Kategoria BISAC: Music >> Essays

The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music is an incredible and opinionated collection of celebrated cultural critic Dylan Jones's thoughts on more than 350 of the most important artists around the world--alive and dead, big and small, at length and in brief. This A to Z reference is the true musical heir to David Thomson's seminal The New Biographical Dictionary of Popular Film. Jones writes entertainingly about bands that have inspired, bedeviled, and fascinated him over the years.

Most people know the song "House of the Rising Sun" as 1960s rock by the British Invasion group the Animals, a ballad about a place in New Orleans -- a whorehouse or a prison or gambling joint that's been the ruin of many poor girls or boys. Bob Dylan did a version and Frijid Pink cut a hard-rocking rendition. But that barely scratches the surface; few...

DJs like Fatboy Slim, Sasha and Paul Oakenfold are the new pop stars: high priests in the rapidly expanding world of dance music. Drawing on many nights out, this is DJ Dave Haslam's fascinating collection of portraits of the major players.

Dave Haslam travels Britain to meet clubbers and promoters: hangs out with Sasha in Glasgow, Fatboy Slim in Nottingham, Paul van Dyk in Cardiff, Norman Jay at the Southport Soul Weekender, and Lottie in Newcastle. He meets influential DJs like Pete Tong, pioneers including Jimmy Savile, younger DJs, and unknowns. He interviews mod DJs from the...

Bob Stanley--musician, music critic, and unabashed fan--recounts the progression from the Beach Boys to the Pet Shop Boys to the Beastie Boys; explores what connects doo wop to the sock hop; and reveals how technological changes have affected pop production. Working with a broad definition of "pop"--one that includes country and metal, disco and Dylan, skiffle and glam--Stanley teases out the connections and tensions that animate the pop charts and argues that the charts are vital social history.

Yeah Yeah Yeah is like the world's best and most eclectic jukebox in book...