Postnational Musical Identities gathers interdisciplinary essays that explore how music audiences and markets are imagined in a globalized scenario, how music reflects and reflects upon new understandings of citizenship beyond the nation-state, and how music works as a site of resistance against globalization."Hybridity," "postnationalism," "transnationalism," "globalization," "diaspora," and similar buzzwords have not only informed scholarly discourse and analysis of music...

In The Political Force of Musical Beauty, Barry Shank shows how musical acts and performances generate their own aesthetic and political force, creating, however fleetingly, a shared sense of the world among otherwise diverse listeners. Rather than focusing on the ways in which music enables the circulation of political messages, he argues that communities grounded in the act and experience of listening can give rise to new political ideas and expression. Analyzing a wide range of...

The touching story of thirty years of friendship between George Klein and the King that “offers an insider’s view of Presley the man as opposed to Presley the singer, actor, and icon” (Associated Press).“You capture the essence of Elvis not only in dialogue, but also in giving the reader a sense of his personality, humor, and his spirit of play.”—Priscilla PresleyWhen George Klein was an eighth grader at Humes High, he couldn’t have known h...

An updated edition of the first book by VH1’s music expert, Eddie TrunkKnown as a leading expert on all things hard rock and heavy metal, Eddie Trunk has updated and expanded this book with even more on the subject. Eddie discusses his most essential bands, his unique personal experiences with them, his favorite “Stump the Trunk” anecdotes and trivia, as well as his favorite playlists. Whether you’re a classic Metallic and Megadeath metalhead or prefer the hair met...

Alan Cross is the preeminent chronicler of popular music.Here he provides a history of U2.This look at the band -- "Four Hearts Beat as One" -- is adapted from the audiobook of the same name.

Why was the partridge in the pear tree? Who was Good King Wenceslas? And what are the pagan origins behind The Holly and the Ivy? Discover the hidden stories behind our best-loved Christmas carols, from their earliest incarnations in the Middle Ages and their banning under the Puritans to the wassailing traditions of the nineteenth century and the carols that united soldiers on the Western Front during the First World War.This fascinating book charts the h...

There are so many k-pop boy groups, while the groups are too numerous to mention one by one. However, some of them just disappear after debut, and only a very small minority of k-pop boy groups can become popular. By the way, there is a boy group who has been on the steady rise since its debut and is now considered as one of the most popular k-pop idol groups. Yeah, it’s BTS.As BTS is enjoying a huge popularity at home and abroad, many people in the k-pop world are now saying "The ...

Whispering Pines is the first comprehensive history of Canada’s immense songwriting legacy from Gordon Lightfoot to Joni Mitchell. Canadian songwriters have always struggled to create work that reflects the environment in which they were raised while simultaneously connecting with a mass audience. For most of the 20th century that audience lay outside Canada making the challenge that much greater. While nearly every songwriter who successfully crossed this divide did so by immersing themse...

Everything you could possibly know about Verdi and his operas, from the brilliant and humorous author of Wagner Without Fear.If you want to know why La traviata was actually a flop at its premiere in 1853, it's in here. If you want to know why claiming to have heard Bjorling's Chicago performance of Il trovatore is the classic opera fan faux pas, it's in here. Even if you just want to know how to pronounce Aida, or what the plot o...

You can hear it in the hottest clubs in New York, the hippest rooms in New Orleans, Chicago, and San Francisco, and in top concert halls around the world. It's a joyous sound that echoes the past. It's Old World meets New World. It's secular and sacred. It's traditional and experimental. It's played by classical violinist Itzhak Perlman (his all-klezmer album in his all-time best-seller!), the hypno-pop band Yo La Tengo, and avant-gardist John Zorn. It made the late great Benny Goodman's c...

When George Jones recorded “He Stopped Loving Her Today” more than thirty years ago, he was a walking disaster. Twin addictions to drugs and alcohol had him drinking Jim Beam by the case and snorting cocaine as long as he was awake. Before it was over, Jones would be bankrupt, homeless, and an unwilling patient at an Alabama mental institution. In the midst of all this chaos, legendary producer Billy Sherrill—the man who discovered Tammy Wynette and cowrote “Stand by Your Man”—would someho...

If the opera world is full of “intrigue, double meanings, and devious dramatics,” then no place exemplifies this more than the world-famous Metropolitan Opera, where politics, ambition, and oversized egos have traditionally taken center stage along with some of the world’s richest music. Drawing on her fifteen years as its press representative, Johanna Fiedler explodes the traditional secrecy that surrounds the Met in this wonderfully entertaining account of its tumuluous history.F...