Dancing about Architecture: A MixtapeLike this list

19 items

• Music Is History

  Questlove • Greenman, Ben

  Add Music Is History to your for later shelf

  This is more of examination of how we think, write and produce history than it is a history of popular music, but Questlove is an engaging and fascinating thinker and narrator.

• Major Labels

  A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres

  Sanneh, Kelefa

  Add Major Labels to your for later shelf

  Sanneh is a pop music critic for the New Yorker (which somehow feel like oxymorons. He is such a generous, open-hearted/minded lover of music that he turned not a few of my long secret "guilty pleasures" into openly admitted pleasures. And…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Wrecking Crew

  the Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-kept Secret

  Hartman, Kent

  Add The Wrecking Crew to your for later shelf

  You might not know their names, but these folks played on so many of the biggest hits of the 1960s it would be pointless to even try to list some. These are lunch bucket working pros who happened to make some of the highest expressions of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Rest Is Noise

  Listening to the Twentieth Century

  Ross, Alex, 1968-

  Add The Rest Is Noise to your for later shelf

  Ross explores history and music and history through music and examines the ways the avant grade and experimental strains have infiltrated pop culture.

• Motown

  the Sound of Young America

  White, Adam, 1947 or 1948-

  Add Motown to your for later shelf

  Motown Records, at the height of its creative power in the '60s and '70s, was an almost impossible thing: a wellspring of artistic expression on an industrial scale. Barry Gordy and the geniuses he brought on board changed the world and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Respect Yourself

  the Stax Records Story

  Add Respect Yourself to your for later shelf

  At a distance, you might be forgiven for thinking of Stax as "Motown South." It wasn't. It was a whole different sound and sensibility with its own set of geniuses.

• Corporate Rock Sucks

  the Rise and Fall of SST Records

  Ruland, Jim

  Add Corporate Rock Sucks to your for later shelf

  What happens when hardcore punks end up, through no fault of their own, become wildly successful business tycoons? About what you would imagine, only louder and uglier.

• Punk Women

  40 Years of Musicians Who Built Punk Rock

  Ensminger, David A.

  Add Punk Women to your for later shelf

  Was the hardcore punk scene sexist? Yep. Despite the sexism, did some women kick down the doors and stomp the tundra, demanding to be heard? Yep. Did those women embody punk in its truest form? Undoubtedly.

• Black Punk Now

  Add Black Punk Now to your for later shelf

  Was there heinously racist elements in the punk scene from its beginnings? Yep. Did people of color and other marginalized groups demand accountability and inclusion. Yep. This anthology gives voice to many of those people in a way I've…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Cool Town

  How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture

  Hale, Grace Elizabeth

  Add Cool Town to your for later shelf

  The subtltle overstates Athens' role. The fact is that similar scenes--notably in Austin--started earlier and had similar impacts, but reading this resurfaced some bands I had once loved, but forgotten.

• Mud Ride

  A Messy Trip Through the Grunge Explosion

  Turner, Steve • Tepedelen, Adem

  Add Mud Ride to your for later shelf

  Alt Rock is still being made and played, but the Grunge wave of the 90s was the last time rock moved the cultural needle in any significant way. Some of us geezers hope it was not the last time, but until it happens, we pick over the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Hip-Hop is History

  Questlove • Greenman, Ben

  Add Hip-Hop is History to your for later shelf

  Questlove's follow-up to Music is History--a deeper dive into the genre he helped expand and popularize.

• Souled American

  How Black Music Transformed White Culture

  Phinney, Kevin

  Add Souled American to your for later shelf

  "Cultural appropriation' is a problematic idea. Have white people time and time again raised themselves on the shoulders of black groundbreaking creatives? Without a shadow of a doubt. But, has that process also helped African American…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll

  An Alternative History of American Popular Music

  Wald, Elijah

  Add How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll to your for later shelf

  Don't judge a book by its title--or do. Idc. But this title would have hit harder a couple of decades ago. Now, thanks to the internet, there is no shortage of provocateurs willing to die on that and similar musical hills. But the book…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• This Is What It Sounds Like

  What the Music You Love Says About You

  Rogers, Susan • Ogas, Ogi

  Add This Is What It Sounds Like to your for later shelf

• How Music Works

  Byrne, David

  Add How Music Works to your for later shelf

• Anatomy of a Song

  the Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R & B and Pop

  Myers, Marc, 1956-

  Add Anatomy of a Song to your for later shelf

• The Musical Human

  a History of Life on Earth

  Spitzer, Michael,

  Add The Musical Human to your for later shelf

• This Is Your Brain on Music

  the Science of a Human Obsession

  Levitin, Daniel J.

  Add This Is Your Brain on Music to your for later shelf