Showing results for "A.D." in History & Criticism

Voodoo, D'Angelo's much-anticipated 2000 release, set the standard for the musical cycle ordained as "neo-soul," a label the singer and songwriter would reject more than a decade later. The album is a product of heightened emotions and fused sensibilities; an amalgam of soul, rock, jazz, gospel, hip-hop, and Afrobeats. D'Angelo put to music his own pleasures and insecurities as a man-child in the promised land. It was both a tribute to his musical heroes: Prince, Sly Stone, Marvin Gaye, J Dilla...and a deconstruction of rhythm and blues itself.

Long before the United States had presidents from the world of movies and reality TV, we had scores of politicians with connections to country music. In I'd Fight the World, Peter La Chapelle traces the deep bonds between country music and politics. These performers and politicians both rode and resisted cultural waves: some advocated for the poor and dispossessed, and others voiced religious and racial anger, but they all walked the line between exploiting their celebrity and righteously taking on the world.

"Raw, authoritative, and unflinching ... An elaborately detailed, darkly surprising, definitive history of the LA gangsta rap era." -- Kirkus, starred review A monumental, revealing narrative history about the legendary group of artists at the forefront of West Coast hip-hop: Eazy-E, Dr. Dre...

Blacksound explores the sonic history of blackface minstrelsy and the racial foundations of American musical culture from the early 1800s through the turn of the twentieth century. With this namesake book, Matthew D. Morrison develops the concept of "Blacksound" to uncover how the popular music industry and popular entertainment in general in the United States arose out of slavery and blackface.

Just what is nostalgia? Here are provocative and exciting stories about a great period of popular music. It was a time when the nation was facing desperate days of the Great Depression as well on-going fears of a World War. The still young radio industry was a major force in helping provide a worried nation with a source of entertainment and comfort. The author/narrator had conversation/interviews with many of the major stars and he tells you about their talent and their wonderful music. It’s as though you’re sitting there listening as to one of the most memorable eras in the nation’s history.

Da Andrea e Franz Campi, musicisti e artisti della scena bolognese, da sempre appassionati di musica italiana e di teatro. La canzone popolare italiana ha segnato un'epoca, due secoli fatti di versi e musica, dove i protagonisti sono le persone del popolo, prive di qualsivoglia cultura o preparazione accademica, ma dotate di un grande senso del ritmo, della poesia e della musicalità. Dal popolo sono nate "canzonette" ormai simbolo della nostra cultura, come "O Sole mio", "O surdato 'nnammurato", "Mamma" e "Volare".

In 1981, David Bowie and Queen both happened to be in Switzerland: They met and made "Under Pressure." Recorded on a lark, the song broke the path for subsequent pop anthems. In Under Pressure, Max Brzezinski tells the classic track's story, charting the relationship between pop music, collective politics, and dominant institutions of state, corporations, and civil society. Brzezinski shows that, like all great pop anthems, "Under Pressure" harnesses collective sentiments in order to model new ways of thinking and acting.

How did hip-hop happen? To understand that, we have to go back to before the ‘birth’ of the culture.