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.

"The first of two volumes, this companion to every song that Bob Dylan ever wrote is by far the most comprehensive book on the words of America?s greatest songwriter. Here you?ll find not just opinionated commentary or literary interpretation, but facts, first and foremost. Clinton Heylin is the world?s leading Dylan biographer and expert, and he has arranged the songs--including a number that have never been performed--in a continually surprising...

"Is There God After Prince? is a book about loving things (books, songs, poems, people) in the shadow of looming disaster. Coviello's dazzling, highly personal essays address pieces of contemporary culture across an expansive range--songs by Prince, Joni Mitchell, SZA, and Phoebe Bridgers, writings by Sam Lipsyte, Paula Fox, Paul Beatty, and Dana Spiotta, movies like Heathers, TV shows like The Sopranos, as well as videos, poems, and other pop artefacts....

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...

"Everybody knows and loves the American Songbook. But it's a bit less widely understood that in about 1950, this stream of great songs more or less dried up. All of a sudden, what came over the radio wasn't Gershwin, Porter, and Berlin, but "Come on-a My House" and "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?" Elvis and rock and roll arrived a few years later, and at that point the game was truly up. What happened, and why? In The B Side, acclaimed cultural...

"What is American roots music? Any definition must account for a kaleidoscope of genres from bluegrass to blues, western swing to jazz, soul and gospel to rock and reggae, Cajun to Celtic. It must encompass the work of artists as diverse as Alice Gerrard and Alison Krauss, George Thorogood and Sun Ra, Bela Fleck and Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown, the Blake Babies and Billy Strings. What do all these artists and music styles have in common? The answer...

""Not since the late Leonard Bernstein has classical music had a combination salesman-teacher as irresistible as Kapilow."--Kansas City Star. Few people in recent memory have dedicated themselves as devotedly to the story of twentieth-century American music as Rob Kapilow, the composer, conductor, and host of the hit NPR music radio program, What makes it great? Now, in Listening for America, he turns his keen ear to the great American songbook, bringing...