Muzyka

Over its eighty-year history, country music has evolved from little-known local talents to multimillion-dollar superstar musicians. In the 1920s, the first country music was broadcast from WSB radio in Atlanta and WBAP in Fort Worth, and the first records were recorded for Victor. In the 1930s, the first singing cowboys, among them Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, became film stars. After the war years, recordings boomed, and the Country Music Association was founded in 1958. Country music programs began on television with Porter Waggoner's program in 1960, followed by The Johnny Cash...

Held over three days in August 1969, the Woodstock festival was, for many, the culmination of the counterculture movement. More than 35 years later, the word "Woodstock" conjures notions of Edenic peace and love, a landmark moment from the Sixties that is both unforgettable and inimitable. In this authoritative reference guide--the first of its kind--historian James Perone presents encyclopedic entries on all the performers who played Woodstock, including Joan Baez, Country Joe and the Fish, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Ten Years After,...

Hip Hop music is comprised of several art forms: 1) MC-ing or rapping 2)B-boying or breakdancing 3)Deejaying (music) and 4) Graffiti art (visual art). This encyclopedia examines all four elements of Hip Hop Culture, providing students, scholars, and music fans with a complete history of the thirty-year music genre. Tracing its early roots from black DJs talking over music in the 1960s, the B-boy dancers in the 1970s, and the scratching and sampling techniques of the '80s to the founding of Def Jam productions, the current East Cost-West Coast rivalry, and superstars such as Eminem and 50...

Just as American culture has been constructed by people of many ethnicities, roots music in America is multicultural in nature. Native American music resonates from Indigenous traditions of the Great Plains and the American West. Hispanic culture has spawned Border Music styles such as Conjunto and Tejano, while Cajun and Zydeco grew from cultural cross-pollination in the American South. In northern regions, Polish-American musicians popularized Polka, while Irish-American music holds a rich tradition throughout many regions in the East. This unique volume presents influential musical...

Prior to the stock market crash of 1929 American music still possessed a distinct tendency towards elitism, as songwriters and composers sought to avoid the mass appeal that critics scorned. During the Depression, however, radio came to dominate the other musical media of the time, and a new era of truly popular music was born. Under the guidance of the great Duke Ellington and a number of other talented and charismatic performers, swing music unified the public consciousness like no other musical form before or since. At the same time the enduring legacies of Woody Guthrie in folk, Aaron...

Although its origins and definition are hotly debated among scholars and fans alike, punk rock music has an ever-evolving but always loyal fan base. The British punk movement is thought to have begun in the mid-1970s with bands such as the Clash and the Sex Pistols, and the American punk movement in the early 1970s with bands such as the Ramones, Patti Smith, and Television playing at CBGB's in New York City's Lower East Side. The punk subculture continues to evolve today, with new bands, fashions, politics and zines embodying the spirit of its founders while also influencing mainstream...

America's Gilded Age was a time of great musical evolution. As the country continued to develop a musical style apart from Europe, its church and religious music and opera took on new forms. Music-as-entertainment also evolved, with marching bands at public events and the new musicals in theaters. This volume presents the composers, musicians, songwriters, instruments and musical forms that uniquely identify the Gilded Age.

Chapters include: Concerts and Symphony orchestras; Grand Opera; Composers, Critics, and Conservatories; Amateurs and Music at Home; Sacred Music, Black...

Whether on vinyl or in digital form, the album has become an integral part of our cultural history. "100 Albums That Changed Popular Music: A Reference Guide" tells the stories behind the most groundbreaking, influential, and often controversial albums ever recorded. Narrative chapters in this chronologically organized volume describe how the albums reflected the political, social, and economic culture of the era. Individual entries discuss these albums histories, the inspiration behind their creation, and why they continue to stand the test of time. Selected on the basis of their popular...

At the end of WWII, themes in music shifted from soldiers' experiences at war to coming home, marrying their sweethearts, and returning to civilian life. The music itself also shifted, with crooners such as Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra replacing the Big Bands of years past. Country music, jazz, and gospel continued to evolve, and rhythm and blues and the new rock and roll were also popular during this time. Music is not created without being influenced by the political events and societal changes of its time, and the Music of the Postwar Era is no exception.

*includes combined musical...

Russell Sherman has been hailed as "that rarest of performers--a thinking man's virtuoso" (Chicago Tribune), and Piano Pieces is his scintillating excursion into the world of piano and its multiple spheres of affect and influence. From pithy reflections on tone, technique, and the thorny matter of thumbs to ruminations on how such a machine could be the voice and repository of priceless human messages both lyrical and complex, Piano Pieces examines the current status of music, piano-playing, and pedagogy through the noisy filter of contemporary culture.

Both deeply personal and endlessly evocative, In the Country of Country pays tribute to the music that sprang from places like Maces Springs, Virginia, home of the Carter Family,...