Theory of music and musicology

Against Ambience diagnoses - in order to cure - the art world's recent turn toward ambience.

Popular music artists, as performers in the public eye, offer a privileged site for the witnessing and analysis of ageing and its mediation.

This book explores Russian independent music - nezavisimaia muzyka - in a time of profound transformations in Russian society, looking especially at the mutual influence between music and the socio-political context in which it was created.

For a few decades now, They Might Be Giants' album Flood has been a beacon (or at least a nightlight) for people who might rather read than rock out, who care more about science fiction than Slayer, who are more often called clever than cool.

Dangerous is Michael Jackson's coming of age album.

London, 1966: Paul McCartney met a group of three electronic musicians called Unit Delta Plus.

In 1978, San Francisco, a city that has seen more than its share of trauma, plunged from a summer of political tension into an autumn cascade of malevolence that so eluded human comprehension it seemed almost demonic.

Words like "e;inspiring,"e; "e;expansive,"e; and "e;moving"e; are regularly used to describe Sigur Ros's ( ), and yet the only words heard on the record itself are a handful of meaningless nonsense syllables.

This book marks the tenth anniversary of The Grey Album.

This book marks the tenth anniversary of The Grey Album.

Smile is not merely a great unfinished album, but a living work of art that is all at once expansive, indeterminate, and resolutely pop.

For his 2007 critically acclaimed 33 1/3 series title, Let's Talk About Love, Carl Wilson went on a quest to find his inner Celine Dion fan and explore how we define ourselves by what we call good and bad, what we love and what we hate.

Finally, after all that waiting, The Future arrived in 1980.

Words like "e;inspiring,"e; "e;expansive,"e; and "e;moving"e; are regularly used to describe Sigur Ros's ( ), and yet the only words heard on the record itself are a handful of meaningless nonsense syllables.

Following hard on the explosion of British punk, in 1979 Gang of Four produced post-punk's smartest record, Entertainment!

Following hard on the explosion of British punk, in 1979 Gang of Four produced post-punk's smartest record, Entertainment!

July, 1967: It seems the entire country stopped to listen to a husky voice steeped in the simmering secrets of the South tell a tragic tale of teenage suicide.

The contemporary media landscape might be described in simple terms as a digital terrain where real and virtual worlds collide.

Outside his native France, the view of Serge Gainsbourg was once of a one-hit wonder lothario.

It has been sixty years since Rock 'n' Roll exploded into the mainstream, yet we remain limited in our understanding of how its bawdy excesses absorbed into the annals of mass popularity in such a short amount of time.

Dangerous is Michael Jackson's coming of age album.

Although David Bowie has famously characterized himself as a "e;leper messiah,"e; a more appropriate moniker might be "e;rock god"e;: someone whose influence has crossed numerous sub-genres of popular and classical music and can at times seem ubiquitous.

The contemporary media landscape might be described in simple terms as a digital terrain where real and virtual worlds collide.

Although Exile in Guyville was celebrated as one of the year's top records by Spin and the New York Times, it was also, to some, an abomination: a mockery of the Rolling Stones' most revered record and a rare glimpse into the psyche of a shrewd, independent, strong young woman.

From a Los Angeles hospital bed, equipped with little more than a laptop and a stack of records, James "e;J Dilla"e; Yancey crafted a set of tracks that would forever change the way beatmakers viewed their artform.

Inspired by its use in literary theory, film criticism and the discourse of game design, Salome Voegelin adapts and develops "e;possible world theory"e; in relation to sound.

Stereo is everywhere.

Although David Bowie has famously characterized himself as a "e;leper messiah,"e; a more appropriate moniker might be "e;rock god"e;: someone whose influence has crossed numerous sub-genres of popular and classical music and can at times seem ubiquitous.

A brilliant study of Oasis' debut album, highlighting the band's massive cultural impact and the raw, positive power of those early songs.

Finally, after all that waiting, The Future arrived in 1980.

Courtney Love has never been less than notorious.

To wander the streets of a bankrupt, often lawless, New York City in the early 1970s wearing a T-shirt with PLEASE KILL ME written on it was an act of determined nihilism, and one often recounted in the first reports of Richard Hell filtering into the pre-punk UK.

Stereo is everywhere.

From a Los Angeles hospital bed, equipped with little more than a laptop and a stack of records, James "e;J Dilla"e; Yancey crafted a set of tracks that would forever change the way beatmakers viewed their artform.

Outside his native France, the view of Serge Gainsbourg was once of a one-hit wonder lothario.

"e;It's Time To Party,"e; the first track off of I Get Wet, opens with a rapid-fire guitar line - nothing fancy, just a couple crunchy power chords to acclimate the ears - repeated twice before a booming bass drum joins in to provide a quarter-note countdown.

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, Kanye West created the most compelling body of pop music by an American artist during the period.

Although Exile in Guyville was celebrated as one of the year's top records by Spin and the New York Times, it was also, to some, an abomination: a mockery of the Rolling Stones' most revered record and a rare glimpse into the psyche of a shrewd, independent, strong young woman.

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, Kanye West created the most compelling body of pop music by an American artist during the period.

A brilliant study of Oasis' debut album, highlighting the band's massive cultural impact and the raw, positive power of those early songs.

"e;It's Time To Party,"e; the first track off of I Get Wet, opens with a rapid-fire guitar line - nothing fancy, just a couple crunchy power chords to acclimate the ears - repeated twice before a booming bass drum joins in to provide a quarter-note countdown.

In 1978, San Francisco, a city that has seen more than its share of trauma, plunged from a summer of political tension into an autumn cascade of malevolence that so eluded human comprehension it seemed almost demonic.

To wander the streets of a bankrupt, often lawless, New York City in the early 1970s wearing a T-shirt with PLEASE KILL ME written on it was an act of determined nihilism, and one often recounted in the first reports of Richard Hell filtering into the pre-punk UK.

For a few decades now, They Might Be Giants' album Flood has been a beacon (or at least a nightlight) for people who might rather read than rock out, who care more about science fiction than Slayer, who are more often called clever than cool.

Inspired by its use in literary theory, film criticism and the discourse of game design, Salome Voegelin adapts and develops "e;possible world theory"e; in relation to sound.

Smile is not merely a great unfinished album, but a living work of art that is all at once expansive, indeterminate, and resolutely pop.

Extravagantly opaque, willfully vaporous - Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II, released by the estimable British label Warp Records in 1994, rejuvenated ambient music for the Internet Age that was just dawning.

Courtney Love has never been less than notorious.

July, 1967: It seems the entire country stopped to listen to a husky voice steeped in the simmering secrets of the South tell a tragic tale of teenage suicide.

Extravagantly opaque, willfully vaporous - Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II, released by the estimable British label Warp Records in 1994, rejuvenated ambient music for the Internet Age that was just dawning.