History & Criticism

Without Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen might not be who he is today. The natural follow-up to Springsteen’s hugely successful album The River should have been the hit-packed Born in the U.S.A....

An enthralling investigation into the mysteries of music....

Wie Leonard Cohen Janis Joplin flach legte (Chelsea Hotel Nr.2); und wie die britische Königin-Mutter Pete Townshend von The Who dazu brachte, eines seiner besten Lieder zu schreiben...

Filled with interviews with key players such as Snoop Dogg, Ice-T, and dozens more, as well as breakout bios of notorious characters, lists, and more, The History of Gangster Rap is the be-all-end-all book that contextualizes the importance of gangster rap as a cultural phenomenon....

Ted Gioia's History of Jazz has been universally hailed as a classic - acclaimed by jazz critics and fans around the world....

A monumental, revealing narrative history about the legendary group of artists at the forefront of West Coast hip-hop: Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur....

"A dauntingly ambitious, obsessively researched" (Los Angeles Times) global history of music that reveals how songs have shifted societies and sparked revolutions....

So Many Roads paints the most vivid portrait yet of the Grateful Dead, one of the most enduring institutions in American music and culture....

In this major BBC Radio 4 series, James Naughtie uncovers the roots of our music and reveals the soundtrack to our own history....

This is the never-before-told story of the musical revolution that happened right under the nose of the Reagan '80s - when a small but sprawling network of bands, labels, fanzines, radio stations, and other subversives reenergized American rock....

Tommasini offers his own personal guide to the canon - and what greatness really means in classical music. Tommasini draws on elements of biography, the anxiety of influence, the composer's relationships with colleagues, and shifting attitudes toward a composer's work over time....

This in-depth and affectionate biography traces the rise of the man, from child prodigy to tortured megastar....

Music journalists Dean Budnick and Josh Baron chronicle the behind-the-scenes history of the modern concert industry....

A fascinating journey through the history of one of the transatlantic world’s most popular hymns....

In clear and entertaining prose, Plotkin explores a thousand years of music, introduces listeners to more than 100 great works, and profiles in depth many significant composers....

Roger Scruton turns again to the meaning of tonality and sound in a most satisfying and provocative new work....

This collection of uplifting, informative stories behind your favorite hymns will warm your heart and revitalize your worship....

The lives and music of the great composers of classical music unfold in this entertaining account, introduced by singer and presenter Aled Jones....

The first book dedicated solely to exploring his creative work, Man in the Music guides us through an unparalleled analysis of Jackson’s recordings, album by album....

A stunning, in-depth look at the power and poetry of one of the most consequential rappers of our time....

From Gregorian Chant to Henryk Gorecki, the first living classical composer to get into the pop album charts, here is the fascinating story of over a thousand years of Western classical music....

By a pair of veteran music writers, an unprecedented history of the electric guitar, its explosive impact on music and culture, and the people who brought it to life....

Seis músicos imprescindibles para comprender la compleja evolución de la historia del rock -Bowie, Cohen, Mercury, Cash, Harrison y Zevon-, en la medida...

Mozart in the Jungle delves into the lives of the musicians and conductors who inhabit the insular world of classical music....

Beloved music critic Tom Breihan's fascinating narrative of the history of popular music through the lens of game-changing #1 singles from the Billboard Hot 100....

In 1976, under the guidance of legendary label Stiff Records, he transformed himself into the snarling, spectacled artist who defied the musical status quo to blaze the trail for a new kind of rock star with his debut album, My Aim Is True. In Elvis Is King, Richard Crouse examines how the man, the myth, and the music of this arrestingly original album smashed the trends of the era to bridge the gap between punk and rock ’n’ roll.

The epic, rollicking, up-and-down life of Muddy Waters—who went from Mississippi farmhand to musical legend, invented electric blues, and created the template for the rock-and-roll band and its wild lifestyle—is chronicled with rare vividness in Robert Gordon’s widely praised biography.

A Really Strange and Wonderful Time features a representative cross-section of what was being created in and around Chapel Hill between 1989 and 1999. In addition to the aforementioned indie bands, it documents―through firsthand accounts―other local notables like Ben Folds Five, Dillon Fence, Flat Duo Jets, Small, Southern Culture on the Skids, Squirrel Nut Zippers, The Veldt, and Whiskeytown. At the same time, it describes the nurturing infrastructure which engendered and encouraged this marvelous diversity. In essence, A Really Strange and Wonderful Time is proof of the genius of community.

Taking us from the present day back to the dawn of time, long-lost music is here reconstructed as we enter the worlds of its makers. We feel a child's delight at playing with a water-filled pot that chirps like a bird in Peru in 700 AD; we appreciate the challenge of a soldier sending signals by trumpet along Hadrian's Wall; we hear the chiming of 64 bells buried in a tomb in 5th century China. Graeme Lawson leads us on a grand tour of the world's greatest musical discoveries, revealing that music is part of our DNA.

The Everly Brothers—aka Don and Phil to fans with an intimate appreciation for them—seemed to exist almost as an apparition. Emerging within the formative era for young Baby Boomers during the blandly regimented '50s, they were a ubiquitous presence, clad in snug suits and skinny ties, hair neatly Brylcreemed, never raising their voices when they sang. The two prim-looking country boys with dark, curiously penetrating eyes and perfectly merged, honey-dipped harmonies, were oddly but comfortably settled as sentimental, soothing, sometimes lovelorn voices of a still-uncharted cultural turf.

New York Times-bestselling author Elijah Wald, one of the most wide-ranging and respected writers on blues and popular music, traces the beginnings of the music that became our national soundtrack. Using Morton’s life and songs as a connecting thread, Jelly Roll Blues suggests an alternate history of blues and jazz, surveying a world of Black and working class culture that at times seems startlingly modern.

In dieser Ausgabe Legendärer Songs geht es um 5 Songs, die auch heute noch von Millionen Hörern gehört werden. Games without Frontiers von Peter Gabriel, Blue Monday von New Order, Go your own way und Dreams von Fleetwood Mac und Breakfast in Amerika von Supertramp. Ich bin sicher, dass auch Du einiges noch nicht über die Songs wusstest. Wie zB bei wem alles New Order sich für "Blue Monday" bedient haben. Ja, klar bei Kraftwerk aber auch bei Giorgio Moroder. Mit welchem Song ? Hör mal rein.

After February 9, 1964, everyone wanted to be Debbie Gendler. She was one of a handful of lucky fans who were in the live audience for the Beatles' historic performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Everyone has a story about where they were when they watched the appearance, but very few were there in-person—and even fewer would go on not just to meet the Beatles, but end up building a career around the band. But Debbie did.

Bereit für die "Metal Gods"? Zusammen mit dem neuen Album von JUDAS PRIEST erscheint die passende Episode "ROCK SCHOOL"! Zu Gast sind Hardcore-Fan Schmier (Frontmann DESTRUCTION) und Scott Travis (Schlagzeuger JUDAS PRIEST) höchstpersönlich! Bloß keine "Panic Attack", aber diese Folge solltest Du nicht verpassen! "ROCK SCHOOL", die Hörbuch-Serie mit Andy Brings, in Kooperation mit dem ROCK CLASSICS-Magazin, veröffentlicht im Hause LAUSCH.

1959 saw Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the other members of Miles's sextet come together to record the seminal jazz album of all time Kind of Blue. 3 Shades of Blue is a magnificent blended biography on the meandering paths which led Miles, Coltrane and Evans to the mountaintop of 1959 and the aftermath. It's a book about music, business, race, addiction and the cities that gave jazz its home; from New York and LA to Philadelphia, Chicago and Kansas City. Kaplan meditates on creativity and the great forebears of this golden age who would take the music down strange new paths.

Jewell uncovers how battles to control college radio were about more than music—they were an influential, if unexpected, front in the nation's culture wars. These battles created unintended consequences and overlooked contributions to popular culture that students, DJs, and listeners never anticipated. More than an ode to beloved stations, this book will resonate with both music fans and observers of the politics of culture.

Hoje é inimaginável conceber a música brasileira sem as vozes de Cartola e Adoniran Barbosa. Mas, nos anos 1970, a situação era diferente: nenhum deles jamais gravara um LP, e a percepção do mercado era de que lançar discos dedicados aos veteranos era um desperdício de dinheiro. Foi quando entrou em cena o intrépido produtor João Carlos Botezelli, o Pelão, que tomou para si a missão de registrar alguns dos maiores compositores de nossa cultura.

Since exploding on the scene in the late 1970s, Journey has inspired generations of fans with hit after hit. But hidden under this rock 'n' roll glory is a complex story of ambition, larger-than-life personalities, and clashes. David Hamilton Golland unearths the band's true and complete biography, based on over a decade of interviews and thousands of sources.

In Revolutions in American Music, award-winning author Michael Broyles shows the surprising ways in which three key decades—the 1840s, the 1920s, and the 1950s—shaped America's musical future. Drawing connections between new styles of music like the minstrel show, jazz, and rock 'n' roll, and emerging technologies like the locomotive, the first music recordings, and the transistor radio, Broyles argues that these decades fundamentally remade our cultural landscape in enduring ways.

Author and singer John Potter tells the European story of song. The form has captivated audiences and excited performers for centuries, from the music of the troubadours and the Christian liturgy through classical composers such as Bach and Schumann up to Britten, Berio, and the rise of popular music. Choosing twelve key works, Potter offers a personal tour through this vital tradition, from John Dowland's "Flow My Tears" to George Gershwin's "Summertime." Throughout, he reveals who wrote and sang these joyful masterpieces—and what they mean to singers and audiences today.