Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: popular music

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  White Christmas: The Story of an American Song

  by Jody Rosen

  When Irving Berlin first conceived the song "White Christmas," he envisioned it as a "throwaway" -- a satirical novelty number for a vaudeville-style stage revue. By the time Bing Crosby introduced the tune in the winter of 1942, it had evolved into something far grander: the stately yuletide ballad that would become the world's all-time top-selling and most widely recorded song. In this vividly written... (more)
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  The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty

  by Wilfrid Sheed

  From Irving Berlin to Cy Coleman, from “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” to “Big Spender,” from Tin Pan Alley to the MGM soundstages, the Golden Age of the American song embodied all that was cool, sexy, and sophisticated in popular culture. For four glittering decades, geniuses like Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Harold Arlen ran their fingers over piano keys, enticing unforgettable melodies out of thin... (more)
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  Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a Generation

  by Sheila Weller

  A groundbreaking and irresistible biography of three of America's most important musical artists -- Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon -- charts their lives as women at a magical moment in time. Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon remain among the most enduring and important women in popular music. Each woman is distinct. Carole King is the product of outer-borough, middle-class New York City;... (more)
• Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a GenSheila Weller

  

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  Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a Gen

  by Sheila Weller

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  Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina, and Richard Farina

  by David Hajdu

  When twenty-five-year-old Bob Dylan wrecked his motorcycle near Woodstock in 1966 and dropped out of the public eye, he was already recognized as a genius, a youth idol with an acid wit and a barbwire throat; and Greenwich Village, where he first made his mark, was unquestionably the center of youth culture. In Positively 4th Street , David Hajdu recounts the emergence of folk music from cult practice to popular... (more)
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  Rockin' Out Popular Music in the U.S.A.

  by Reebee Garofalo

  Rockin' Out  offers a comprehensive history of popular music in the United States from the heyday of Tin Pan Alley to the present day sounds of electronic dance music and teen pop, from the invention of the phonograph to the promise of the Internet. It offers an analysis and critique of the music itself as well as how it is produced and marketed.
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  Sound and Vision: The Music Video Reader

  by L. Grossberg

  Music video is one of the most important emergent cultural forms in contemporary popular culture. It has had a profound impact both on music, fashion, and youth culture and on the codes and forms that operate across television, film, and advertising. But until now, criticism has denied the specific nature of the form and its cultural history. Sound and Vision is the first significant collection of new and... (more)
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  Studying Popular Music

  by Richard Middleton

  A critical analysis of issues and approaches in a variety of areas, ranging from the political economy of popular music through its history and ethnography to its semiology, aesthetics and ideology. The book focuses on Anglo-American popular music of the last 200 years.
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  America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley

  by Philip Furia

  America's Songs tells the "stories behind" the most beloved popular songs of the last century. We all have songs that have a special meaning in our lives; hearing them evokes a special time or place. Little wonder that these special songs have become enduring classics. Nothing brings the roarin '20s to life like "Tea for Two" or "I'm just Wild About Harry"; the Great Depression is evoked in all of its pain and... (more)
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  Alec Wilder - American Popular Song

  33 songs from this film composer and master of American popular songs as an art form. This collection also includes a bio, a discography, and a listing of other works by Wilder. Songs include: Crazy in the Heart * Ellen * I Like It Here * I'd Gladly Walk to Alaska * The Lady Sings the Blues * Listen to Your Heart * Lovers and Losers * Such a Lonely Girl Am I * That's My Girl * Turn Left at Monday * Unbelievable *... (more)
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  Listening to Classic American Popular Songs

  by Allen Forte

  In the twenties, thirties, and forties, now-legendary American songwriters and lyricists created a repertoire of popular songs, songs that have captured the hearts of generations of music lovers. George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael and many others, along with such lyricists as Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, and Dorothy Fields, produced extraordinary songs ... (more)
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  Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context

  by Carol Vernallis

  The music video was born because of a sudden expansion of new broadcast channels in search of cheap programming and a boom in new editing equipment and visual postproduction effects. It has exerted an enormous influence on popular music: pop songs are now longer, more open, and malleable. Here at last is a study that treats music video as a distinct multimedia artistic genre, different from film, television, and... (more)
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  Chronicles: Volume One (Chronicles)

  by Bob Dylan

  "I'd come from a long ways off and had started a long ways down. But now destiny was about to manifest itself. I felt like it was looking right at me and nobody else." So writes Bob Dylan in Chronicles: Volume One, his remarkable book exploring critical junctures in his life and career. Through Dylan's eyes and open mind, we see Greenwich Village, circa 1961, when he first arrives in Manhattan. Dylan's New York... (more)
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  Always Magic in the Air : The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era

  by Ken Emerson

  During the late 1950s and early 1960s, after the shock of Elvis Presley and before the Beatles spearheaded the British Invasion, fourteen gifted young songwriters huddled in midtown Manhattan’s legendary Brill Building and a warren of offices a bit farther uptown and composed some of the most beguiling and enduring entries in the Great American Songbook. Always Magic in the Air is the first thorough... (more)
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  Cole Porter (Vintage)

  by William McBrien

  In his life and in his music, Cole Porter was "the top"--the pinnacle of wit, sophistication, and success. His songs--"I Get a Kick Out of You," "Anything Goes," and hundreds more--were instant pop hits, and their musical and emotional depths have made them lasting standards. William McBrien has captured the creator of these songs, whose life was not merely one of wealth and privilege. A prodigal young man,... (more)
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  Blur: 3862 Days : The Official History

  by Stuart MacOnie

  The official story of the most significant British band of the 90s. Now updated with fresh interviews including insights into lead singer Damon's new act, Gorillaz, that is sweeping awards on both sides of the Atlantic. This is the story of bitter rows with record companies, farcical feuds with Oasis, fist fights with each other, struggles with the bottle, foundering romances and a love-hate relationship with... (more)