Music Books

Think punk was only a boys club? Read about the women who were the punk revolution!Women have been kicking against the pricks of music patriarchy since Sister Rosetta Tharpe first played the guitar riffs that built rock-n-roll. The explosion of punk sent...

In his acclaimed book Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong, author Joseph Lanza explored the forbidden beauty and social importance of an otherwise shunned musical category. Now, in Easy-Listening Acid Trip, he...

In the early 1990s, Swedish death metal revolutionized the international music scene. Suddenly, the mild-mannered Scandinavian country found itself at the forefront of a new movement with worldwide impact thanks to bands such as Entombed, Dismember, and...

Francoise Hardy is best known in Europe for originating the famed "Y-Y" sound in pop music which began a cultural scene in the early 1960s. Her teenage success grew as she became a much-photographed fashion model and actress. Adored for her shy beauty...

Famous for its revolutionary aspects in musical, political, sexual identity and consumerist ideas, punk rock also has its lesser-known gangster ethos as well, explained here by players in the various punk gangs.The Los Angeles, Orange County, and South...

Out of the Basement tells the story of underground music (and mainstream rock that sometimes rose out of it) in post-industrial Rockford, Illinois. This is a bracing, candid, democratic, and cutting edge portrayal of a rust belt city full of...

In this exhaustive anthology, David Ensminger delves underground to explore the oft overlooked community of badass women who shaped the punk scene. There's a common thread of women being excluded and gatekept from the hardcore music scene, but...

"The definitive account of one of hardcore punk's most enigmatic figures." -Lucky Lehrer, Circle Jerks drummer In 1983, Circle Jerks bassist Roger Rogerson stole the band's van and dropped off the face of the earth. Thirteen years later, he came back,...

Klezmer is Yiddish music, the music of the Jews of Europe and America, a music of laughter and tears, of weddings and festivals, of dancing and prayer. Born in the Middle Ages, it came of age in the shtetl (the Eastern European Jewish country town),...

John Fahey hovers ghostlike in the sound of almost every acoustic guitarist who came after him, from Leo Kottke to Jimmy Page. In essence, John Fahey is to the solo acoustic guitar what Jimi Hendrix was to the electric: the man whom all subsequent...

When he first started working on Pet Sounds, Brian Wilson said that he was going to write the greatest rock album ever made. That album, released in 1966, fifty years ago, changed the face of popular music. From conception and composition to arrangement...

Maceo Parker's signature style became the lynchpin of James Brown's band when he and his brother Melvin joined the Hardest Working Man in Show Business in 1964. That style helped define Brown's brand of funk, and the phrase "Maceo, I want you to blow!"...

Is there such a thing as a Hip Hop 'theology'? Drawing on interviews from those in the Hip Hop community, and a critical engagement with the theological and ecclesiological ruminations of over 8,500 songs, Hodge aims to paint a picture of what a Hip Hop...

A Gothic Horror novel about severe mental distress and punk rock. The novel is written in the form of a diary kept by a psychiatrist, Dr. Rodney H. Dweller, concerning his patient, Nathaniel Snoxell, brought to him in 1979 because of several attempted...

Few music groups have been able to sustain a fan base over half a century that is as significant and devoted as those of the Beatles, and this entertaining guide to all things Fab Four rewards those fans with everything they need to know about the band...

Steve Adelman's humorous and engaging memoir reflects on his years as the director and owner of some of the world's most popular nightclubs, including the Roxy, Limelight, Tunnel, and Palladium in the heyday of clubs in New York City during the 1980s and...

Get inside the head of one of the most beloved musicians of our time, a longtime country music phenomenon turned titan of industry and cultural icon: Dolly PartonThis collection of quotes has been carefully curated from Parton's numerous public...

Get inside the head of one of the most influential musicians of our time, a pop music phenomenon turned titan of industry and cultural icon: Taylor Swift.This collection of quotes has been carefully curated from Swift's numerous public statements -...

"I was in the car the first time music seemed strange: the instruments less distinct, the vocals less crisp." John Cotter was thirty years old when he first began to notice a ringing in his ears. Soon the ringing became a roar inside his head. Next came...

Like a long, funny letter from an old friend, an album of drawings by the legendary singer and activist for social justice, Joan Baez.Since retiring from active performing, Baez has focused her formidable talents on painting and drawing. This collection...

Winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama"To watch this show is to enter, by some urgent, bawdy magic, an ecstatic and infinitely more colorful version of the famous surreal lithograph by M. C. Escher: the hand that lifts from the page, becoming almost...

"This brave new musical, haunting and electrifying by turns, restores the mystery, the thrill to that shattering transformation that stirs in all our souls."-Charles Isherwood, The New York Times"The staggering purity of this show will touch all open...

"A landmark musical, one of those few shows that enter the permanent lore of the theatre by altering the vocabulary of dramatic possibilities." Time"There's never been a franker, more sophisticated work written for the musical stage." San Francisco...

Examining the dynamics of hip-hop from every region and in every form -- mainstream and underground, current and classic -- this compelling how-to discusses everything from content and flow to rhythm and delivery in relation to the art and craft of rap...

Part civic history and part memoir from this veteran scene-builder and co-founder of the acclaimed Wavelength concert series, Any Night of the Week charts the evolution of Toronto's diverse independent music scene in the latter half of the nineteenth...

This man and music asks two central questions: what can literature contribute to the art of composition, and how can music influence the writer? Anthony Burgess, famed novelist, journalist, and composer, answers these questions and many more. As a person...

A tour diary of life on the road with one of Minnesota's greatest bands-with nearly 100 never-before-seen photographs"Don't bore us, get to the chorus" is Bill Sullivan's motto, which will come as no surprise to anyone who opens Lemon Jail. A raucous...

In this classic work of American music writing, renowned critic Albert Murray argues beautifully and authoritatively that "the blues as such are synonymous with low spirits. Not only is its express purpose to make people feel good, which is to say in...

Throughout the 1990s, Prince feuded with his record label, Warner Bros., over his rights as an independent recording artist--and made some of the most brilliant music of his career. During that time, Jim Walsh covered Prince for the St. Paul Pioneer...

A must-have for any guitar lover!This book introduces the reader to 250 guitars of all types from the early acoustic archtop designs of the Gibson L-5 in the last 1920s, through the National resonators of the 1930s, the hollow body electric Gibsons of...

Multi-hit songwriter Clay Mills breaks down the mystery of melody writing to give your songs an edge with the PRA method. Learn how to write inspiring songs without waiting for inspiration. Highlighting personal stories, easy-to-understand method...

A bullet train of a book, fast-paced, hilarious, rich with action. A harbinger of good things to come in mysterious ways.It all began at a cocktail party at Wallace Stegner's for the Stanford writing class of 1958. Ken Kesey and Ken Babbs became cronies,...

The chapters deal with such compelling topics as the environment, race relations, the counterculture, the sexual revolution, the war in Vietnam, the appeal of punk rock, the fall of Richard Nixon, the rise of Ronald Reagan, the murder of John Lennon, and...

There's no ghost writer for this book. Its just me. - Brian MayWith these words, the author announces the first book ever to be published about the legendary rock band Queen by a member of the band. And certainly the first book of its kind in the world...

"That joyous rarity, a work of sophisticated artistic ambition and deep political purpose that affords nonstop pleasure."--William A. Henry III, Time

Curtis Mayfield was one of the seminal vocalists and most talented guitarists of his era, and his music played a vital role in the civil rights movement: People Get Ready was the black anthem of the time. In Traveling Soul , Todd Mayfield tells his...

Singers Die Twice is the story of a life in music. One of Germany's best-known exponents of North Indian classical music, specifically dhrupad singing, Perer Pannke has traveled from his home in Germany to Varanasi, Delhi, Darbhanga, and the...

The philosophically rich David Bowie is an artist of wide and continuing influence. The theatrical antics of Bowie ushered in a new rock aesthetic, but there is much more to Bowie than mere spectacle. The visual belies the increasing depths of his...

Discover the richness and beauty of Bali's many performing art forms.This book is a lavishly illustrated introduction to the most popular forms of traditional performing arts in Bali--among the most intricate and spectacular musical and...

'With my jingle in your brain, allow the Bridge to arch again'. How are we to understand Leonard Cohen's plea? Who speaks to whom in this oeuvre spanning six decades? Francis Mus considers the different guises or 'demons' that the Canadian...

The first full-length illustrated book on the Zapple label-the Beatles' experimental label and the most ambitious expression of the Beatles' determination to be leading members of the counterculture movement. Written by Zapple...

Bob Dylan's cultural production in the second half of the twentieth century, his songs, but also his changing images and self-fashionings have informed and productively re/shaped certain images of America from outside and within. Refractions of Bob Dylan...

Presents a highly original and detailed investigation into the nature of American visual, musical and cultural influences on British youth between 1945 and 1960. It looks at the spread of youth culture, juke boxes, coffee and milk bars, dress styles and...

An outstanding anthology in which notable musicians, artists, scientists, thinkers, poets, and more- from Gustavo Dudamel and Carrie Mae Weems to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Paul Muldoon-explore the influence of music on their lives and workWhat happens when...

How music has influenced mathematics, physics, and astronomy from ancient Greece to the twentieth centuryMusic is filled with mathematical elements, the works of Bach are often said to possess a math-like logic, and Igor Stravinsky said "musical form is...

Before the nineteenth century, instrumental music was considered inferior to vocal music. Kant described wordless music as "more pleasure than culture," and Rousseau dismissed it for its inability to convey concepts. But by the early 1800s, a dramatic...

Music, and folk music in particular, is often embraced as a form of political expression, a vehicle for bridging or reinforcing social boundaries, and a valuable tool for movements reconfiguring the social landscape. Reds, Whites, and Blues examines the...

In this classic guide, the foremost Wagner expert of our century discusses ten of Wagner's most beloved operas, illuminates their key themes and the myths and literary sources behind the librettos, and demonstrates how the composer's style changed from...