Showing titles in History & Criticism

Award-winning photographer and author of My Last Supper Melanie Dunea traces the through-lines from country music’s gritty roots to the chart-topping chanteuses of today. My Country presents beautiful, imaginative, and revealing depictions of icons ranging from Taylor Swift to Wynonna Judd to Little Jimmy Dickens alongside interviews that reveal the stars’ musical roots and inspirations, their defining moments, and what makes country music the heart and soul of America.

An intimate portrait of Handel’s life and inner circle, modeled after one of the composer’s favorite forms: the fugue. During his lifetime, the sounds of Handel’s music reached from court to theater, echoed in cathedrals, and filled crowded taverns, but the man himself - known to most as the composer of Messiah - is a bit of a mystery. Though he took meticulous care of his musical manuscripts and even provided for their preservation on his death, very little of an intimate nature survives.

The Beatles' third tour of North America was nearly a year in the planning. By late 1964, manager Brian Epstein knew that they were not only the biggest act in his stable: they had become the biggest act on earth. America worshipped them. Somewhere different for the start of this tour, in New York - somewhere appropriately massive - had to be found. It was: a baseball stadium in Flushing, Queens. On August 15, 1965, The Beatles played the concert of their lives there.

From a legendary journalist with four decades of unprecedented access and untold stories, an insider’s behind-the-scenes look at the major personalities of rock and roll. Lisa Robinson has interviewed everyone from John Lennon to Bono to Patti Smith, Eminem to Lady Gaga to Jay-Z and Kanye West...

Show biz memoir at its name-dropping, bridge-burning, profane best: the music industry’s most outspoken, outrageous, and phenomenally successful executive delivers a rollicking memoir of pop music’s heyday. During the 1970s and '80s the music business was dominated by a few major labels and...

A small-town Florida teenager discovers punk rock through a loaned mix tape, and punk music and culture slowly takes over all aspects of his life. His new passion causes him to form a band, track down out-of-print records he loves and reissue them, open a record store, start a record distribution operation as a public service, mentor a host of young musicians, and befriend all manner of punk luminaries along the way. Slowly his life's pursuit pushes him to the point of personal ruination and, ultimately, redemption.

Martin Schleske, einer der großen Geigenbauer der Gegenwart, liest die besten Passagen aus seinem Buch und gewährt einen akustischen Einblick in seine international renommierte Werkstatt. Dabei zeigt er, wie für ihn die Kunst des Geigenbaus ein Gleichnis für persönliche Entwicklung und für das Streben nach dem richtigen Platz im Leben ist. Und wer schon immer wissen wollte, wie eine Schleske-Geige tönt: Der Geiger Alban Beikircher, Solist u. a. bei den Münchner Symphonikern, bringt sie in diesem Hörbuch zum Klingen.

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 (My Generation)...

Wie man als Hardrocker über den Tod eines geliebten Menschen wegkommt (Nothing Else Matters); wie die hübsche Italo-Amerikanerin aus dem Fernsehen zum letzten Rettungsanker eines Popidols wurde (Maria Bartiromo); und wie man als Fan zu Fans kommt, die werden wollen wie man selbst (Butterfly)...

From his school days in Stoke -on-Trent to his years in Take That, his battle with drink and drugs and the song that 'saved his life', this is the most intimate and well balanced portrait of this excitingly unpredictable showman to date. This Sunday Times bestseller has become the definitive account of Robbie Williams life.

Nearly 20 years in the making, Can't Buy Me Love is a masterful work of group biography, cultural history, and musical criticism. That the Beatles were an unprecedented phenomenon is a given. Here Jonathan Gould seeks to explain why, placing the Fab Four in the broad and tumultuous panorama of their time and place, rooting their story in the social context that girded both their rise and their demise.

Dieser Pop-Split erzählt, wie eine Gedichtzeile zu einem musikalischen Liebesbekenntnis und damit zu einem der berühmtesten Country-Songs wurde.

Der Titel ist Teil des Pop-Splits "Always on my mind -- 21 Geschichten aus Liebe".

Wie aus einem marxistischen Lied ein Weihnachtsklassiker wurde "Stop the Cavalry", warum der Song "California Dreamin" nur im Winter entstehen konnte, welcher Hit von Elvis aus der Feder eines italienischen Geigers stammt, der mit dem Winter in der Ukraine nicht klar kam...

The revealing backstory of the album with no name that spawned 'When the Levee Breaks', 'Black Dog,' 'Stairway to Heaven', and 'Rock 'n' Roll'. Four tracks each side; eight killers, no fillers. This is how they did it.

February, 1940. After a decade of worldwide depression, World War II had begun in Europe and Asia. With Germany on the march and Japan at war with China, the global crisis was in a crescendo. America's top songwriter, Irving Berlin, had captured the nation's mood a little more than a year before with his patriotic hymn "God Bless America."

For the first time, Appetite for Self-Destruction recounts the story of the precipitous rise and fall of the recording industry over the past three decades, when the incredible success of the CD turned the music business into one of the most glamorous, high-profile industries in the world - and the advent of file sharing brought it to its knees.

Keyboard Conversations with Jeffrey Siegel combine the virtuosity and poetry of a world-class pianist with entertaining commentary to create a magical concert experience. His lively, engaging insights and captivating performances make listening an enthralling experience for all music lovers...

January 1970: the Beatles assemble one more time to put the finishing touches on Let It Be; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are wrapping up Déjà Vu; Simon and Garfunkel are unveiling Bridge Over Troubled Water; James Taylor is an upstart singer-songwriter who's just completed Sweet Baby James. Over the course of the next twelve months, their lives---and the world around them---will change irrevocably.

Throughout his career, Johnny Cash was depicted - and depicted himself - as a walking contradiction: social protestor and establishment patriot, drugged wildman and devout Christian crusader, rebel outlaw hillbilly thug and elder statesman. Leigh H. Edwards explores the allure of this paradoxical image and its cultural significance. She argues that Cash embodied irresolvable contradictions of American identity that reflect foundational issues in the American experience.

Set against the music we know and love, Mozart, Beethoven, and many more come alive through their correspondence. Poignant, funny, revealing, informative and so often direct and honest, these letters offer a fascinating insight into the personalities that created our Western musical tradition.