"The entire history of popular music over the past fifty years refracted through the big genres that have defined and dominated it-including rock, country, punk, R&B, dance and hip-hop-woven together into a cosmic reckoning with music's evolution as a popular art form, as a huge cultural and economic force, and as an essential component to our identities, from Black Sabbath to Black Flag to Beyoncé, and beyond"-- Provided by publisher.

"Combines personal memoir, on-the-ground reporting, industry research, and cultural criticism to argue that commercial and cultural forces have laid waste to the cultural ecosystems that have produced decades of great American music. From the scorched-earth demonetizing of artist revenue accomplished by Spotify and its ilk to the rise of dead artists "touring" via hologram, Rowell examines how a perfect storm of conditions have drained a shared musical...

"FIRST THINGS FIRST, hip-hop is not just the music, and women have played a big role in shaping the way it looks today. FIRST THINGS FIRST takes readers on a journey through some notable firsts by women in hip-hop history and their importance. Factual firsts like Queen Latifah becoming the first rapper to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Lauryn Hill making history as the first rapper to win the coveted Album of the Year Award at the GRAMMYs,...

"A veteran music journalist explores how four legendary rock bands--KISS, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, and Starz--laid the foundation for two diametrically opposed subgenres: hair metal in the '80s and grunge in the '90s"-- Provided by publisher.

"Recognized as one of the great poets of modern times, and as a deeply respected and influential political and cultural activist and social critic, Linton Kwesi Johnson is also a prolific writer of non-fiction. In Time Come, he selects some of his most powerful prose - book and record reviews published in newspapers and magazines, lectures, obituaries and speeches - for the first time. Written over many decades, it is a body of work that draws creatively...

"Grab your highlighters and favorite red pen and prepare to join professor of "Swifterature" Dr. Elly McCausland as she dives deep into the tortured poetry of Taylor Swift. Going line by line and word by word through 46 of Swift's most celebrated and hotly debated songs from across her 11-album career, McCausland is here to help you listen, read, and understand Taylor's music in an all-new way!"-- Provided by publisher.

"Steely Dan was a somewhat unusual band that still inspires unusually strong devotion in its fans. Formed in the late '60s in New York, they released seven albums between 1971 and 1981, two of which were nominated for a Grammy. Part of what's unusual about them is that each of those albums was made by a different group of musicians--founding members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen had no issues swapping players from record to record in order to get...

"On February 2, 1959, Waylon Jennings, bassist for his best friend, rock star Buddy Holly, gave up his seat on a charter flight. Jennings joked that he hoped the plane would crash. When it did, killing all aboard, on 'the Day the Music Died,' he was devastated and never fully recovered. Jennings switched to playing country, creating the Outlaw movement and later forming the genre's first supergroup, the Highwaymen, with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson,...