Showing titles in History & Criticism

The human body is the primary instrument of war, yet those waging war often confront soldiers' bodies in a detached or merely intellectual way. In The Tenderness of Silent Minds, Martha C. Nussbaum, a leading thinker on emotion, morality, and justice, conducts a pioneering study of Benjamin Britten's musical representations of the tender male body amidst the brutality of war, and their ability to transform consciousness by evoking potent, non-personal emotions.

Trip-hop described some of the 1990s’ best music, and it was one of the decade’s most revealing bad ideas. This book chronicles the music and its leading artists, packed with recommended listening, essential tracks, great remixes, and under-recognized albums. But the music at its best still sounds experimental and dramatic; and its influence lingers through artists like FKA twigs, Sevdaliza, James Blake, Billie Eilish, and Lana Del Rey. This short book is a guide to ’trip-hop’ in its context of the weird 1990s.

Whether it's Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, the Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Top Cat, Huckleberry Hound, or hundreds of others, the creations of the Hanna-Barbera studio continue to delight generations worldwide. The groundbreaking company employed thousands in the art and business of animation. Some of them were vintage-era veterans, others were up-and-coming talents, some of whom found blockbuster success at other studios. The power of the sounds that Hanna-Barbera crafted to accompany the compelling visuals was a key factor in its spectacular success.

The Uncanny Muse explores the history of automation in the arts and delves into one of the most momentous and controversial aspects of AI: artificial creativity. The adoption of technology and machinery has long transformed the world, but as the potential for artificial intelligence expands, David Hajdu examines the new, increasingly urgent questions about technology's role in culture.

Mozart was chaos. A boy wonder. A broke genius. A man who joked about farts and wrote music that made kings weep. This book isn’t a textbook. It’s a story. From the powdered courts of Europe to the echo of his Requiem, MOZART: The Man Who Was Born in Tune follows the full arc. The prodigy, the rebel, the romantic, and the ghost. You’ll meet the father who pulled the strings, the wife who stayed through the madness, the enemies who envied him, and the symphonies that bent light.

This highly captivating audiobook takes listeners on a journey through the history of classical music. However, author and music educator Vincent Sneed demonstrates that this history does not begin in Europe, but instead, the origins of classical music reside in places such as Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Sneed details how the music of composers such as Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven would never have existed if it had not been the ingenuity and innovation of black and brown people.

Shapeshifting, collaborative, endlessly inventive and robustly empowering: Black music has transformed British culture and society, and gifted generations of Black Britons a powerful means to reject misrepresentation and find freedom and joy in sound. From the height of jungle and hip-hop in the...

El célebre tenor Ian Bostridge pasó casi dos años sin poder pisar los escenarios a causa de la pandemia, hecho que lo llevó a reflexionar sobre el valor irrenunciable del contacto directo con el público, a la vez que le permitió ahondar en el amplio catálogo de clásicos que ha interpretado a lo largo de su carrera.

Mylène Farmer est une égérie et une icône. L'interprète de Désenchantée, de Sans contrefaçon, de L'Âme-stram-gram ou de Libertine transmet à travers ses paroles des messages forts souvent inspirés par de grands auteurs et de grands philosophes. Mélancolie, amour, sexualité, religion, mort, identité… les thèmes abordés par Mylène Farmer depuis le début de sa carrière sont nombreux et essentiels. Découvrez comment Kant, Platon, Saint-Exupéry ou encore Baudelaire ont influencé les mots de Mylène Farmer.

One of the world’s greatest bassists lays down the heart of Black music, revealing how its rhythmic structures and the long history of the African diaspora made it the world’s most popular form. “An insightful, revelatory, and informative read.” —Meshell Ndegeocello, singer-songwriter...

Ways of Listening is a love letter to music, a sharp analysis of our current cultural reality, and a joyful celebration of the artists who keep creating against all odds. How has the internet changed the way we listen to, and love, the music that shapes our lives? Award-winning musician Rollie...

A massively entertaining oral biography of the golden era of critically derided yet monumentally popular radio rock, when Journey, Boston, REO Speedwagon, Toto, and more ruled the airwaves Paul Rees’s Raised on Radio is, remarkably, the first biography of AOR (“Album-Oriented Rock”)...

A 2026 Audie Awards finalist for Best Nonfiction Narrator! Moving and powerful, this is a vivid portrait of the women who came together to form an orchestra in order to survive the horrors of Auschwitz. New York Times bestselling author of Les Parisiennes and That Woman: A Life of Wallis Simpson...

This audiobook is read by the author and includes an exclusive Q&A between Mark Kermode and Jenny Nelson 'Brims with enthusiasm and joyful insight' – Richard Ayoade How can a film score make you cheer, shiver, cry or punch the air? How do directors communicate their musical vision to composers?...

From the founder of the Women of Rock Oral History Project, an exploration of women in the '90s rock scene, featuring original interviews with Liz Phair, Shirley Manson, Kristin Hersh, Donita Sparks, Tanya Donelly, members of Hole, Luscious Jackson, Veruca Salt, Babes in Toyland, and more In...

The co-founder of The Cure and author of Cured delivers a fascinating deep dive into the dark romanticism of Goth music, a misunderstood genre and culture. GOTH is an entertaining and engaging historical memoir, and a journey through Goth music and culture, exploring creative giants like The...

A one-of-a kind survey of rap and hip hop history from 1973 to today by Chuck D, arguably the most influential rapper in the world. In the more than 40 years since the days of DJ Kool Herc and "Rapper's Delight," hip hop and rap have become a billion-dollar worldwide phenomenon. Yet there is no...

David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello's exuberant exploration of rap music and culture. Living together in Cambridge in 1989, David Foster Wallace and longtime friend Mark Costello discovered that they shared "an uncomfortable, somewhat furtive, and distinctively white enthusiasm for a certain...

From the creator of the popular rock 'n' roll true crime podcast, DISGRACELAND comes an off-kilter, hysterical, at times macabre book of stories from the highly entertaining underbelly of music history. You may know Jerry Lee Lewis married his thirteen-year-old cousin but did you know he shot...

A first-time-ever exploration of the 290 songs from the entirety of Twin Peaks, sure to entice fans of the David Lynch-Mark Frost's cult classic that revolutionized TV, with brand-new interviews with Frost and several of the key composers and musicians involved.