Author: Daniel Beaumont
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780195395570
Category: Biography & Autobiography
Page: 217
View: 504
Follow House's journey from rural pulpits and labor farms to smoky juke joints. In the 1930s, he became the decade's leading bluesman in Mississippi, and an important influence on Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. This account of his life offers a fresh perspective on how the blues influenced American culture and spread throughout the world.
Author: Angela Y. Davis
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 9780307574442
Category: Social Science
Page: 464
View: 750
From one of this country's most important intellectuals comes a brilliant analysis of the blues tradition that examines the careers of three crucial black women blues singers through a feminist lens. Angela Davis provides the historical, social, and political contexts with which to reinterpret the performances and lyrics of Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday as powerful articulations of an alternative consciousness profoundly at odds with mainstream American culture. The works of Rainey, Smith, and Holiday have been largely misunderstood by critics. Overlooked, Davis shows, has been the way their candor and bravado laid the groundwork for an aesthetic that allowed for the celebration of social, moral, and sexual values outside the constraints imposed by middle-class respectability. Through meticulous transcriptions of all the extant lyrics of Rainey and Smith−published here in their entirety for the first time−Davis demonstrates how the roots of the blues extend beyond a musical tradition to serve as a conciousness-raising vehicle for American social memory. A stunning, indispensable contribution to American history, as boldly insightful as the women Davis praises, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism is a triumph.
Author: Edward Komara
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781135958329
Category: Music
Page: 1279
View: 730
This comprehensive two-volume set brings together all aspects of the blues from performers and musical styles to record labels and cultural issues, including regional evolution and history. Organized in an accessible A-to-Z format, the Encyclopedia of the Blues is an essential reference resource for information on this unique American music genre. Coverage includes: · The whole history of the blues, from its antecedents in African and American types of music to the contemporary styles performed today · Artists active throughout the United States and from foreign countries · The business of the blues, including individual record labels active since the prewar era · Aspects particular to blues lyrics and music · Specific issues such as race or gender as related to the blues · Reference lists of blues periodicals, blues newsletters, libraries, and museums.
Author: Robert Palmer
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 9781416599753
Category: Music
Page: 482
View: 442
Collects the works of the late music critic and contributor to Rolling Stone and arranges them by theme and genre, including gripping stories about John Lennon, Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Muddy Waters and more.
Author: Daniel de Visé
Publisher: Atlantic Books
ISBN: 9781611858808
Category: Music
Page: 575
View: 861
'Without a doubt the most important artist the blues has ever produced' Eric Clapton 'No one did more to spread the gospel of the blues' President Barack Obama 'One part of me says, "Yes, of course I can play." But the other part of me says, "Well, I wish I could just do it like B.B. King."' John Lennon Riley 'Blues Boy' King (1925-2015) was born into deep poverty in Mississippi. Wrenched away from his sharecropper father, B.B. lost his mother at age ten, leaving him more or less alone. Music became his emancipation from exhausting toil in the fields. Inspired by a local minister's guitar and by the records of Blind Lemon Jefferson and T-Bone Walker, B.B. taught his guitar to sing in the unique solo style that, along with his relentless work ethic and humanity, became his trademark. In turn, generations of artists claimed him as inspiration, from Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton to Carlos Santana and the Edge. King of the Blues presents the vibrant life and times of a trailblazing giant. Witness to dark prejudice and lynching in his youth, B.B. performed incessantly (more than fifteen thousand concerts in ninety countries over nearly sixty years) - in some real way his means of escaping his past. His career roller-coasted between adulation and relegation, but he always rose back up. At the same time, his story reveals the many ways record companies took advantage of artists, especially those of colour. Daniel de Visé has interviewed almost every surviving member of B.B. King's inner circle - family, band members, retainers, managers and more - and their voices and memories enrich and enliven the life of this Mississippi blues titan, whom his contemporary Bobby 'Blue' Bland simply called 'the man.'
Author: Paul Oliver
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 9781473523418
Category: Music
Page: 224
View: 923
'This is not only Oliver's finest book on the blues, but is perhaps the finest overall survey of the subject that has yet been written. ' FINANCIAL TIMES The influence of the blues on popular mainstream music is immense. Its fascinating history reaches back to the end of the nineteenth century, its roots in the work songs of slavery, the ballads and country music of black Americans. Paul Oliver places singers like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bessie Smith, Muddy Waters and Lightnin' Hopkins firmly in the context of their surroundings. He considers every facet of the Blues, its themes and subjects, the impact of recording, its-far-reaching legacy. This is not simply the history of a music but a reflection of the tumult with American society.
Author:
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9780826463210
Category: Music
Page: 833
View: 511
‘This is an extraordinary achievement and it will become an absolutely vital and trusted resource for everyone working in the field of popular music studies. Even more broadly, anyone interested in popular music or popular music culture more generally will enjoy - and find many uses for - the wealth of information and insight captured in this volume.' Lawrence Grossberg, Morris Davis Professor of Communication Studies and Cultural Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The first comprehensive reference work on popular music of the world Contributors are the world's leading popular music scholars Includes extensive bibliographies, discographies, sheet music listings and filmographies. Popular music has been a major force in the world since the nineteenth century. With the advent of electronic and advanced technology it has become ubiquitous. This is the first volume in a series of encyclopedic works covering popular music of the world. Consisting of some 500 entries by 130 contributors from around the world. Entries range between 250 and 5000 words, and is arranged in two Parts: Part 1: Social and Cultural Dimensions, covering the social phenomena of relevance to the practice of popular music. Part II: The Industry, covers all aspects of the popular music industry, such as copyright, instrumental manufacture, management and marketing, record corporations, studios, companies, and labels. Entries include bibliographies, discographies and filmographies, and an extensive index is provided. For more information visit the website at: www.continuumpopmusic.com
Author: John Shepherd
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9781847144737
Category: Social Science
Page: 833
View: 238
The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music Volume 1 provides an overview of media, industry, and technology and its relationship to popular music. In 500 entries by 130 contributors from around the world, the volume explores the topic in two parts: Part I: Social and Cultural Dimensions, covers the social phenomena of relevance to the practice of popular music and Part II: The Industry, covers all aspects of the popular music industry, such as copyright, instrumental manufacture, management and marketing, record corporations, studios, companies, and labels. Entries include bibliographies, discographies and filmographies, and an extensive index is provided.
