The abrasive Dury always met life head on as an unsentimental, uncompromising lyricist and artist, in his relationships and in his music and this great biography does not shrink from chronicling some of his darker moments as well as his triumphs.
Blackface minstrelsy is associated particularly with popular culture in the United States and Britain, yet despite the continual two-way flow of performers, troupes and companies across the Atlantic, there is little in Britain to match the scholarship of blackface studies in the States.
Development Drowned and Reborn is a "e;Blues geography"e; of New Orleans, one that compels readers to return to the history of the Black freedom struggle there to reckon with its unfinished business.
This new study of the intersection of romance novels with vocal music records a society on the cusp of modernisation, with a printing industry emerging to serve people's growing appetites for entertainment amidst their changing views of religion and the occult.
Popular music in Japan has been under the overwhelming influence of American, Latin American and European popular music remarkably since 1945, when Japan was defeated in World War II.
This book sources interviews with scholars, urban designers, music experts, financial analysts, retailers, and hip hop celebrities to chronicle the compelling story of how hip hop transformed the fashion world and exploded into a $3 billion clothing industry.
Surveying the impact of Cuba's economic crisis after the demise of the eastern socialist block, this book documents a relatively unexplored transnational network of collaborations among Cuban musicians that migrated to many different countries from the 1990s forward.
Whenever you hear the prevalent wailing blues harmonica in commercials, film soundtracks or at a blues club, you are experiencing the legacy of the master harmonica player, Little Walter.
Perhaps the best musical encapsulation of the Cold War as experienced in the walled city of West-Berlin, Kollaps is a product of its time while remaining as vital, exhilarating and surprising as the day it was released.
Offering commentary, musical analysis, and detailed interpretation of her songs' lyrics, this book examines the qualities of Sheryl Crow's music that have served to establish the artist's success and popularity.
Australian rock music has a rich history of performers and bands that have created not just the soundtrack for Australian lives but have also shaped the international music scene.
This updated edition of Madonna Style includes details of Madonna's new 2012 album and subsequent World Tour, her advertising campaigns for Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana, her clothing lines, her Hard Candy album and more.
This volume marks the 25th anniversary of Karin Barber's ground-breaking article, "e;Popular Arts in Africa"e;, which stimulated new debates about African popular culture and its defining categories.
The Myth of Aunt Jemima is a bold and exciting look at the way three centuries of white women writers have tackled the subject of race in both Britain and America.
In studies of gender and sexuality in popular music, the concept of difference is often a crucial analytic used to detect social agency; however, the alternative analytic of ambiguity has never been systematically examined.
This book offers an in-depth analysis of Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer, an Afrofuturist project that appeared simultaneously as a concept album and a visual album or "e;emotion picture"e; in spring 2018.
This book examines how popular music is able to approach subjects of bio-politics, climate change, solastalgia, and anthropomorphisation, alongside its more common diet of songs about love, dancing, and break-ups - all while satisfying its primary remit of being entertaining and listenable.
Famous for its revolutionary aspects in musical, political, sexual identity and consumerist ideas, punk rock also has its lesser-known gangster ethos as well, explained here by players in the various punk gangs.
This insightful analysis of the broad impact of hip-hop on popular culture examines the circulation of hip-hop through media, academia, business, law, and consumer culture to explain how hip-hop influences thought and action through our societal institutions.
Part reference book, part history, and part road map to the connectivity of popular music, this book is a must for all rock ‘n’ roll fans as it brings together a compilation of over two hundred genres of rock music—an entertaining, enlightening, knotty family tree of America’s favorite musical genre.
This volume studies the relationships between government and the popular music industries, comparing three Anglophone nations: Scotland, New Zealand and Australia.
This book is a lively, comprehensive and timely reader on the music video, capitalising on cross-disciplinary research expertise, which represents a substantial academic engagement with the music video, a mediated form and practice that still remains relatively under-explored in a 21st century context.
The second of two volumes, this companion to every song that Bob Dylan ever wrote is not just opinionated commentary or literary interpretation: it consists of facts first and foremost.
In the field of popular culture, a handful of artists enjoy a status that is beyond stardom - they are true icons whose life and art remain an inspiration to millions around the world.
A captivating memoir from one of jazz's most beloved practitioners, fourteen-time Grammy winner Paquito D’Rivera’s Letters to Yeyito is a fascinating tour of a life lived in music, and a useful guidebook for aspiring artists everywhere.
Kennedy's Blues: African American Blues and Gospel Songs on JFK collects in a single volume the blues and gospel songs written by African Americans about the presidency of John F.
Few music groups have been able to sustain a fan base as passionate and dedicated as that of Pearl Jam, and this entertaining guide rewards those fans with everything they need to know about the band in a one-of-a-kind format.
Black gospel music grew from obscure nineteenth-century beginnings to become the leading style of sacred music in black American communities after World War II.
Spanning nearly seventy years, Buck Clayton's autobiography offers fascinating insights into not only the life of one of the most significant trumpeters and bandleaders in jazz, but also American social history in general.
