Popular music Books

An unorthodox musician from the start, singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell's style of composing, performing, and of playing (and tuning) the guitar is unique. In the framework of sexual difference and the gendered discourses of rock this immediately begs the...

The Singer-Songwriter in Europe is the first book to explore and compare the multifaceted discourses and practices of this figure within and across linguistic spaces in Europe and in dialogue with spaces beyond continental borders. The concept of the...

Amidst the growing forums of kinky Jews, orthodox drag queens, and Jewish geisha girls, we find today's sexy Jewess in a host of reflexive plays with sexed-up self-display. A social phantasm with real legs, she moves boldly between neo-burlesque...

Rap music continues to be a catalyst for various creative mediums, including rap artists who cross over to film and television.RAP TO CINEMA: Hip Hop Music Artists Who Cross Over to Film is a topical reference book that includes film biographies of rap...

Sasha, a self-proclaimed weirdo, is kicked out for being gay. She does what every self-proclaimed weirdo does when they have nowhere to go, moves to the city. She is surprised when a record store owner leaves his store to her and she decides to turn it...

Lovin' ain't easy in this one-honky-tonk town, so when the bartender and the bandleader fall for the same dance hall girl, you're in for an evening of showstoppers and toe-tappers, cat fights, and love quadrangles that'll keep any joint jumpin' till way...

Bunked! The Musical is a touching coming of age comedy about five summer camp counselors during that pivotal summer before the beginning of college. With easily relatable characters experiencing their first tastes of independence and a catchy pop score,...

Characters: 4 male, 3 female, expandable to 7 male, 6 female See Rock City & Other Destinations is a contemporary musical about connections missed and made at tourist destinations across America.A wanderer believes his destiny is written on rooftops...

"Based on the Paramount Pictures television series 'Happy days' created by Garry Marshall."

Musical Comedy / Characters: 3m, 2f The story of The Synchronistics, an over-the-hill ABBA wannabe group that reunites after 20 years to perform at a public access TV telethon, put their differences aside, and try to save the station from going under...

Characters: 1m, 1f / Musical Comedy This funny and charming two-person musical is a contemporary love story based around the modern world of internet dating. A man and a woman search for that 'special someone' in cyberspace and find that romance is only...

The long-awaited new 70-minute version of the beloved musical is as beautiful and spirited as the original in just half the time. Adapted by Marsha Norman from her Tony award winning book, it tells the story of Mary Lennox, orphaned in India, who returns...

Comedy / 6m, 6f, a larger ensemble may be used In this fractured folk tale based on a story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, Mazel and Shlimazel, the spirits of Good Luck and Bad Luck, make a bet to determine who is the more powerful. The terms: Mazel will take...

Music by Bob Johnston and Nancy White Book by Jeff Hochhauser Lyrics by Nancy White, Bob Johnston and Jeff Hochhauser Based on the novels Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery Based on the sequel novels to Anne of Green Gables, this...

"Based on the novel by Charles Dickens."

"It's summer time and the Bunyan County Fair is approaching, the biggest thing that's happened in Bunyan Bay since the winter carnival snowplow parade! This year the Bunyan County Fair means one thing to Gunner and Clara Johnson, owners of a little bar...

Musical Book and Lyrics by Bill Russell. Music by Janet Hood. Characters: 20-25 males, 11-16 females (doubling or expanding possible.) Unit set A celebration of lives lost to AIDS told in free verse monologues with a blues, jazz and rock score, this...

Musical Book by Larry L. King and Peter Masterson. Music and Lyrics by Carol Hall. Characters: 13 male, 14 female, extras. Unit set This happy go lucky view of small town vice and statewide political side stepping recounts the good times and the demise...

Musical comedy Based on the story by James ThurberCharacters: 5 male, 6 female, and as many extras as desired.Scenery: Various simple sets (or one basic set).On his fortieth birthday Walter Mitty reflects on his drab, ordinary life. Defeated in his quest...

3m / Musical Comedy A hilarious new musical, China - The Whole Enchilada is three men singing, dancing, and irreverently marching their way through four thousand years of Chinese history- in less than two hours with an intermission. The show dares to...

This volume provides a comprehensive survey of the musical Hair and will offer critical analysis which focuses on giving voice to those who are historically considered to be on the margins of musical theatre history.Sarah Browne interrogates key scenes...

"Long Live Rock!""Rock Songs" is a collection of dramatic visual interpretations of songs I've chosen to illustrate from a time when I feel music was at its finest. This book displays fantasy concepts depicting these individual pieces of music throughout...

The Relentless Pursuit of Tone: Timbre in Popular Music assembles a broad spectrum of contemporary perspectives on how "sound" functions in an equally wide array of popular music. Ranging from the twang of country banjoes and the sheen of...

This book is an ethnographic investigation of punk subculture as well as a treatise on the importance of place: a location with both physical form and cultural meaning. Rather than examining punk as a "sound" or a "style" as many previous works have...

Keyboardist and songwriter with the band Journey, Jonathan Cain writes this long-awaited memoir about his personal story of overcoming and faith, his career with one of the most successful musical groups in history, and the stories behind his greatest...

Marcus Lakee Edwards "Lil Keke \Da Don Lil Keke well known as a southern hip hop pioneer a texas legend and the true architect of the Houston hip hop sound & culture With a career that has stood the test of time & has span over 25 yrs which has...

The aristocratic Boronski family live in Siberia in the years before the Russian Revolution, and a lazy, snobbish, spoilt bunch they are, except the grandmother Babushka who remembers their humble origins. Just as Spring is about to begin, their lives...

Musical / 3m, 5f (Doubling) / Unit Set The People vs. Mona revolves around Mona Mae Katt, who is accused of murdering her husband on their wedding night. The resulting trial brings out the worst and the funniest of the citizens in the tiny town of Tippo...

"Damage Incorporated" is the first book about the legendary heavy metal band Metallica that provides a detailed exploration of the group's music and its place within the wider popular music landscape. Written with a broad readership in mind, it offers an...

Then He Kissed Me, He's A Rebel, Chains, Stop! In the Name of Love all these songs capture the spirit of an era and an image of "girlhood" in post-World War II America that still reverberates today.While there were over 1500 girl groups recorded in...

Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, and Cecil Taylor revolutionized music from the end of the twentieth century into the twenty-first, expanding on jazz traditions with distinctly new concepts of composition, improvisation, instrumentation, and performance...

This book is a multi-faceted, interdisciplinary examination of the music and figure of Lady Gaga, combining approaches from scholars in cultural studies, art, fashion, and music. It represents one of the first scholarly volumes devoted to Lady Gaga, who...

Swedish Jazz in the United States: Swede and Cool traces and analyzes the dissemination and reception of jazz from Sweden in the United States during the period of 1947-1963. It maps the networks through which Swedish record companies exchanged...

Japanese popular culture has been steadily increasing in visibility both in Asia and beyond in recent years. This book examines Japanese popular music, exploring its historical development, technology, business and production aspects, audiences, and...

Australia's Jindyworobak Composers examines the music of a historically and artistically significant group of Australian composers active during the later post-colonial period (1930s-c. 1960). These composers sought to establish a uniquely Australian...

The first 25 years of metal were glorious and well documented. The last 25 years of metal were triumphant and victorious - only no one knew it.This book will serve as a guide to righting that injustice and will help music collectors in rediscovering old...

The Routledge Companion to Jazz and Gender identifies, defines, and interrogates the construct of gender in all forms of jazz, jazz culture, and education, shaping and transforming the conversation in response to changing cultural and societal norms...

What is emo? For starters it's a form of melodic, confessional, or EMOtional punk rock. But emo is more than a genre of music-it's the defining counterculture movement of the '00s. EVERYBODY HURTS is a reference book for emo, tracing its angsty roots all...

The life of blues legend Robert Johnson becomes the centerpiece for this innovative look at what many consider to be America's deepest and most influential music genre. Pivotal are the questions surrounding why Johnson was ignored by the core black...

The Routledge Guide to Broadway is the second title in our new student reference series. It will introduce the student to the Broadway theater, focusing on key performers, writers, directors, plays, and musicals, along with the theaters themselves, key...

First Published in 2002. A Century of American Popular Music is an annotated index to over 2,000 of the most popular, best remembered, historically important and otherwise influential and interesting popular music, from the landmark publication of Scott...

Gigs provides a fascinating account of a unique victory for musicians against repressive entertainment licensing laws. It provides a much-needed study of the social, political, cultural and legal conditions surrounding a change in law and public...

Mr Wilkins, an unpopular master of Jennings' boarding school, is rumoured to be leaving. When Mr Wilkins is asked to play the King in the end of term performance of Henry V, the result is near to chaos. However, the last-minute arrival of a "real" actor...