Spanish Peaks Library District

Music Is History combines Questlove’s deep musical expertise with his curiosity about history, examining America over the past fifty years. Focusing on the years 1971 to the present, Questlove finds the hidden connections in the American tapes- try, whether investigating how the blaxploitation era reshaped Black identity or considering the way disco took an assembly-line approach to Black genius. And these critical inquiries are complemented by...

Chronologically arranged entries covering protest songs, musical genres, patriotic songs, and controversial songs are accompanied by ten chapter introductions discussing how songs from each decade of the twentieth century reflected the era's culture andvalues.

Jody Rosen explores America by exploring a song at its heart. The history of "White Christmas" becomes America's story over the twentieth century--told at the holiday table.

From her early years as an aspiring pianist and songwriter, to her time as a Catholic school outcast, to her first record deal, One sequin at a time explores the ups and downs of this highly influential superstar.

Traces the process by which female performers have come to dominate the American music industry, drawing from an analysis of four decades of chart data, as well as interviews with recording artists, industry executives, and managers in an attempt to explain the revolution.

"From one of the preeminent cultural critics of her generation, a radiant weave of memoir, criticism, and biography that tells the story of black women in music--from the Dixie Cups to Gladys Knight to Janet, Whitney, and Mariah-- as the foundational story of American pop"--

Encourages readers to establish a boundary between an acceptable evolution of language and outright language misuse, predicting the consequences of the overuse of street English in contemporary writing, music, and society.

Entertainer extraordinaire Michael Feinstein hosts a brand-new documentary on the evolution of the American popular music, told through stories of the greatest songwriters of all time, including Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George & Ira Gershwin and more.

""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...