Everyone loves to jam out every now and then. As our lives have gotten more and more digital over the years, music streaming has become as normal as turning on the FM radio and rolling the windows down to annoy those around you. There's nothing better than finding a great new artist who speaks to you, or even going back to a band you grew up with and falling in love all over again.
Ragtime. Rumba. Rock ‘n’ roll. While the title is a big misnomer—The Beatles aren’t even mentioned until the last chapter—this book is a fascinating history lesson in the continually evolving trends of popular music in America. As pop shifted from standards printed on sheet music to the albums of today, from big band dance halls and jukebox battles to radio payola and vinyl sales, its sounds and styles changed. The torch was passed from Goodman to Sinatra to Presley, from Ellington and Cole to Redding and Berry. But Wald’s strength here is in highlighting the historic successes of names that are lesser known today: Paul Whiteman, Jo Stafford, Guy Lombardo, Fats Waller, and the Original Dixieland Jass Band all take center stage, and that’s just a handful of what Wald investigates. ~ Reviewed by Joe Michon-Huneau
I love this book—it’s an imminently readable history of twentieth century avant-garde music. Wonderfully written, with great sketches of moments, biographies, and performances. Ross explains the thorny music and introduces the reader to a plethora of wild compositions--from Mahler, Strauss, and Schoenberg to Reich, Adams and Radiohead. But it’s really a history of the 20th century through music. ~ Reviewed by Dafydd Wood
Despite a seeming incomprehension for music recorded after about 1930, King’s Lament from Epirus is an enjoyable travelogue, ethnomusicological treatise, and meditation on music and art. Wide-ranging and (mostly) delightfully-written, King explores his acknowledged bizarre fondness for 78s and takes the reader on a trip from discovering the folk recordings of Epirus in an Istanbul bazaar, listening to them in Virginia, and back across the Atlantic to Northern Greece. He sleuths out the biographies of his favorite recording artists, listens to contemporary performances by Romany musicians, and describes the wounds incurred through a night of Epirote moonshine and concerts. But he also reflects on prehistory, the origins of music, and the perils of writing about history and art in general. ~ Reviewed by Dafydd Wood
An addictive conversational oral history about the NYC music scene in the early 2000s. Goodman weaves together many viewpoints to show how America had lost its sense of musical identity in an increasingly pop-fueled world during the late 90s. You do not need to be a fan of all musicians or bands mentioned to appreciate the excitement surrounding the resurgence of indie rock. ~ Reviewed by Laura Knapp
Joyous, whimsical, soulful, trenchant, funny, moving: descriptions of the Beatles are equally apt for Sheffield's tribute. His premise, that the group that defined the 60's keeps growing decades after its breakup, is proven by the wonder experienced every day, all over the world, when someone first hears a Beatles song. ~ Reviewed by Mike Hare
