"Composer Alec Wilder's American Popular: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950 is widely recognized as the definitive book on American popular song. In this volume, which achieved immediate praise and recognition upon its publication, Wilder discusses some 800 songs from the American Songbook, offering a composer's insight, acceccible music analysis, as well has his strong personal biases. Nearly fifty years later, this classic study has received a much-needed...

This is the book that serious Michael Jackson fans crave--one that forgoes sensationalism in favor of an insightful look at Jackson's work and creative process. Vogel analyzes every song and album of Jackson's solo career, from 1979's groundbreaking "Off the Wall" to his yet-to-be released material, placing the music in its social, historical, and cultural context.

"This book looks at the Great American Songbook's craft and its mastery. Lasser and Greenblatt uncover the essential elements and themes of these beloved songs and investigate the qualities that make the songbook a timeless staple of American culture. Using interesting anecdotes and song analysis, they reveal the genius behind the music"-- Provided by publisher.

"In this sweeping history of popular music in the United States, NPR's acclaimed music critic examines how popular music shapes fundamental American ideas and beliefs, allowing us to communicate difficult emotions and truths about our most fraught social issues, most notably sex and race."--Provided by publisher.

Explores the historical context of the significant social dissent that was central to the cultural genesis of the sixties. Searches for the deeper roots of American cultural and musical evolution for the past 150 years by studying what the Western European culture learned from African American culture in a historical progression that reaches from the minstrel era to Bob Dylan.

A companion book to the groundbreaking PBS and BBC documentary series celebrates the pioneers and artists of American roots music--blues, gospel, folk, Cajun, Appalachian, Hawaiian, and Native American--without which there would be no jazz, rock, country, R & B, or hip hop today.

A chronicle of how the songs of American musical theater made their way through sheet music, popular recordings, the radio, original castalbums, television, CDs, and the Internet from the theater district to living rooms across the country.

The first book to critically examine the legacy of pop superstar Mariah Carey. When it comes to Mariah Carey, star power is never in doubt. She has sold hundreds of millions of albums and cut more chart-topping hits than any other solo artist-ever. And she has that extraordinary five-octave vocal range. But there is more to her legacy than eye-popping numbers. Why Mariah Carey Matters examines the creative evolution and complicated biography of a...