Author: Jason Toynbee Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1350023949 Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 226
Book Description
*Nominated for the International Association for the Study of Popular Music Book Prize* Partly because they are the objects of such intense adulation by fans popular musicians remain strangely enigmatic figures, shrouded in mythology. This book looks beyond the myth and examines the diverse roles music makers have had to adopt in order to go about their work: designer, ventriloquist, star, delegate of the people. The musician is a divided subject and jack of all trades. However the story does not end here. Arguing against that strand in cultural studies which deconstructs all claims for authorship by the individual artist, Jason Toynbee suggests that creativity should be reconceived rather than abandoned. He argues that what is needed is a sense of 'the radius of creativity' within which musicians work, an approach that takes into account both the embedded collectivism of popular music practice and the institutional power of the music industries. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical positions, as well as examining musical texts from across the history of twentieth-century pop,this groundbreaking book develops a powerful case for the importance of production in contemporary culture. Students of cultural and media studies, music and the performing arts will find this book an invaluable resource.
Author: David Cashman Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 0429012667 Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 154
Book Description
This book explores the fundamentals of popular music performance for students in contemporary music institutions. Drawing on the insights of performance practice research, it discusses the unwritten rules of performances in popular music, what it takes to create a memorable performance, and live popular music as a creative industry. The authors offer a practical overview of topics ranging from rehearsals to stagecraft, and what to do when things go wrong. Chapters on promotion, recordings, and the music industry place performance in the context of building a career. Performing Popular Music introduces aspiring musicians to the elements of crafting compelling performances and succeeding in the world of today’s popular music.
Author: Joshua Tucker Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 022660733X Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 291
Book Description
When thinking of indigenous music, many people may imagine acoustic instruments and pastoral settings far removed from the whirl of modern life. But, in contemporary Peru, indigenous chimaycha music has become a wildly popular genre that is even heard in the nightclubs of Lima. In Making Music Indigenous, Joshua Tucker traces the history of this music and its key performers over fifty years to show that there is no single way to “sound indigenous.” The musicians Tucker follows make indigenous culture and identity visible in contemporary society by establishing a cultural and political presence for Peru’s indigenous peoples through activism, artisanship, and performance. This musical representation of indigeneity not only helps shape contemporary culture, it also provides a lens through which to reflect on the country’s past. Tucker argues that by following the musicians that have championed chimaycha music in its many forms, we can trace shifting meanings of indigeneity—and indeed, uncover the ways it is constructed, transformed, and ultimately recreated through music.
Author: Jodie Taylor Publisher: Peter Lang ISBN: 3034305532 Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 267
Book Description
Popular music has always been a dynamic mediator of gender and sexuality, and a productive site of rebellion, oddity and queerness. The transformative capacity of music-making, performance and consumption helps us to make sense of identity and allows us to glimpse otherworldliness, arousing the political imagination. With an activist voice that is impassioned yet adherent to scholarly rigour, Playing it Queer provides an original and compelling ethnographic account of the relationship between popular music, queer self-fashioning and (sub)cultural world-making. This book begins with a comprehensive survey and critical evaluation of relevant literatures on queer identity and political debates as well as popular music, identity and (sub)cultural style. Contextualised within a detailed history of queer sensibilities and creative practices, including camp, drag, genderfuck, queercore, feminist music and club cultures, the author's rich empirical studies of local performers and translocal scenes intimately capture the meaning and value of popular musics and (sub)cultural style in everyday queer lives.
Author: Barry Mazor Publisher: Chicago Review Press ISBN: 1613733887 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 320
Book Description
This is the first biography of Ralph Peer, the adventurous—even revolutionary—A&R man and music publisher who saw the universal power locked in regional roots music and tapped it, changing the breadth and flavor of popular music around the world. It is the story of the life and fifty-year career, from the age of cylinder recordings to the stereo era, of the man who pioneered the recording, marketing, and publishing of blues, jazz, country, gospel, and Latin music. The book tracks Peer’s role in such breakthrough events as the recording of Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues” (the record that sparked the blues craze), the first country recording sessions with Fiddlin’ John Carson, his discovery of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family at the famed Bristol sessions, the popularizing of Latin American music during World War II, and the postwar transformation of music on the airwaves that set the stage for the dominance of R&B, country, and rock ‘n’ roll. But this is also the story of a man from humble midwestern beginnings who went on to build the world’s largest independent music publishing firm, fostering the global reach of music that had previously been specialized, localized, and marginalized. Ralph Peer redefined the ways promising songs and performers were identified, encouraged, and promoted, rethought how far regional music might travel, and changed our very notions of what pop music can be. This enhanced e-book includes 49 of the greatest songs Ralph Peer was involved with, from groundbreaking numbers that changed the history of recorded music to revelatory obscurities, all linked to the text so that the reader can hear the music while reading about it.
Author: Dewar MacLeod Publisher: Rutgers University Press ISBN: 0813574684 Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 192
Book Description
Making the Scene in the Garden State explores New Jersey’s rich musical heritage through stories about the musicians, listeners and fans who came together to create sounds from across the American popular music spectrum. The book includes chapters on the beginnings of musical recording in Thomas Edison’s factories in West Orange; early recording and the invention of the Victrola at Victor Records’ Camden complex; Rudy Van Gelder’s recording studios (for Blue Note, Prestige, and other jazz labels) in Hackensack and Englewood Cliffs; Zacherley and the afterschool dance television show Disc-o-Teen, broadcast from Newark in the 1960s; Bruce Springsteen’s early years on the Jersey Shore at the Upstage Club in Asbury Park; and, the 1980s indie rock scene centered at Maxwell’s in Hoboken. Concluding with a foray into the thriving local music scenes of today, the book examines the sounds, sights and textures of the locales where New Jerseyans have gathered to rock, bop, and boogie.
Author: Nate Sloan Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA ISBN: 0190056657 Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 225
Book Description
Pop music surrounds us - in our cars, over supermarket speakers, even when we are laid out at the dentist - but how often do we really hear what's playing? Switched on Pop is the book based on the eponymous podcast that has been hailed by NPR, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and Entertainment Weekly for its witty and accessible analysis of Top 40 hits. Through close studies of sixteen modern classics, musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding shift pop from the background to the foreground, illuminating the essential musical concepts behind two decades of chart-topping songs. In 1939, Aaron Copland published What to Listen for in Music, the bestseller that made classical music approachable for generations of listeners. Eighty years later, Nate and Charlie update Copland's idea for a new audience and repertoire: 21st century pop, from Britney to Beyoncé, Outkast to Kendrick Lamar. Despite the importance of pop music in contemporary culture, most discourse only revolves around lyrics and celebrity. Switched on Pop gives readers the tools they need to interpret our modern soundtrack. Each chapter investigates a different song and artist, revealing musical insights such as how a single melodic motif follows Taylor Swift through every genre that she samples, André 3000 uses metric manipulation to get listeners to "shake it like a Polaroid picture," or Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee create harmonic ambiguity in "Despacito" that mirrors the patterns of global migration. Replete with engaging discussions and eye-catching illustrations, Switched on Pop brings to life the musical qualities that catapult songs into the pop pantheon. Readers will find themselves listening to familiar tracks in new waysand not just those from the Top 40. The timeless concepts that Nate and Charlie define can be applied to any musical style. From fanatics to skeptics, teenagers to octogenarians, non-musicians to professional composers, every music lover will discover something ear-opening in Switched on Pop.
Author: Gert Keunen Publisher: ISBN: 9789078088950 Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Which mechanisms and logics of decision-making form the basis of selections made by those working in the pop music circuit? Almost as a rule, the same bands will gain all the hype and make the crossover to fame. Why are only some bands considered, and why are these always the same? This book investigates the segment of the music industry that lies between mainstream and underground, including genres ranging from hip hop to rock, and from folk to electronic music. Keunen delves into the aesthetics and ideologies behind the alternative mainstream's cultural construct, embedding his findings in a broader socio-economic context.
Author: Dominic Pedler Publisher: Omnibus Press ISBN: 0857123467 Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 791
Book Description
Thirty years after The Beatles split up, the music of Lennon, McCartney, Harrrison and Starkey lives on. What exactly were the magical ingredients of those legendary songs? Why are they still so influential for today's bands? This ground-breaking book sets out to explore The Beatles' songwriting techniques in a clear and readable style. It is aimed not only at musicians but anyone who has ever enjoyed the work of one of the most productive and successful songwriting parterships of the 20th Century. Author Dominic Pedler explores the chord sequences, melodies, harmonies, rhythms and structures of The Beatles' self-penned songs, while challenging readers to enhance their appreciation of the lyrics themselves with reference to the musical context. Throughout the book the printed music and lyrics of The Beatles' songs appear alongside the text, illustrating the author's explanations. The Songwriting Secrets Of The Beatles is an essential addition to Beatles literature - a new and perceptive analysis of both the music and the lyrics written and performed by what Paul McCartney still calls 'a really good, tight little band'.
Author: Stan Hawkins Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317075935 Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 235
Book Description
The career of the prolific pop artist Prince has become inextricably intertwined with the history of popular music since the late 1970s. This multi-instrumental icon, who remains one of the highest-grossing live performers in America, has been called a genius for his musicianship, composition and incredible performances. But Prince holds iconic status for more than his music. Best known for his racial blurring and extravagant sexual persona, Prince's music and visual iconography has always chimed with the ambiguity of subjectivity at any given moment. 'Prince' the sign offers a space for fans to evaluate and reconfigure their attitudes towards their own identities, and towards their position as subjects within the socio-cultural sphere. This much-needed interdisciplinary analysis is the first of its kind to examine critically Prince's popular music, performances, sounds, lyrics and the plethora of accompanying visual material such as album covers, posters, fashions, promotional videos and feature films. Specifically, the book explores how and why he has played such a profoundly meaningful and significant role in his fans' lives.
Author: Jason Toynbee
Author: David Cashman
Author: Joshua Tucker
Author: Jodie Taylor
Author: Barry Mazor
Author: Dewar MacLeod
Author: Nate Sloan
Author: Gert Keunen
Author: Dominic Pedler
Author: Stan Hawkins