This book, first published in 1982, shows that jazz and blues are music forms that are about individualism, experiment, expression and feeling. From their origin in the work songs and spirituals of America s southern slaves, through to their adaptation to the urban adaptation to the urban environment in Chicago and New Orleans, the author details the social and economic background that saw the birth of the blues and jazz, and introduces and appraises their leading exponents. He shows how African rhythms were combined with an American musical tradition to produce a distinctive style which...

The first non-stop rock video channel was launched in the US in 1981. As a unique popular culture form, MTV warrants attention, and in this, the first study of the medium, originally published in 1987, Ann Kaplan examines the cultural context of MTV and its relationship to the history of rock music. The first part of the book focuses on MTV as a commercial institution, on the contexts of production and exhibition of videos, on their similarity to ads, and on the different perspectives of directors and viewers. Does the adoption of adolescent styles and iconography signal an open-minded...

In Tin Pan Alley we see the beginnings of the pop world as we now know it: commercial, constantly capturing, exploiting or even occasionally creating a public mood. The Alleymen were workers as much as artists. This book, first published in 1982, explores how the change occurred, the ways in which songwriters organised themselves to get greater control over their products, the social circumstances that influenced their choice of subject-matter, the new forms, such as the integrated musical, developed for maximum appeal, the vast publicity structure built to market the merchandise, and, of...