a superstar artist with an international fanbase of millions and several critically acclaimed and commercially successful albums, Swift has established herself as one of the most important musicians of the 21st century. This accessible book serves Taylor Swift fans as well as students of contemporary popular music and popular culture, critically examining all of this young artist's work to date. The book's organization is primarily chronological, covering Taylor Swift's album and single releases in order of release date while also documenting the elements of her music and personality that have made her popular with fans of country music and pop music across a surprisingly diverse age range of listeners. The chapters address how Swift's songs have been viewed by some fans as anthems of empowerment or messages of encouragement, particularly by members of the LGBTQ community, those who have been bullied or been seen as outsiders, and emerging artists. The final chapter places Swift's work and her public persona in the context of her times with respect to her use of and relationship with technology-for example, her use of social media and songwriting technology-and her expressions of a new type of feminism that is unlike the feminism of the 1970s. Provides the only scholarly critical analysis of the songs and recordings of megastar Taylor Swift Places Swift, her work, and her public stances in the context of her generation and its definition of "empowerment" and "feminism" Explores Swift's work as an extension of the early 1970s' confessional singer-songwriter movement

Disaster Songs as Intangible Memorials in Atlantic Canada draws on a collection of over 600 songs relating to Atlantic Canadian disasters from 1891 up until the present and describes the characteristics that define them as intangible memorials. The book demonstrates the relationship between vernacular memorials - informal memorials collectively and spontaneously created from a variety of objects by the general public - and disaster songs. The author identifies the features that define vernacular memorials and applies them to disaster songs: spontaneity, ephemerality, importance of place, motivations and meaning-making, content, as well as the role of media in inspiring and disseminating memorials and songs. Visit the companion website: www.disastersongs.ca.

Important insight into the work of a truly great songwriter. Updated to include the albums Western Stars and Letter To You and packed full of insightful stories from Springsteen's long career, Bruce Springsteen: The Stories Behind the Songs takes a detailed look at each and every one of his tracks, providing a unique look at this rock legend's method, as well as some of the many anecdotes and tales that are prolific in his long music history. The legend of Bruce Springsteen may well outlast rock 'n' roll itself. And for all the muscle and magic of his life-shaking concerts with the E Street Band, it comes down to the songs - music that helped define the best version of the United States for itself and the rest of the world; that bridged the gap between Bob Dylan and James Brown, between Phil Spector and Hank Williams; and that somehow managed to make New Jersey seem like a promised land. Deeply researched, laced with insight from decades of fandom and original reporting, this book is an exhaustive and unique look at the writing, recording and significance of Springsteen's singular catalog of songs - the first book to cover every officially released track, from hits to obscurities, from 1974's Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. to 2014's High Hopes.

* explores the creative dialogue between John Lennon and Paul McCartney * employs the author's own 'Songscape' analysis, a multi-layered approach designed to engage a recorded work on its own terms, that does not require any specialist knowledge. * discusses the move towards more intimate sound spaces made possible by the recording process itself. *draws together evidence that Lennon and McCartney's uniquely eclectic approach, which came to encompass music, recording, film, literature, theatre, and painting, can be traced back to the Liverpool College of Art.

A valuable resource for James Taylor fans and a fascinating read for anyone interested in autobiographical popular music of the past 50 years. What kinds of unusual musical forms and lyrical structures did American singer-songwriter James Taylor incorporate into his songs? What role did Taylor play in the introspective singer-songwriter movement of the 1970s? How did Taylor write and record songs that were inspired from his own experiences in life that touched so many other people? The Words and Music of James Taylor explores these specific topics and provides detailed critical analysis of the songs and recordings of this well-known musical icon, examining his melodic writing, his use of harmony, and his often-unappreciated tailoring of musical form to enhance his lyrical messages. The book is organized chronologically, primarily around Taylor's studio albums from 1968 to 2015, and offers an introduction, a summary of Taylor's career and importance, as well as an annotated bibliography and discography. The final section of the book presents an overview of Taylor's importance and lasting impact, an analysis of themes that run through his songs, and an explanation of how Taylor's treatment of these themes changed over the years as he matured and as the world around him changed. Pairs critical analysis of every significant composition and recording by James Taylor with historical perspective on the events of his 50-year life journey Ties Taylor's highly publicized struggles with drugs and in relationships to his songs Delves into the not-frequently discussed musical aspects of Taylor's writing, including his use of unusual musical forms Examines Taylor's arrangements and recordings of cover songs as essentially examples of re-writing the songs

At the end of his life, Pierre Schaeffer commented that his musical and sound experiments had attempted to go beyond 'do-re-mi'. This had a direct bearing on EinstA1/4rzende Neubauten's musical philosophy and work, with the musicians always striving to extend the boundaries of music in sound, instrumentation and purpose. The group are one of the few examples of 'rock-based' artists who have been able to sustain a breadth and depth of work in a variety of media over a number of years while remaining experimental and open to development. Jennifer Shryane provides a much-needed analysis of the group's important place in popular/experimental music history. She illustrates their innovations with found- and self-constructed instrumentation, their Artaudian performance strategies and textual concerns, as well as their methods of independence. EinstA1/4rzende Neubauten have also made a consistent and unique contribution to the development of the independent German Language Contemporary Music scene, which although often acknowledged as influential, is still rarely examined.

Using research, analysis and a range of historical sources, Paul Weller and Popular Music immerses the reader in the excitement of Paul Weller's unique creative journey, covering topics such as the artist's position within his field; his creative processes; the contexts in which the music was made; the artist as collaborator; signifiers that mark the trajectory of the music, and formative influences. Focusing on over 40 years of recorded work from the formative 'In the City' to 'True Meanings', this study places the music in a series of contexts that seek to explore why Paul Weller's music is widely considered both timeless and of its time.

- 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.

Black Music, Black Poetry offers readers a fuller appreciation of the diversity of approaches to reading black American poetry. It does so by linking a diverse body of poetry to musical genres that range from the spirituals to contemporary jazz. The poetry of familiar figures such as Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes and less well-known poets like Harryette Mullen or the lyricist to Pharaoh Sanders, Amos Leon Thomas, is scrutinized in relation to a musical tradition contemporaneous with the lifetime of each poet. Black music is considered the strongest representation of black American communal consciousness; and black poetry, by drawing upon such a musical legacy, lays claim to a powerful and enduring black aesthetic. The contributors to this volume take on issues of black cultural authenticity, of musical imitation, and of poetic performance as displayed in the work of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, Amiri Baraka, Michael Harper, Nathaniel Mackey, Jayne Cortez, Harryette Mullen, and Amos Leon Thomas. Taken together, these essays offer a rich examination of the breath of black poetry and the ties it has to the rhythms and forms of black music and the influence of black music on black poetic practice.

It is 1965, and Swinging London is coming into its prime years. The streets are alive with mods and rockers, playboys and good-time girls, all revelling in the blossoming artistic, creative and cultural energies of the decade. Amid the colour and chaos is a boy sporting drainpipe jeans, an immaculately tailored sports coat and a half-inch wide tie. A devoted fan of The Who, he looks the part in his pristine mod gear. As the lead singer of the Lower Third, his talent is shaping itself into something truly special. His name is Davie Jones. In ten years, he will be unrecognisable as fresh-faced boy of 1965, and in just over fifty years, his death will be mourned by millions, his legacy the story of the greatest rock star of all time. And through Bowie's transition from pop group member to solo performer, Phil Lancaster was by his side. As the drummer in Bowie's band, the Lower Third, Phil was there as the singer's musical stripes began to show, and was witness to his early recording techniques, his first experimental forays into drug-taking, and the band's discovery of his bisexuality in shocking circumstances. In this riveting - and often very funny - memoir, Phil tells the story of life alongside the insecure yet blazingly talented boy who became Bowie, at a critical crossroad of time and place in music history. What follows is an intimate, personal and important perspective on the genesis of one of the most iconic musicians of the twentieth century - one that gets under the skin of the man himself, before the personas and alter-egos masked the fascinating figure beneath them. At the Birth of Bowie is essential reading for anyone who knows what happened on Bowie's journey, but wants to understand how, and why, it ever began.