Showing titles in History & Criticism

Decoding "Despacito" tracks the stories behind the biggest Latin hits of the past 50 years. From the salsa born and bred in the streets of New York City, to Puerto Rican reggaetón and bilingual chart-toppers, this rich oral history is a veritable treasure trove of never-before heard anecdotes and insight from a who's who of Latin music artists, executives, observers, and players. Their stories, told in their own words, take you inside the hits, to the inner sanctum of the creative minds behind the tracks that have defined eras and become hallmarks of history.

Discover the cosmic roots of Egyptian musical, vocal, and dancing rhythmic forms. Learn the fundamentals (theory and practice) of music in the typical Egyptian way: simple, coherent, and comprehensive. Review a detailed description of the major Egyptian musical instruments, playing techniques, functions, etc. Discover the Egyptian rhythmic practices in all aspects of their lives.

Derived from a popular series of lecture-recitals presented by Carol Montparker over the past several years, The Composer's Landscape features eight insightful essays on the piano repertoire. Each chapter focuses on a single composer: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Chopin, and Mendelssohn. Montparker uses landscape as a metaphor for the score, whether it's a well-tended garden of Mozart or the thorny thickets on a Schumann page.

James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 - July 3, 1971), born in Melbourne, FL, was an American singer, songwriter and poet who was the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band The Doors. Due to his distinctive voice, poetic lyrics, erratic and unpredictable performances, along with the dramatic circumstances surrounding his life and early death, Morrison is regarded by music critics and fans as one of the most influential frontmen in rock history. The following recording is from a June 1970 interview.

Radio doesn't play a lot of those oldies anymore, even though you would enjoy hearing them again. This book tells you all about the lost or forgotten oldies, as well as history about the artists and their songs.

Con uno stile raffinato e trascinante, Vittorio Sermonti "spiega al popolo" quattordici opere di Verdi, "il più spudorato genio della musica per teatro", dal Nabucco all'Otello, passando per l'Aida, il Rigoletto, il Trovatore e la Traviata. Ci fa riscoprire i celebri melodrammi attraverso il racconto della trama e persino della musica, l'analisi dei personaggi, riferimenti alla vita e alle lettere di Verdi, accenni alle vicende del libretto, notizie sparse sulle prime esecuzioni, annotazioni storiche sull'Italia del Risorgimento e dell'Unità.

After February 9, 1964, everyone wanted to be Debbie Gendler. She was one of a handful of lucky fans who were in the live audience for the Beatles' historic performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Everyone has a story about where they were when they watched the appearance, but very few were there in-person—and even fewer would go on not just to meet the Beatles, but end up building a career around the band. But Debbie did.

Chances are you've heard Handel's Messiah at least once, if not many times. Maybe you've even performed it, as have countless musicians around the world. After all, it's probably one of the best-loved, and certainly one of the best-known, works in the standard repertoire. But if you think you know all there is to know about the great composers famous oratorio, think again. For example, it may surprise you to learn that: Handel's first impulse to compose the work came not from religious or even musical inspiration. It had a whole lot more to do with money.

A delightful biography of a celebrated Stradivarius cello and an inviting overview of cello music and musicians by world-famous concert cellist Carlos Prieto.

Everybody Had an Ocean chronicles the migration of the rock 'n' roll business to Southern California and how the artists flourished there. The cast of characters is astonishing - Brian and Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, eccentric producer Phil Spector, Cass Elliot, Sam Cooke, Ike and Tina Turner, Joni Mitchell, and scores of others - and their stories form a modern epic of the battles between innocence and cynicism, joy and terror. You'll never hear that beautiful music in quite the same way.

Suddenly the music is not notes or a tune, but what those seven people are exactly: the music is an aural holograph of the Grateful Dead. All their fibers, nuances, histories, desires, beings are clear. Jerry and his questing, Phil the loyal comrade, Tom drifting beside them both on a cloud, Pig staying stubbornly down to earth; Mickey working out furious complexities trying to understand how Bill is so simple, and Bob succumbing inevitably to Jerry and Phil and joining them.

In a dim clearing off a county road in Kentucky sits a sagging outdoor stage buried in moss and dead leaves. It used to be the centerpiece of carnival-like Sunday afternoons where local guitarists, fiddlers and mandolin players hammered out old mountain ballads and legends from the dawn of country music performed their classic hits. Most of the musicians who showed up have long since passed, but Nashville stars Ricky Skaggs and Marty Stuart survive. Highways and Heartaches takes listeners on the rural circuit Skaggs and Stuart traveled.

Critical Mass is a treasure trove of sparkling, spiky prose and a fascinating portrait of our lives and cultural times over the past decades. In an age where a great deal of back scratching and softball pitching pass for criticism, James Wolcott’s fearless essays and reviews offer a bracing taste of the real critical thing.

The Sugababes have made a huge impact in the music industry. Their influence is still felt and is stronger than ever now the original line-up reunited over ten years ago. Their hits are still played in many radio stations today.

Have your tickets ready. Keep the aisles clear. And prepare yourself for the heavy-duty epic-ness that’s ahead. This is Lighters in the Sky. In this eight-episode Audible Original we’ll dive deep into the most mind-blowing concerts ever performed. And in each engrossing episode, you’ll feel transported to a time and place that changed the landscape of music forever. Listeners will hear from the people who actually lived the legend, and through the power of immersive sound – you may just feel like you were in attendance too.

Una Indagación Filosófica y Cultural sobre la Muerte de la Música. Este tratado filosófico de Halasius Bradford y provocador diseca la transformación de la música de una fuerza orgánica y mística a un producto mercantilizado, argumentando que la música moderna se ha reducido a simples patrones de sonido, despojada de su alma. Explorando las intersecciones entre la consciencia, la tecnología, el capitalismo y la expresión artística, La Música ha Muerto presenta una crítica radical y urgente sobre cómo la era digital ha reformulado el papel de la música en nuestras vidas.

This audiobook is not meant to be a band biography; it's a condensed guide of fun facts and information. If you are curious about what happened to that band you heard on the radio the other day, then download this audiobook!

Bowie has long been haunted by the angst-ridden, emotional work of the Die Brucke movement and the Expressionists. Berlin is their spiritual home, and after a chaotic world tour, Bowie adopts this city as his new sanctuary. Immediately he sets to work on Low, his own expressionist mood-piece.

A decade and a half ago, Illmatic launched one of the most storied careers in hip hop, and cemented New York’s place as the genre’s epicenter. With this in-depth look at the record, Matthew Gasteier explores the competing themes that run through Nas’s masterpiece and finds a compelling journey into adulthood.

By June 1993, when Washington, D.C.'s Fugazi released their third full-length album In on the Kill Taker, the quartet was reaching a thunderous peak in popularity and influence. With two EPs (combined into the classic CD 13 songs) and two albums (1990's genre-defining Repeater and 1991's impressionistic follow-up Steady Diet of Nothing) inside of five years, Fugazi was on creative roll, astounding increasingly large audiences as they toured, blasting fist-pumping anthems and jammy noise-workouts that roared into every open underground heart.