"Gracyk addresses a difficult and too-long-overlooked subject--that is, defining a comprehensible rock aesthetic--with consistent intelligence, depth, and insight. His knowledge of aesthetics, musicology, and the history of rock & roll is up to the ambitious task he sets himself."--Anthony DeCurtis, author of "Rocking My Life Away"

As someone who feels the emotional power of rock and who writes about it as an art form, Theodore Gracyk has been praised for launching arguments destined to change the future of rock and roll. In I Wanna Be Me, his second book about the music he cares so much about, Gracyk grapples with the ways that rock shapes - limits and expands - our notions of who we can be in the world.

The Philosophy of Art is a highly accessible introduction to current key issues and debates in aesthetics and philosophy of art. Chapters on standard topics are balanced by topics of interest to today's students, including creativity, authenticity, cultural appropriation, and the distinction between popular and fine art. Other topics include emotive expression, pictorial representation, definitional strategies, and artistic value. Presupposing no prior knowledge of philosophy, Theodore Gracyk draws on three decades of teaching experience to provide a balanced and engaging overview,...

Opinionated and example-filled, this extremely concise and accessible book provides a survey of some fundamental and longstanding debates about the nature of music. The central arguments and ideas of historical and contemporary philosophers are presented with the goal of making them as accessible as possible to general readers who have no background in philosophy. The emphasis is on instrumental music, but examples are drawn from many cultures as well as from Western classical, jazz, folk, and popular music.