History & Criticism

Rock & Roll Nightmares, Volume 1 scratched the sinister surface with tales of the 27 Club, rock ‘n’ roll suicides, plane crashes, curses, and more....

The saga of the legendary Los Angeles band Little Feat is one of rock 'n' roll's great stories. Formed in 1969 by ex-members of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, Little Feat created groove-heavy music that was an irresistible mix of rock, blues, R&B, country, jazz, soul, and funk....

For millennia, the sacred drummers of pre-Christian Mediterranean and western Asia were women. In this inspiring book, Layne Redmond, herself a renowned drummer, tells their history.

A stunning, in-depth look at the power and poetry of one of the most consequential rappers of our time....

This is the never-before-told story of the musical revolution that happened right under the nose of the Reagan '80s - when a small but sprawling network of bands, labels, fanzines, radio stations, and other subversives reenergized American rock....

In 1992, the Screaming Trees were expected to become the next big band to come out of the Seattle music scene during the heyday of grunge. Except it never happened....

The story of Stax Records unfolds like a Greek tragedy....

Ted Gioia's History of Jazz has been universally hailed as a classic - acclaimed by jazz critics and fans around the world....

In essays that have been published by the New York Times, MTV, and Pitchfork, among others—Abdurraqib uses music and culture as a lens through which to view our world so that we might better understand ourselves, and in so doing proves himself a bellwether for our times....

A beautifully crafted memoir unveiling the ancestral, musical, and spiritual roots of Grammy Award-winning music producer Charlie Peacock.

In this first of a groundbreaking multivolume set, THE MCCARTNEY LEGACY, VOL 1: 1969-73 captures the life of Paul McCartney in the years immediately following the dissolution of the Beatles, a period in which McCartney recreated himself as both a man and a musician....

The follow-up to The McCartney Legacy, Volume 1, the most complete work on the life and work of Paul McCartney ever published. Volume 2 continues to paint the portrait of one of the world’s greatest musicians, his work post-Beatles, and his life from 1974 to 1980.

Opera, said Moliére, is the most expensive noise known to man. From its beginnings in the 16th Century, through to today when there are as many musical styles as there are composers....

“Paul is dead.” It was the late 1960's, the Beatles hadn’t toured since 1966, and some truly bizarre indications began appearing, pointing to the unthinkable: Paul McCartney had been killed in a car accident and replaced by a look-alike....

Hit the lights and jump in the fire, you're about to enter the School of Rock! Today's lecture will be a crash course in brain surgery. This hard and fast lesson is taught by instructors who graduated from the old school - they actually paid $5.98 for The $5.98 EP....

In America, in London, in Amsterdam, in Paris, revolutionary ideas fomenting since the late 1950s reached boiling point, culminating in a year in which the transient pop moment burst forth....

Music can move us and tell stories of faith, struggle, or love. It is common to all cultures across the world. But how has it changed over the millennia? Robert Philip explores the extraordinary history of music in all its forms, from our earliest ancestors to today’s mass-produced songs....

Acclaimed critic and TtT co-founder Ann Powers and contributor Alison Fensterstock draw from every Turning the Tables season and the full 50-years of NPR archives to bring a vibrant, entertaining history of women in folk, rock, rap, hip hop, salsa, bubblegum pop, and much more.

After more than two decades of research and travels, Christophe Lebold, who befriended the poet and spent time with him in Los Angeles, delivers a stimulating analysis of Cohen’s life and art.

Joel Selvin tells the definitive story of the Rolling Stones' infamous Altamont concert in San Francisco, the disastrous historic event that marked the end of the idealistic 1960s....

This Is Our Music, declared saxophonist Ornette Coleman's 1960 album title....

An exuberant, uniquely accessible look inside the enigmatic art and craft of conducting, from a celebrated conductor whose international career has spanned half a century....

Maximum Volume offers a glimpse into the mind, the music, and the man behind the sound of the Beatles....

On June 4, 1984, Columbia Records issued what would become one of the best-selling and most impactful rock albums of all time. An instant classic, Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. would prove itself to be a landmark not only for the man who made it, but rock music in general.

Willie, Waylon, and the Boys traces a path from Waylon Jennings’ survival on the Day the Music Died through to the Highwaymen and on to the current creative and commercial explosion of Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Tyler Childers, Jason Isbell, and the Highwomen....

You can’t truly understand the last decade of the 20th century without a look at the muddy, electrifying rock music that would come to define it: grunge. For such a short-lived genre—at least in the mainstream—grunge had a lasting impact on American music and culture. It also provides a unique lens through which to examine the post-Reagan, pre-internet America of the 1990s. In the six lectures of The Story of Grunge, you’ll explore the rise and evolution of the genre, tracing it from Seattle subculture to MTV and the Billboard charts, all the way to its decline and evolution into new forms.

En estas páginas, la exploración de la música latinoamericana conduce hacia la historia más amplia de la conceptualización de la región. Tal como sostiene Palomino: "La música proporciona así un modelo para comprender ahora los mecanismos nacionales y transnacionales que siguen produciendo el lugar de América Latina en el marco de la cultura global conflictiva y fascinante que habitamos".

This book is not just a project for me; it’s a labor of love. It all began during my time at Berklee College of Music, when I was tasked with choosing a research topic. I found myself drawn to the question, “Why there are no more Black R&B groups in existence?” This wasn’t just an academic curiosity; it was a topic that resonated deeply with me, as my research revealed that 99% of all R&B groups are majority African American.

Johann Sebastian Bach dejó una biblioteca de poco más de ochenta libros entre los que se contaban títulos de teología y espiritualidad—o al menos así lo certifica el inventario efectuado a su muerte—, y que constituyeron, cabe imaginar que junto a otros textos, un espacio de intimidad cotidiana y de reflexión. Contemporáneo de Newton y Leibniz, su música fue creada en un momento crucial del ideario de Occidente, y así lo refleja su inaudita capacidad de absorber las propuestas procedentes de la Razón y el espíritu y transformarlas en un arte de insólita penetración intelectual y humana.

In this artful memoir, Grammy Award-winning music producer Charlie Peacock flexes his literary chops and gives listeners the gritty backstage stories they crave: biographical anecdotes, geeky trivia, and how the hits were written and recorded (from jazz to rock and pop). Threaded throughout is Peacock’s unique ancestral and spiritual story—the roots. Like Coltrane, Dylan, and Bono before him, Peacock reveals a Christ-affection while refusing genres too small for his music.