Explores most decadent of genres on both sides of the Atlantic. This title charts the retro future sounds, outrageous styles and gender-fluid sexual politics that came to define the first half of the seventies. It also brings right up to date with a final chapter on glam in hip hop, Lady Gaga, and the aftershocks of David Bowie's death.
Traces the development of ENO from its earliest origins in the darkest Victorian slums of the Cut, where it was conceived as a vehicle of social reform, through two world wars, and via Sadler's Wells to its great glory days at the Coliseum and beyond. This book provides a vivid cultural history of this unique institution's 150 years.
Fifty years on from the psychedelic summer of love, the author, an acclaimed music writer explores what was really going on during those heady times. In America, he traces the multi-media history of the Light shows, Happenings, Be-Ins and Acid tests, and illustrates the thriving avant-garde scene that existed long before the Grateful Dead.
Technologies are revolutionizing the music business. This title provides a legal and business road map for success in today's music business by setting forth a summary of the rules pertaining to the traditional music business, including music licensing, as well as the laws governing online distribution of music and video.
In Victorian times, England was famously dubbed the land without music - but one of the musical discoveries of the early twentieth century was that England had a vital heritage of folk song and music. This book investigates the wider social history of traditional song in England, and draws on a wide range of sources to answer these questions.
Grunge, also known as the 'Seattle Sound', emerged from the Pacific north-west in the early part of the 1980s. With the unexpected success of Nirvana's single 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' in 1991, grunge became a household word overnight and launched an American music movement on a par with punk and hip-hop. This book tells the whole story.
The concept behind the Ruth and Martin's Album Club blog is simple: Make people listen to a classic album they've never heard before. What follows are delightful, humorous and insightful contributions from each guest as they have an album forced upon them and - for better or worse - they discover some of the world's favourite music.
Before turning his hand to writing, he ran a jazz club in Tokyo, and the aesthetic and emotional power of music permeates every one of his much-loved books. Now, in Absolutely on Music, Murakami fulfills a personal dream, sitting down with his friend, acclaimed conductor Seiji Ozawa, to talk about their shared interest.
Looks at a regional phenomenon that has exploded into a worldwide sensation: Dirty South Hip-Hop. This book deals with the phenomenon of Southern hip-hop as a matter of cultural history, and explains the character and significance of down South rapping to fans as well as outsiders.
'If you look at all the people involved - Ivo, Tony Wilson, McGee, Geoff Travis, myself - nobody had a clue about running a record company, and that was the best thing about it.' Daniel Miller, Mute RecordsOne of the most tangible aftershocks of punk was its prompt to individuals: do it yourself.
The story of the composition, first performances and cultural afterlife of one of the best-loved and most widely performed works in the entire history of music.
HOLD TIGHT is a book about being black, British and born after 1980. It's also about Grime. Celebrating over fifty key songs that make up Grime's DNA, Jeffrey Boakye explores the meaning of the music and why it has such resonance in the UK. Insightful and very funny HOLD TIGHT rolls deep, giving a context to Grime that hasn't been given before.
A Rough Trade, Mojo and FT Book of the Year
LONGLISTED FOR THE PENDERYN MUSIC BOOK PRIZE
Emerging from the jazz clubs of the early 1950s, skiffle - a uniquely British take on American folk and blues - caused a sensation among a generation of kids who had grown up during the dreary post-war years.
To Throw Away Unopened is a fearless dissection of one woman's obsession with the truth - the truth about family, power, and her identity as a rebel and outsider.
The year 1968 encompasses the diverse realms of youth and music, politics and war, economics and the media. It was the year of sex and drugs and rock and roll. It was also the year of the Martin Luther King's assassination, and the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union. This book shows us how one volatile year helped shape us into who we are.
In 1975, Viv Albertine was obsessed with music but it never occurred to her she could be in a band as she couldn't play an instrument and she'd never seen a girl play electric guitar. This book deals with her life and work.
In 1825, an enterprising Canterbury newsagent by the name of Henry Ward raised a subscription to commission a lasting tribute to his beloved musical society.
In The Dark Stuff Nick Kent profiles twenty-two of the most gifted and self-destructive talents in rock history. From Brian Wilson to Syd Barrett, the Rolling Stones to Neil Young, Iggy Pop to Lou Reed, he offers intimate portraits that are unimaginable in the world of today's market driven music business.
In Girl in a Band Kim Gordon, founding member of Sonic Youth and role model for a generation of women, tells her story.
Filled with the sights and sounds of a changing world and a remarkable life, Girl in a Band is a moving, evocative chronicle of an extraordinary artist.
The guitarist for seminal female punk group The Slits recounts playing with Sid Vicious, touring with the Clash, dating Mick Jones, inspiring "Train in Vain," releasing her solo debut in 2012, and much more in this honest and entertaining memoir.
An attempt to isolate the 'Britishness' of British music - a wild combination of pagan echoes, spiritual quest, imaginative time-travel, pastoral innocence and electrified creativity - Electric Eden will be treasured by anyone interested in the tangled story of Britain's folk music and Arcadian dreams.
DISCOVER THE REALITY OF LIFE AS A SUPERSTAR DJ IN THIS SENSATIONAL EXPOSE OF WHAT REALLY GOES ON BEHIND THE BPMs.
The glamour, the parties, the excess, the highs and, of course, the lows.
In 1980, Houghton set up his own PR company, Brassneck Publicity, and for the next 20 years the list of his charges reads like a who's who of some of the greatest, most influential, and most dysfunctional cult groups of the post-punk era and beyond. It is his indefatigable belief that it was always the music that came first.
What emerges is a compelling portrait of the four musicians themselves, as well as a fresh insight into close-knit entourage that protected them, from Peter Grant to Richard Cole to Ahmet Ertegun, giant figures from long-vanished world of 1970s rock. This book is a history, adventures, myths and realities of this legendary and powerful of bands.
Starting out as a backing group for Ronnie Hawkins, before being propelled on to the world stage by Bob Dylan, The Band literally changed the course of music with their first two albums.
A Rock's Backpages anthology, edited and introduced by Barney Hoskyns, of Steely Dan, one of the defining and bestselling American rock acts of the last half-century.
A Rock's Backpages anthology of Radiohead, the most radical and fascinating rock band in modern music history, edited and introduced by Barney Hoskyns.