Entertainment Books

Book SynopsisThe first book to illuminate how collaborations between dancers and painters shaped Mexico’s postrevolutionary cultural identity. K. Mitchell Snow traces this relationship throughout nearly half a century of developments in Mexican dance.Trade Review“A deep dive into the dance and visual art worlds of Mexico from the 1920s through the 1960s.”—Dance TeacherSnow’s thorough research is evident.”—Choice“Provides fresh perspectives on postrevolutionary Mexican culture. . . . A useful jumping-off point for future discussions of race, gender, and choreography in Mexico. . . . An accessible, interdisciplinary contribution to several fields.”—Hispanic American Historical Review“A generous invitation to further inquiry. Every chapter signals a wealth of conceptual and aesthetic questions that have yet to be plumbed. . . . A Revolution in Movement gives voice to the artists, performers, and cultural ambassadors who have long been stewards of Mexican modernity but who, until now, have been obscured behind the curtain.”—Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture

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Book SynopsisShows us that sex in art is as diverse as sex in everyday life. This book examines the reception and frequent misunderstanding of highly sexualized images, words, and performances. It offers an exploration of how and where art and sex connect, and reimagines the relationship between sex and art.Trade Review"Like a brassy fag hag crashing a gay sex party, Jennifer Doyle mixes it up here with a queer lot. Whether she's just watching or actively participating, whether turned on or bored, thinking or crying, or most likely all of these at once, Doyle shows how crucial a queer feminist perspective is to understanding the erotics of art." - Douglas Crimp, University of Rochester, author of Melancholia and Moralism"

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Book SynopsisFor the thirtieth volume of Theatre Symposium, the editors return to a topic first proposed over twenty years ago in volume nine (theatre and politics in the twentieth century), reimaged for a broader, more comprehensive time frame.

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Book SynopsisThe official journal of the Mid-America Theatre Conference.

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Book SynopsisFlyboy 2 provides a panoramic view of the last thirty years of Greg Tate's influential cultural criticism of contemporary Black music, art, literature, film, and politics. These essays, interviews, and reviews cover everything from Miles Davis, Ice Cube, and Suzan Lori Parks to Afro-futurism, Kara Walker, and Amiri Baraka.Trade Review"Tate has been an important if underread critic for the past several decades, and this collection will allow more readers to discover him. Not a fast or simple read, but a worthwhile one for fans of music and culture." -- Craig L. Shufelt * Library Journal *"Flyboy 2 will be like no other collection of writing you will read this year, and probably this decade. Refer back to the original Flyboy book to whet your palate, and to note and compare the evolution of Tate’s voice and his perception of the world and music around him. Take comfort in knowing that there is a Black writer who has no choice but to be real, poised and dignified, denying all pressures to bastardize the class and power of Black arts criticism and literary excellence." -- Jordannah Elizabeth * Amsterdam News *"Whether you are new to his work or a longtime reader, the universe of Black magic lovingly curated in Flyboy 2 will do your soul good." -- Steven W. Thrasher * The Guardian *"Flyboy 2 is an immersive, fluid, and genre-bending collection of commentary, essays, and exposition of the self, a beautiful text solidly grounded in the critical theories of late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century academia." -- Patty Comeau * ForeWord Reviews *"What Flyboy 1 and 2 show is that Tate has come a long way in the study of this, the feared black planet and, in so doing, came out a more skilful, more humble man. What his style won’t let me forget is this: we are simultaneously in command of this world, and others." -- Kwanele Sosibo * Mail & Guardian *"What made Tate’s criticism special was his ability to theorize outward from his encounters with genius and his brushes with banality—to telescope between moments of artistic inspiration and the giant structures within which those moments were produced. . . . Tate has a keen sense for the way that both artists and communities discern where they fit in the world, and what is expected of them, and then either go along for the ride or carefully plot their escapes." -- Hua Hsu * The New Yorker *"[T]hought-provoking. . . . There's lots to unpack in Tate's writing, challenging us to come along for the ride--if we're up to it." -- David Hershkovits * Paper Magazine *"A Rolling Stone contributor, Greg Tate's ferocious, slang-tinged salvos and deep-rooted historical analysis have inspired readers and intimidated colleagues for decades. This sequel to the 1992 collection Flyboy in the Buttermilk felt particularly acute in the context of 2016's nonstop stream of racial horror, whether Tate is delineating visual artist Kara Walker's unflinching slavery-era silhouettes or eulogizing Richard Pryor and Michael Jackson. . . ." -- Michaelangelo Matos * Rolling Stone *"Greg Tate has been responsible for some of the most erudite and energetic cultural criticism of the past thirty years. . . . The book stands as a testimony to the richness and variety of contemporary Black artistic production, and to Tate’s restless curiosity and learning." -- Michael Lapointe * TLS *“Like all of Greg Tate's work, this is required reading for anyone interested in the last several decades of life and culture in the United States.” -- Charles L. Hughes * Journal of Popular Music Studies *"Flyboy 2 collects more pieces that prove Tate, a Rolling Stone contributor, hasn't lost a step, with riffs on young artists like Azealia Banks ('a freaky-geeky, speed-rapping succubus') and forebears such as Jimi Hendrix ('one of our most agile and adept freedom fighters'). It's a dive into what Tate calls 'Black Cognition,' a cornerstone of the American mind." -- Will Hermes * Rolling Stone *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Lust, of All Things (Black) 1 1. The Black Male Show Amiri Baraka 9 Wayne Shorter 16 Jimi Hendrix 24 John Coltrane 41 Gone Fishing: Remembering Lester Bowie 44 The Black Artists' Group 50 Butch Morris 55 Charles Edward Anderson Berry and the History of Our Future 57 Lonnie Holley 68 Marion Brown (1931–2010) and Djinji Brown 71 Dark Angels of Dust: David Hammons and the Art of Streetwise Trancendentalism 73 Bill T. Jones: Combative Moves 78 Garry Simmons: Conceptual Bomber 81 The Persistence of Vision: Storyboard P 83 Ice Cube 91 Wynton Marsalis: Jazz Crusader 102 Thonton Dail: Free, Black, and Brightening Up the Darkness of the World 110 Kehinde Wiley 124 Rammellzee: The Ikonoklast Samurai 127 Richard Pryor: Pryor Lives 136 Richard Pryor 146 Gil Scott-Heron 149 The Man in Our Mirror: Michael Jackson 152 Miles Davis 158 2. She Laughing Mean and Impressive Too Born to Dyke: I Love My Sister Laughing and Then Again When She's Looking Mean, Queer, and Impressive 167 Joni Mitchell: Black and Blond 175 Azealia Banks 177 Sade: Black Magic Woman 180 All the Things You Could Be by Now If Iames Brown Was a Feminist 186 Itabari Njeri 193 Kara Walker 196 Women at the Edge of Space, Time, and Art: Ruminations on Candida Romero's Little Girls 202 Ellen Gallagher 208 To Bid a Poet Black and Abstract 210 "The Gikuyu Mythos versus the Cullud Grrrl from Outta Space": A Wangechi Mutu Feature 213 Come Join the Hieroglyphic Zombie Parade: Deborah Grant 219 Björk's Second Act 223 Thelma Golden 228 3. Hello Darknuss My Old Meme Top Ten Reasons Why So Few Black Women Were Down to Occupy Wall Street Plus Four More 235 What Is Hip-Hop? 239 Intelligence Data: Bob Dylan 242 Hip-Hop Turns Thirty 246 Love and Crunk: Outkast 252 White Freedom: Eminem 254 Wu-Dunit: Wu-Tang Clan 256 Unlocking the Truth vs. John Cage 260 4. Screenings Spike Lee's Bamboozled 265 It's A Mack Thing 270 Sex and Negrocity: John Singleton's Baby Boy 272 Lincoln in Whiteface: Jeffrey Wright and Don Cheadle in Susan-Lori Parks's Topdog/Underdog 275The Black Power Mixtape 278 5. Race, Sex, Politricks and Belle Lettres Clarence Major 285 The Atlantic Sound: Caryl Phillips's The Atlantic Sound 288 Acocalypse Now: Patricia Hill Collins's Black Sexual Politics; Thomas Shevory's Notorious H.I.V.; Jacob Levenson's The Secret Epidemic 290 Blood and Bridges 292 Nigger-'Tude 296 Triple Threat: Jerry Gafio Watts's Amiri Baraka; Hazel Rowley's Richard Wright; David Macey's Frantz Fanon 299 Bottom Feeders: Natsuo Kirino's Out 306 Scaling the Heights: Maryse Condé's Windward Heights 307 Fear of a Mongrel Planet: Zadie Smith's White Teeth 310 Adventures in the Skin Trade: Lisa Teasley's Glow in the Dark 313 Generous Hexed: Jeffery Renard Allen's Rails under My Back 315 Going Underground: Gayl Jones's Mosquito 317 Judgment Day: Toni Morrison's Love and Edward P. Jones's The Known World 320 Black Modernity and Laughter, or How It Came to Be That N*g*as Got Jokes 322 Kalahari Hopscotch, or Notes toward a Twenty-Volume Afrocentric Futurist Manifesto 330 Sources 343 Index 347

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Book SynopsisMax Baca was born to play music. By his eighth birthday, he was already playing in his father's band. Polkas, redovas, corridos, boleros, chotises, huapangos, and waltzes were in his blood. Baca's music grew out of the harsh life of the borderland, and the duality of borderland music remains a recurring theme in everything he does.

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Book SynopsisFrom the first chapter through the last, readers eager to learn more about the connections between mathematics and music will find a comprehensive textbook designed to satisfy their natural curiosity.Trade ReviewOverall, From Music to Mathematics is a pleasing and well-written book that is accessible for everyone who wants to explore the connections between music and mathematics. Gareth Roberts does a great job of making numerous suggestions on how music can be used to illuminate mathematical concepts... From Music to Mathematics is very enjoyable to read - not only for students, but for anyone who loves music and mathematics. Musicae Scientiae Overall, I strongly recommend this as an excellent basis for teaching. MathSciNetTable of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Rhythm1.1. Musical Notation and a Geometric Property1.1.1. Duration1.1.2. Dots1.2. Time Signatures1.2.1. Musical examples1.2.2. Rhythmic repetition1.3. Polyrhythmic Music1.3.1. The least common multiple1.3.2. Musical examples1.4. A Connection with Sanskrit PoetryReferences for Chapter 12. Introduction to Music Theory2.1. Musical Notation2.1.1. The common clefs2.1.2. The piano keyboard2.2. Scales2.2.1. Chromatic scale2.2.2. Whole-tone scale2.2.3. Major scales2.2.4. Minor scales2.2.5. Why are there 12 major scales?2.3. Intervals and Chords2.3.1. Major and perfect intervals2.3.2. Minor intervals and the tritone2.3.3. Chords2.4. Tonality, Key Signatures, and the Circle of Fifths2.4.1. The critical tonic-dominant relationship2.4.2. Key signatures2.4.3. The circle of fifths2.4.4. Transposition2.4.5. The evolution of polyphonyReferences for Chapter 23. The Science of Sound3.1. How We Hear3.1.1. The magnificent ear-brain system3.2. Attributes of Sound3.2.1. Loudness and decibels3.2.2. Frequency3.3. Sine Waves3.3.1. The sine function3.3.2. Graphing sinusoids3.3.3. The harmonic oscillator3.4. Understanding Pitch3.4.1. Residue pitch3.4.2. A vibrating string3.4.3. The overtone series3.4.4. The starting transient3.4.5. Resonance and beats3.5. The Monochord LabReferences for Chapter 34. Tuning and Temperament4.1. The Pythagorean Scale4.1.1. Consonance and integer ratios4.1.2. The spiral of fifths4.1.3. The overtone series revisited4.2. Just Intonation4.2.1. Problems with just intonation4.2.2. Major versus minor4.3. Equal Temperament4.3.1. A conundrum and a compromise4.3.2. Rational and irrational numbers4.3.3. Cents4.4. Comparing the Three Systems4.5. Strähle's Guitar4.5.1. An ingenious construction4.5.2. Continued fractions4.5.3. On the accuracy of Strähle's method4.6. Alternative Tuning Systems4.6.1. The significance of log2(3/2)4.6.2. Meantone scales4.6.3. Other equally tempered scalesReferences for Chapter 45. Musical Group Theory5.1. Symmetry in Music5.1.1. Symmetric transformations5.1.2. Inversions5.1.3. Other examples5.2. The Bartók Controversy5.2.1. The Fibonacci numbers and nature5.2.2. The golden ratio5.2.3. Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta5.3. Group Theory5.3.1. Some examples of groups5.3.2. Multiplication tables5.3.3. Symmetries of the square5.3.4. The musical subgroup of D4References for Chapter 56. Change Ringing6.1. Basic Theory, Practice, and Examples6.1.1. Nomenclature6.1.2. Rules of an extent6.1.3. Three bells6.1.4. The number of permissible moves6.1.5. Example6.1.6. Example6.2. Group Theory Revisited6.2.1. The symmetric group Sn6.2.2. The dihedral group revisited6.2.3. Ringing the cosets6.2.4. ExampleReferences for Chapter 67. Twelve-Tone Music7.1. Schoenberg's Twelve-Tone Method of Composition7.1.1. Notation and terminology7.1.2. The tone row matrix7.2. Schoenberg's Suite für Klavier, Op. 257.3. Tone Row Invariance7.3.1. Using numbers instead of pitches7.3.2. Further analysis7.3.3. Tritone symmetry7.3.4. The number of distinct tone rows7.3.5. Twelve-tone music and group theoryReferences for Chapter 78. Mathematical Modern Music8.1. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies8.1.1. Magic squares8.1.2. Some examples8.1.3. The magic constant8.1.4. A Mirror of Whitening Light8.2. Steve Reich8.2.1. Clapping Music8.2.2. Phase shifts8.3. Xenakis8.3.1. A Greek architect8.3.2. Metastasis and the Philips Pavilion8.3.3. Pithoprakta8.4. Final Project8.4. References for Chapter 8CreditsIndex

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Book Synopsis“Friend, asshole, angel, mutant,” singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt “came along and made us gross and broken people seem . . . I dunno, cooler, I guess.” A quadriplegic who could play only simple chords on his guitar, Chesnutt recorded seventeen critically acclaimed albums before his death in 2009, including About to Choke, North Star Deserter, and At the Cut. In 2006, NPR placed him in the top five of the ten best living songwriters, along with Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Paul McCartney, and Bruce Springsteen. Chesnutt’s songs have also been covered by many prominent artists, including Madonna, the Smashing Pumpkins, R.E.M., Sparklehorse, Fugazi, and Neutral Milk Hotel.Kristin Hersh toured with Chesnutt for nearly a decade and they became close friends, bonding over a love of songwriting and mutual struggles with mental health. In Don’t Suck, Don’t Die, she describes many seemingly small moments they shared, their Trade ReviewThe book's great sadness is matched by the skill and vitality of Hersh's writing; it will make treasured and troubled reading for fans of Chesnutt and the author alike. * Kirkus Reviews *Don't Suck, Don't Die is not only one of the best books of the year, it's one of the most beautiful rock memoirs ever written. Hersh is as stunningly talented an author as she is a musician, and her portrayal of Chesnutt is perfectly done. * NPR *A raw, poetic memoir . . . a last, wonderful example of Chesnutt at his most charismatically mischievous * The Guardian *Hersh’s language is vivid and conversational, as descriptive and elliptical as her own music. * Salon *[Hersh’s] observations . . . always ring with a harsh lyrical truth . . . an eloquent, heartbreaking testament. * Pitchfork *In under 200 little pages, it paints a more honest, insightful picture of the late singer-songwriter than any biography could . . . Beautifully, poetically told. * MOJO *A powerful and moving insight . . . A book that will move anyone who’s loved and lost, regardless of whether they’re a fan of the author of Chesnutt. * R2 *An intimate, complicated portrait of the artist as road warrior . . . a beautiful but often dark, heartbreaking read. * Atlanta Journal-Constitution *An ode, an elegy and an examination of the physics of friendship. * WABE 90.1 Atlanta *Through beautifully phrased, dark, honest prose, [Hersh] paints a poetic portrait of earnest struggle, friendship as significant savior, and learned empathy. * The Austin Chronicle *The music made by the late Vic Chesnutt was evocative, haunting and often heartbreaking. Kristin Hersh's book about the singer-songwriter shares all of these qualities . . . It's a book that gives a tremendous sense of what friendship with such a person was like, for good and for bad, and leaves the reader feeling his absence even more once the book has ended. * Rolling Stone *It’s messy and spiky and unforgiving, crushingly sad, sometimes funny, and humane . . . I couldn’t speak for a while after finishing Hersh’s book. * Inside Higher Ed *[I]n this haunting, poetic, musical road show memoir, singer/songwriter Kristin Hersh takes us inside her friendship with Chesnutt. Her experience is as insightful to a musician's life as it is to the human existence—constantly probing and reevaluating self-understanding along with her footing on the planet. . . . There are lines you'll never forget, and you can't help but love the adorable, self-sabotaging, curmudgeon Chesnutt revealed in these pages. You'll wish you'd been there to absorb his flak backstage or in the southern sun. On balance, this book stands as a testament to the sincerity of his songwriting. * The US Review of Books *[A] piercing chronicle...Hersh uses vivid, engaging prose to capture Chesnutt’s complicated nature...Don’t Suck, Don’t Die is a moving portrait of an artistic genius—and a vulnerable manual on how to navigate immense grief after the death of someone we love. * The A.V. Club, "The 15 most essential music bios (and autobiographies) so far this century" *Table of Contents Foreword by Amanda Petrusich I. Eat Candy II. Thickety Time III. Go Outside and Look at the Moon IV. First, Give V. See You in My Dreams Selected Discography

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Book Synopsis In 1996, Patterson Hood recruited friends and fellow musicians in Athens, Georgia, to form his dream band: a group with no set lineup that specialized in rowdy rock and roll. The Drive-By Truckers, as they named themselves, grew into one of the best and most consequential rock bands of the twenty-first century, a great live act whose songs deliver the truth and nuance rarely bestowed on Southerners, so often reduced to stereotypes. Where the Devil Don't Stay tells the band's unlikely story not chronologically but geographically. Seeing the Truckers' albums as roadmaps through a landscape that is half-real, half-imagined, their fellow Southerner Stephen Deusner travels to the places the band's members have lived in and written about. Tracking the band from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia, to the author's hometown in McNairy County, Tennessee, Deusner explores the Truckers' complex relationship to the South and the issues of class, race, history, and reTrade ReviewThe most brilliant decision veteran music journalist Stephen Deusner made for this book...was to structure his portrait of the band geographically, from Muscle Shoals to Memphis to Athens to Deusner’s home region, McNairy County, Tennessee...[Where the Devil Don't Stay] offers as much cultural criticism and post-civil-rights Southern history as straightforward autobiography...Where the Devil Don’t Stay approaches its subject with the same context and care as the band it portrays. * Rolling Stone, "Best Music Books of 2021" *[Where the Devil Don't Stay] takes the complex work of a revered band in historical and social perspective…If you've enjoyed the band's music and want to dive deeper into their changing world, you'll enjoy this nuanced appreciation. * The Current *Deusner’s must-read book follows the quintessential roots rockers as they travel through the South and the ethos that has helped define the band’s musical identity and evolution within it. Deusner...tells a story with verve and wit, and drawing on new interviews with band members past and present, he brings to vivid life the powerful ways music can shape a landscape. * No Depression *[Where the Devil Don't Stay] is a book Deusner was born to write...Deusner distills the Truckers’ 25 year-plus history and then some into 296 pages. * AL.com *[A] clever and engaging book…Deusner tours the South with the band as fully-engaged interviewees, visiting key Truckers destinations and tackling everything from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Confederate statues as he goes. * MOJO Magazine *[An] inventive biography…Rather than a straight-ahead chronological bio, Deusner takes the reader right to the places in the South that played key roles in the band and it's development...[Fans] will appreciate Deusner's history of the band, especially the early years, and the background on many of their songs. * Houston Press *[An] excellent new book. * Inside Hook *Where the Devil Don't Stay is a masterwork in the musical biography genre...For the diehards, this book will feel like the first time you heard Decoration Day or Southern Rock Opera. For anyone who loves a good yarn and good music, Where the Devil Don’t Stay is an essential read. * The Marinade with Jason Earle *This is a book that you should read if you have any interest either in the Drive-By Truckers or in the current state of America. * Americana UK *[Where the Devil Don't Stay] is filled with wonder and wander...It’s a book worthy of the band’s catalogue, as essential in its way as such classic DBT albums as Southern Rock Opera, Decoration Day, and American Band. * Chapter 16 *Deusner explains how [Patterson] Hood and his main Trucker foil Mike Cooley have battled to redefine rock beyond the Mason-Dixon line over the course of three decades together…Deusner's lively narrative tracks the Drive-By Truckers' evolution, picking through wrecked marriages, redneck audiences and the band's role in the making of Jason Isbell to show how the Truckers overcame a hasty choice of band name to fly the flag for a more nuanced take on good Southern manners. * Uncut *Deusner’s book is essential reading not only for fans of the Truckers but for anyone wanting to discover more about these quintessential roots rockers. * No Depression, "Best Music Books of 2021" *It’s about time somebody wrote a book about the Drive-By Truckers, and what a book it is...[Where the Devil Don't Stay is] a literary, thought-provoking analysis of the dynamics behind the band’s artistry and its complicated relationship with the South. * Atlanta Journal-Constitution *[Where the Devil Don't Stay] shows the depth of research [Deusner] took as he includes a discography, bibliography and an index of the places and names that extravagantly lace the story…Deusner gives the band a sense of place. * Athens Banner-Herald *This may be the most interesting book about the South that I've read this year. * Reckon South *Stephen Deusner’s place-rooted history of this restless Americana band helps bring the South into focus. * The Current, "Best Music Books of 2021" *The best Southern rock band of its generation also gets the treatment it was long overdue in Stephen Deusner’s terrific book about the Drive-By Truckers. Deusner’s book is both a biography of the band – and talented songwriters Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and one-time Trucker, Jason Isbell – but it is also something of a musical atlas, richly mining the history of Southern spaces like Muscle Shoals, Memphis, Athens and Richmond to reveal more about the 'Southern Thing.' * Reckon South, "25 of the best books to come out of the South in 2021" *[Where the Devil Don't Stay] is the book-length study Drive-By Truckers fans have been waiting for...This book is as complex, moving, thrilling, and funny as one of DBT's marathon sets. * New Books in Performing Arts *As brilliant and unflinching as its subject, you'll never look at the South, and southern rock the same way again. Highly recommended. * The Big Takeover *Table of ContentsIntroduction The Shoals Memphis, Tennessee Athens, Georgia Birmingham, Alabama Outside Gillsburg, Mississippi Back to the Shoals Richmond, Virginia McNairy County, Tennessee Out West Acknowledgments Selected Discography Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWhy has music so often served as an accomplice to transcendent expressions of gender? Why did the query 'is he musical?' become code, in the twentieth century, for 'is he gay?' Why is music so inherently queer? For Sasha Geffen, the answers lie, in part, in music’s intrinsic quality of subliminal expression, which, through paradox and contradiction, allows rigid gender roles to fall away in a sensual and ambiguous exchange between performer and listener. Glitter Up the Dark traces the history of this gender fluidity in pop music from the early twentieth century to the present day.Starting with early blues and the Beatles and continuing with performers such as David Bowie, Prince, Missy Elliot, and Frank Ocean, Geffen explores how artists have used music, fashion, language, and technology to break out of the confines mandated by gender essentialism and establish the voice as the primary expression of gender transgression. From glam rock and punk to disco, techno, Trade ReviewGeffen’s 2020 book is a gem...Their arguments about the music of the last 60 years—from the Beatles to Prince and David Bowie to Frank Ocean and Perfume Genius—are revelatory. The gender binary, they argue, is not simply worth breaking; it has always been broken...Geffen creates one of the most helpful and useful things a writer can give: hope for a more inclusive future. Anyone interested in gender would benefit from reading Glitter Up the Dark, and music obsessives can find a plethora of new interpretations of music history as well. Ultimately, that is what the best music books can do. * PopMatters, "12 Contemporary Books That Will Have You Rethinking Music History" *A must-read for all those interested in the politics of sound. * The Guardian *This is how Glitter Up the Dark, and all of Geffen’s writing, works: Once you start reading it, you’ll hear the world through new ears. You’ll devour Glitter Up the Dark with eyes wide and mind racing, drawing connections to whatever music you listen to. It’s exciting. And if you’re a queer or trans listener, it’s validating reading about how generations of us have found a haven in music. * Vulture *An ecstatic celebration of freedom through sound and movement, Glitter Up the Dark makes pop history feel thrillingly new. * Kirkus/Rolling Stone, "Best Music Books of 2020" *[Glitter Up the Dark] speaks to pop music’s effect on future generations of norm-breaking artists, but also on public perceptions of gender and its engagement with race and class politics. It’s an essential contribution to the modern music-book canon, made all the more intimate in Geffen’s hands. * Pitchfork, "Our 15 Favorite Music Books of 2020" *[Glitter Up the Dark] is a unique examination of gender fluidity and queerness across genres of popular music; a must-read for music lovers. * Ms. Magazine *[Glitter Up the Dark] doesn't just discuss various subversions of typical masculine and feminine gender roles—it discusses how we came to accept the full gender spectrum with non-binary and third gender identities. Geffen chronicles gender fluidity in music from the 20th century to the present, discussing everyone from early blues artists and David Bowie to Missy Elliot and riot grrrl bands. * Paste Magazine *From Little Richard and Elvis to David Bowie and Prince, Glitter Up The Dark shows how artists have used music and its accompanying fashion and technology to subvert traditionally accepted forms of sexual identity—including what Geffen calls “audio drag,” wherein musicians inhabit shifting personas through vocal manipulation. While Geffen is more than comfortable digging into headier gender theory, the book remains accessible and well-crafted. * The A.V. Club *Through deft yet largely accessible analysis, Glitter Up the Dark feels like a revelatory unearthing, as Geffen carefully exposes threads of queerness that typical histories may choose to ignore or erase. * them *Glitter Up the Dark is not just a chronicle of the transgressive possibilities of pop music but also a history of Geffen’s listening and a demand that we regard pop culture in explicitly political terms. * The Nation *Without attempting a comprehensive overview of queerness in music, Glitter Up the Dark nevertheless traces a clear path from the Beatles onwards...Whether it's the time-shifting energy of '70s New York clubs like the Loft, the 'sapphic androgyny' of Prince, or the gay masculine identification channeled through Grace Jones's 'I Need A Man,' Geffen makes clear that performers and their listeners have always been engaged in a lively, flirtatious exchange, constructing vibrant, expressive, and more fluid worlds in the space between each reverberating sound wave. * Nylon *An essential contribution to the modern music-book canon, made all the more intimate in Sasha Geffen’s hands. * Pitchfork *This slim yet sprawling volume...overturns traditional approaches to pop-music history by revisiting popular stars, songs and genres through a gender-expansive, queer lens * Westword *[Glitter Up the Dark] tells the story of queer artists and fans carving out space for their self-expression in an industry that capitalizes on pieces of the queer aesthetic, while simultaneously writing off those artists who are deemed too subversive or political. * Jezebel *[An] ambitious first book...with Geffen’s boundless love for music, deep listening skills, and expansive knowledge, they have queered the map of pop in language as accessible as a yellow brick road. * Lambda Literary *Geffen’s clear love and deep knowledge of the subject, along with insightful historical and critical arguments about the intertwining of gender and music, make this a deliciously necessary read for anyone interested in either pop culture or gender studies. * Library Journal, Starred Review *Glitter Up the Dark is Geffen's definitive love letter to the power of music to inspire acceptance and transformation—both within ourselves, and in the world around us. * Foreword Reviews *In an expansive and exuberant history Sasha Geffen celebrates music's liberatory potential to break down binary gender roles. * The Wire *Geffen drags a shimmering thread that connects transgressive music histories that have defined not just queer culture but all of pop culture for decades...Geffen’s book feels like the most fabulous tasting menu that will inspire readers to fall down the rabbit holes of so many of these stories. * Autostraddle *Geffen provides detailed insight into the ways queer and gender non-conforming artists shaped pop music—including punk and its antecedent, glam rock. * Chicago Reader *[Glitter Up the Dark] details, era by era, just how much popular music has done to break down the gender binary...one of the things I loved about the book is how Geffen celebrates the way that challenging the binary is inherent to the appeal of pop music for all people who approach it with open ears and hearts: it clears a space for all of us to more truly understand the human experience. * The Current *Geffen invokes canonical artists with wan mischief…and keeps finding curious historical details…Glitter Up the Dark lovingly describes the affinities drawn together by the act of listening. * Hazlitt *[An] incisive first book…[Geffen's] lucid prose is frequently enlivened by small, passing insights into music I’ve encountered a million times but will now forever hear refracted through their imagery and words…What I found most valuable about Glitter Up the Dark was the lens through which it looks back and invites us to notice how such seeming 'subversions' have always been present beneath the surface of even the most popular music...Reading this book often gave me the sensation that I was looking at a familiar scene through a kaleidoscope, suddenly seeing smeared borders and tiny, winking rainbows everywhere. * Bookforum *Glitter Up the Dark is less a straightforward narrative of pop music gender play and nonconformity than a spiraling, exhilarating dance through its more and less famous manifestations...This prism of a book reflects a rainbow on all it touches. * Boston Globe *Glitter Up the Dark helps readers understand and contextualize gender performance in popular music. It might change the way you listen to and engage with your favorite records. * The Arts Fuse *From disco to techno, punk rock to hip-hop, Geffen digs deep to explore the way popular music can facilitate exchange between listeners and performers, loosening the grip of gender roles and providing fertile ground for asking questions, seeking liberation and creating change. * NPR, "NPR's Best Books of 2020" *A brilliant, highly accessible, and timely testament to the power of music to shatter the status quo. * Library Journal, "Best Arts Books of 2020" *This exploration of queerness and pop is ridiculously comprehensive...Geffen’s examination of gender ambiguity’s relationship to artistic reinvention is a fascinating read. You’ll never listen to classic genre-staples in the same way again. * NME, "The 20 best music books of 2020" *Geffen's genuine enthusiasm for transgressive pop music is clear and infectious, and the chapters on punk and glam rock...are true standouts. [Glitter Up the Dark] is full of insightful observations, such as the pivotal role that Wendy Carlos and Pauline Oliveros played in the development of electronic music...A helpful guided tour that shows how music is the perfect art form in which to 'dance between genders.' * Kirkus *Glitter Up the Dark...asks a fascinating question, one the author turns over and over for 264 fascinating pages. What is it about popular music that makes it such a uniquely freeing space for artists to explore the gender spectrum? Geffen takes a fascinating walk through music history from the queer pioneers of rock and blues; to the Beatles and their matching mop tops; to 21st century artists like Perfume Genius and Fever Ray. * The Current, "Best music books of 2020" *From the castrati of mid-sixteenth century Italy to 'Ma' Rainey’s lesbian blues to SoundCloud’s shape-shifting stars, Geffen takes readers on an illuminating journey in lyrical, punkish prose. * Elle, "The 63 Best Books of 2020" *Table of ContentsIntroduction: An Alternate Ribbon of Time 1. Screaming the Beatles: The First Boy Band Breaks the Gender Mold 2. Oh! You Pretty Things: The Glitter Revolution 3. Whining Is Gender Neutral: Punk’s Adolescent Escapism 4. Wreckers of Civilization: Post-punk, Goth, and Industrial 5. Soft Machines: Women, Cyborgs, and Electronic Music 6. Not a Woman, Not a Man: Prince’s Sapphic Androgyny 7. The Fake Makes It Real: Synthpop and MTV 8. Infinite Utopia: Queer Time in Disco and House 9. Funky Cyborgs: Time, Technology, and Gender in Hip-Hop 10. Butch Throats: Women’s Music and Riot Grrrl 11. God Is Gay: The Grunge Eruption 12. No Shape: The Formless Internet Coda: Whole New World Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book Synopsis2023 ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research, Association for Recorded Sound Collections An insider’s look at how Chicago’s underground music industry transformed indie rock in the 1990s. In the 1990s, Chicago was at the center of indie rock, propelling bands like the Smashing Pumpkins and Liz Phair to the national stage. The musical ecosystem from which these bands emerged, though, was expansive and diverse. Grunge players comingled with the electronic, jazz, psychedelic, and ambient music communities, and an inventive, collaborative group of local labels—kranky, Drag City, and Thrill Jockey, among others—embraced the new, evolving sound of indie “rock.” Bruce Adams, co-founder of kranky records, was there to bear witness. In You’re with Stupid, Adams offers an insider’s look at the role Chicago’s underground music industry played in the transformation of indTrade ReviewIndependent music from Chicago was absolutely essential to my developing sensibilities. My teenage mind was blown away by labels like Touch & Go, Drag City, and Thrill Jockey, but as I dug deeper, I zeroed in on the magical, shadowy kranky. It was pre-Internet, and I didn't get all the scene connections or timelines, I just happily listened in my shitty apartment and felt my world shift. You're with Stupid does something equally remarkable: It tells the history of that time and place without making any of that early, optimistic magic disappear. -- Brandon Stosuy, co-founder, The Creative IndependentYou're with Stupid serves as a primer on the independent record label boom of the late 1980s, the documenting of a city's diverse scene, and the quiet explosion of a new kind of music via kranky. Most importantly, it offers the backstories of some of your favorite bands and albums of the last thirty years. -- Mac McCaughan, coauthor of Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label That Got Big and Stayed SmallThis well-informed love letter to Chicago, a hub of DIY music and sonic explorations, allows the reader to witness the birth of a label and largely covert scene that continues to mutate and resonate. Bruce Adams, though, avoids pure homage, bringing the same acute critical eye, and yes, barbed tongue, that helped build this musical revolution. A funny, bullshit-free chronicle of life in underground music. -- Kevin Martin, The Bug, King Midas Sound, ZonalA story of passion and perseverance with a soundtrack that echoes from the pages...Dedicated fans of ’90s alt rock will find inspiration and lessons. * Publishers Weekly *[Adams'] prose efficiently wrings out important and nutsy-boltsy specifics that will trigger strong memories in those who were there, enrapture readers who bought the records in lieu of being there, and perhaps encourage the spawn of Those Who Came Before to bring back, aurally if not in person, artists like Labradford and Bowery Electric and Jessamine. * Backyard Industry *There was once a point when indie music tended to mean something with clear connections to rock music. Nowadays, that line is much more blurred, making for some stunning artistic feats — and the music scene in Chicago in the 1990s and 2000s played a big part in that. Bruce Adams’s new book offers an inside look at the evolution of that scene and its lasting impact. * InsideHook *You’re with Stupid proves [Adams] as adept at communicating what it was like to be immersed in a time and place of intense creativity as behind the scenes making it happen. * The Wire *You’re with Stupid is most successful when it contextualizes kranky inside the larger Chicago music scene—and indie as a whole. Chicago was and is such a vibrant city musically that the larger discussions of where the bands and labels fit into regional and national networks of groups, scenes, and zines were welcome and illuminating...this book got me interested in music that was new to me—I dug around online for Labradford and Stars Of The Lid—and gave me a greater sense of Chicago’s scene in the ’90s. * Razorcake *Adams’ book is a story about both a Chicago and a world that doesn’t exist anymore…[You're with Stupid is] a first-hand account of a fascinating time in music history to motivate us into some truly focused, immersive, offline activity. * Bandcamp Daily *[Adams] does a great service in sketching out the different rosters and aesthetic approaches [indie record labels in Chicago] took...You’re with Stupid is both a cultural history of the Chicago music world at that time, as told through the record labels and distributors that Adams worked for, and a how-to road map to founding a DIY operation. * Bookforum *[You’re with Stupid] succeeds as both a memoir and a cultural history of a brief wrinkle in time when a few Chicago neighborhoods seemed to comprise the center of a then-flourishing underground rock universe. * Aquarium Drunkard *You’re with Stupid is a thoroughly entertaining read...Reading the book feels like sitting next to [Adams] on a bar stool, hearing memories of a bygone but beloved musical era straight from the horse’s mouth. * Aquarium Drunkard *You're With Stupid is every self-described Gen X music nerd's dream come true. * The Stranger *kranky co-founder Bruce Adams provides behind-the-scenes insight on the Windy City’s music labels (with Touch & Go and Wax Trax! leading the charge) and how they contributed to the meteoric rise of Gen X stars such as Liz Phair, Nirvana, and Smashing Pumpkins...this book nurtures our sense of nostalgia for a tremendous decade of music, especially in kranky’s pursuit to 'release music that transcended the moment,' and reminds us of simpler, pre-Internet times where radio airplay, touring, and fanzines heavily influenced the success of music’s breakout stars. * SPIN, "Best Music Books of 2022" *The best kranky releases sound refreshingly different, not just from other indie rock of the ‘90s but from nearly everything on the radio, or off it, in 2022. They’re well worth a listen. And You’re with Stupid is worth a read, especially if you belong to the generation that stayed up late to catch '120 Minutes' on MTV and attended Yo La Tengo shows in multiple millennia. * Washington Independent Review of Books *[Adams] proves to be an incisive and wry observer of the Windy City's paradigm-shifting musical ecosystem and his role in shaping rock's vanguard...You're with Stupid abounds with interesting insights about musical and cultural niches that deserve more attention and, more importantly, it reveals the inner workings of one of history's greatest record companies. * The Stranger *An amazing and insightful read into one of the more low-key scenes of [the 1990s]. * The Recoup *Table of Contents Introduction 1. Hey Chicago 2. Honk if You Hate People, Too 3. That That Is . . . Is (Not): 1991–1992 4. Accelerating on a Smoother Road: 1992–1993 5. Analog Technology Makes Space Travel Possible: 1994 6. Slow Thrills: 1995 7. The Taut and the Tame: 1996 8. London Was Ridiculous: 1997 9. An Audience Hungry to Hear What Would Happen Next: 1998 10. Both Ends Fixed: 1999 11. After This They Chose Silence: 2000–2002 Epilogue: Specifically Dissatisfied Since 1993 Acknowledgments Author’s Notes Index

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Book Synopsis Full-tilt, hardcore, down-home, and groundbreaking, the women of country music speak volumes with every song. From Maybelle Carter to Dolly Parton, k.d. lang to Taylor Swift—these artists provided pivot points, truths, and doses of courage for women writers at every stage of their lives. Whether it’s Rosanne Cash eulogizing June Carter Cash or a seventeen-year-old Taylor Swift considering the golden glimmer of another precocious superstar, Brenda Lee, it’s the humanity beneath the music that resonates. Here are deeply personal essays from award-winning writers on femme fatales, feminists, groundbreakers, and truth tellers. Acclaimed historian Holly George Warren captures the spark of the rockabilly sensation Wanda Jackson; Entertainment Weekly’s Madison Vain considers Loretta Lynn’s girl-power anthem “The Pill”; and rocker Grace Potter embraces Linda Ronstadt’s unabashed visual and musical influence. Patty Griffin actTrade ReviewNot only will readers find some of the finest music writing in the business here, but they’ll also learn how the musicians’ evolution influenced each essayist’s own creative process. The result? Incredibly empowering writing about what it means to be an artist and a human being. . . .Woman Walk the Line will touch readers to their cores — reminding them of their first musical loves and the difference between a musician and a star. * Nashville Scene *Each of the 27 essays focuses on the experience of when music was a savior, an inspiration or an acknowledgment of a deep and personal truth. * New York Times *A rhapsodic, moving look at music's transformative power. * People *...truly stunning... * PASTE *...a new collection of personal essays on the transformative impact of women in country music aims to change the narrative. * The Washington Post *Best Music Books of the Fall * Publisher's Weekly *30 Must Read Music Books This Fall—The deeply personal pieces often feel like the authors are cracking open a secret chest, sharing treasured glimpses into their true selves. * Salon.com *Much has happened to shape the national discourse in the 18 months since Holly Gleason began working on Woman Walk The Line...Much has happened in the last 18 days to make it essential reading. * Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel *The essays in Woman Walk the Line are multidimensional, living, breathing cases for the importance of each of these female country artists, including aurally and visually. As an edited anthology of multiple authors, this book is surprisingly cohesive. * Pop Matters *Table of Contents Introduction Maybelle Carter: The Root of It All (Caryn Rose) Lil Hardin: That's How I Got to Memphis (Alice Randall) Wanda Jackson: When She Starts Eruptin' (Holly George-Warren ) Hazel Dickens: The Plangent Bone (Ronni Lundy) June Carter Cash: Eulogy for a Mother (Rosanne Cash) Brenda Lee: Rare Peer (Taylor Swift) Bobbie Gentry: Let the Mystery Be (Meredith Ochs) Loretta Lynn: The Pill (Madison Vain) Dolly Parton: Long Island Down Home Blues (Nancy Harrison) Emmylou Harris: Common Ground in an Uncommon Love (Ali Berlow) Barbara Mandrell: Lubbock in the Rearview Mirror (Shelby Morrison) Tanya Tucker: Punk Country and Sex Wide Open (Holly Gleason) Rita Coolidge: A Dark-Eyed Cherokee Country Gal (Kandia Crazy Horse) Linda Ronstadt: Canciones di Corazon Salvage (Grace Potter) Rosanne Cash: Expectations and Letting Go (Deborah Sprague) The Judds: Comfort Far from Home (Courtney E. Smith) k.d. lang: Flawless, Fearless (Kelly McCartney) Lucinda Williams, Flesh & Ghosts, Dreams + Marrow (Lady Goodman) Mary Chapin Carpenter: Every Hometown Girl (Cynthia Sanz) Patty Loveless: Beyond What You Know (Wendy Pearl) Shania Twain: But the Little Girls Understand (Emily Yahr) Alison Krauss: Draw Your Own Map (Aubrie Sellers) Terri Clark: Better Things to Do (Amy Elizabeth McCarthy) Taylor Swift: Through the Eyes of a Critic, of a Mom (Elysa Gardner) Kacey Musgraves: Follow Your Arrow (Dacey Orr) Rhiannon Giddens: A Gift Past the Songs (Caroline Randall Williams) Patty Griffin: Remembering to Breathe (Kim Ruehl) Thank Yous Contributors

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Book SynopsisHow a DJ’s innovative chopped and screwed technique changed the Houston hip-hop scene.Trade ReviewWeaving flashes of his own voice into an oral history featuring over 130 of Screw’s friends, family, heroes, students, and more, Walker stitches together a full picture of the iconic DJ’s legacy. -- Mankaprr Conteh * Rolling Stone *DJ Screw: A Life in Slow Revolution offers an overdue look at the life of this titan and his often-overlooked compatriots...the Screw bio lays out a historically informed, nuanced survey of the economic and technological factors that drove an artist’s creations and the Screwed Up Click’s career...A Life in Slow Revolution not only offers Screw the studied biographical record he deserves, but also puts so many of his fellow S.U.C. members, who’d never gotten a high-profile book of their own, squarely within the rap canon: Al-D, E.S.G., Big Pokey, Big Moe, and, of course, Big Floyd. -- Nitish Pahwa * Slate *This book is the ultimate word on both [DJ Screw] and his seismic imprint...Walker transubstantiates Screw’s lore into something more permanent and tangible, interviewing just about everyone that ever knew the DJ, along with a number of aficionados and famous fans of his that helped make the Screw tape the hip-hop fetish objects that they have become in the decades since Davis’s death. -- Israel Daramola * Vulture, "The 18 Best Books of the Year (So Far)" *DJ Screw: A Life in Slow Revolution is a worthwhile biography and oral history, even for those who already know the story of Screw's short, impactful life....this book is a worthy topography of Screw’s life, from its humble start to its tragic end. -- Chris Vognar * Texas Monthly *[DJ Screw] delivers not just the story of one individual but the birth of a culture and the rise of a movement. We get to feel the excitement, pitfalls, rivalries and triumphs of a young scene coming into its own...[DJ Screw is] a deeply researched and carefully curated work, devoting as much consideration to Screw’s own story as it does to those he influenced and those who influenced him...Walker’s extensive knowledge of and, more important, his great respect for his subject come across on the page...[Walker's] prose often has the rhythm and flow of poetry. -- Santi Elijah Holley * Washington Post *In this sensational oral history, hip-hop historian Walker (Houston Rap Tapes) offers a riveting look at why 'DJ Screw is the stuff of Texas legend'...Though [DJ Screw's] life was cut short, Walker’s meticulous account underscores the enduring legacy of the rapper’s pioneering music and his awe-inspiring ability to capture 'the sound of the streets.' This engrossing work will fascinate fans. * Publishers Weekly *An ambitious love letter to one of Houston’s beloved mixtape kings...An insightful portrait sure to engage DJ Screw’s longtime fans and newcomers alike. * Kirkus, Starred Review *[A] fascinating oral history chronicling the life of DJ Screw...Walker’s years of research and personal expertise about Houston’s music scene will help cement Screw’s legacy as an innovator who still inspires. * Library Journal *The 'chopped and screwed' sound has become such a staple of hip-hop that most fans probably don’t even wonder where the slowed-down, stop-start sonic approach came from—and thus, the late DJ Screw, a.k.a. Houston native Robert Earl Davis Jr., is one of the truly unsung heroes of the genre...he's finally receiving his due in the form of DJ Screw: A Life in Slow Revolution. -- Jem Aswad * Variety *The sort of history from below that Walker pursues [in DJ Screw], organised around dialogues with Screw's family and friends, and framed by some light touch narration, seems appropriate. This is the story, after all, of a folk hero who rarely left his hometown...and who resided outside the circuits of official culture...As a written form, oral history suits the circumstantial nature of Screw's artistic development too...It's a form that also serves here to dispel some enduring myths, especially the oft repeated function of Screw's sound to a function of intoxication. -- Paul Rekret * The Wire *To have created music so immersive, and sedated to the point of psychedelia, it was assumed [DJ Screw] had to have been out of his mind, operating in his infamous Wood Room home studio on a different time zone to the rest of us. I’ve honestly lost count of the internet posts I’ve read telling me Screw’s music doesn’t make sense unless you listen to it stoned. Yet what’s so great about veteran writer Lance Scott Walker’s long-awaited DJ Screw...is how it demystifies all this, treating its subject less like a mysterious campfire tale and more like a human being...[DJ Screw] is a breezy combination of biography and oral history. -- Thomas Hobbs * Okayplayer *DJ Screw single handedly created a hip-hop culture in Houston. Screw’s invention has inspired superstars like Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and A$AP Rocky. And via interviews from family, friends, and Chopped and Screwed nerds, he finally gets his due. -- Darryl Robertson * Esquire, "Best Music Books of 2022 (So Far)" *[DJ Screw is one] of the best books of this year...[breaks] every rule of the hip hop biography to rewrite them in a way that suggests something new, and more ambitious for the future of rap scholarship. -- Abe Beame * Passion of the Weiss *[A] sprawling story of the man who put Houston rap on the map...In talking to most of the Houston rap world, Walker is able to paint a portrait of the artist that hasn't really been seen before. -- Chris O'Connell * MySA *This book is an absolute powerhouse...Lance Scott Walker delivers a poignant and personal tale that should solidify and codify Screw’s place in the hip-hop pantheon while also never shying away from who he was as a person in everyday life. -- Adam P. Newton * Bearded Gentlemen Music *Walker...manages to harness the flashlike life and career [of DJ Screw] and slow it down to create a clearer representation of a crucial 20th-century artist. Through hundreds of interviews with family, friends and collaborators spanning thousands of hours, Walker presents Screw’s work not as an incredible moment of combustion but rather what the title implies: a slow revolution. -- Andrew Dansby * Houston Chronicle *DJ Screw: A Life in Slow Revolution is an essential book for any hip hop fan. Few artists changed hip hop the way that Screw did, creating a distinct production style that was immediately recognizable and quickly associated with the sound of Houston. As you read this book, you not only get a sense for how that happened and how DJ Screw worked, but you get a sense of how much the greater Houston area latched on to what he was building and made it a part of their identity. It’s a loving and well-researched book that fills in a gap on any hip hop lover’s book shelf. -- Chi Chi Thalken * Scratched Vinyl *[Walker] uses Davis’s story to cobble together the history of Houston hip-hop’s early days...he makes Screw an oral history, rounding up quotes (many from firsthand interviews) from the men and women who were there...Even in death, J Dilla and DJ Screw continue to be two of the most influential figures in hip-hop. And Charnas and Walker use their biographies to remind both diehards and novices why that is — and to give the performers hella flowers in the process. * Los Angeles Review of Books *Walker does scrupulous research in the form of a broad span of interviews with nearly everyone who knew the seminal Houston DJ. -- Jordannah Elizabeth * New York Amsterdam News *[Walker] has made the story of rap in Houston accessible for those who weren’t there to experience it...Walker is discreet, taking up only as much space as necessary to put order to his narratives and leaving the rest for witnesses and participants to fill in. His work is a portrait of a time hard to remember now, even for those of us who lived it...and it deserves a place alongside such classics of American oral history as Please Kill Me, The Other Hollywood, and Meet Me in the Bathroom. -- Adrian Nathan West * The Baffler *Every hip hop fan should know not just DJ Screw’s name, but also the deep influence he had on all of modern music...To get the full story of his extraordinary life, author Lance Scott Walker spoke to childhood friends, collaborators, and rap moguls to paint a picture of just how important he was to not just his community, but music as a whole. * VICE, "The Best Gifts for Every Music Lover" *An amalgam of firsthand accounts from the people closest to DJ Screw, from family and close friends to members of Screwed Up Click (the popular hip hop collective he founded)...While the book’s narrative ultimately ends in tragedy, readers are also exposed to the beauty, brotherhood, generosity, and passion for music that dominated DJ Screw’s life...Told in detailed and intimate language, each person Walker interviews helps personify the kind of man and artist DJ Screw was, no matter what name you might have known him by. -- Shelby Stewart * Houstonia Magazine *

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Book SynopsisBen-Hur (1959), Jaws (1975), Avatar (2009), Wonder Woman (2017): the blockbuster movie has held a dominant position in American popular culture for decades. In American Blockbuster Charles R. Acland charts the origins, impact, and dynamics of this most visible, entertaining, and disparaged cultural form. Acland narrates how blockbusters emerged from Hollywood''s turn to a hit-driven focus during the industry''s business crisis in the 1950s. Movies became bigger, louder, and more spectacular. They also became prototypes for ideas and commodities associated with the future of technology and culture, accelerating the prominence of technological innovation in modern American life. Acland shows that blockbusters continue to be more than just movies; they are industrial strategies and complex cultural machines designed to normalize the ideologies of our technological age.Trade Review“Charles R. Acland has written an astute, masterful genealogy of the film critic's kryptonite: the blockbuster. Bringing clarity to the massive films that hide from scholars in plain view, Acland shows just how complex and unstable ostensibly self-evident genre and trade terms can be. Beyond a film history, this wide-ranging book offers a prototype for multi-modal historiographic method and incisive film analysis in an era of big data and digital humanities. Far more than an origin story, Acland's reverse engineering lays bare the struggles behind the management of Hollywood's blockbuster category, the fabrication of overdone artlessness. A must-read in film and media studies.” -- John Thornton Caldwell, author of * Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film and Television *“No other book traces the emergence of the stabilization of Hollywood's blockbuster strategy as deftly as American Blockbuster. Charles R. Acland's powerful synthesis of historical analysis and cultural theory, along with his assessment of Hollywood's blockbuster economy—and of the studios’ prevailing blockbuster aesthetic—will have a significant impact.” -- Thomas Schatz, author of * The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era *“This is a stunningly insightful and comprehensive study of the blockbuster that contributes new historical, cultural, and critical perspectives on a definitive phenomenon in American cinema. Through impeccable research and lucid writing, Charles R. Acland ultimately shows us how movie blockbusters have functioned to drive and to legitimate the ‘technological exhibitionism’ that lies at the heart not only of the film industry but also of society more broadly, offering a rich assessment of why these films are among the most consequential popular art forms in modern times.” -- Barbara Klinger, Indiana University"A crucial addition to the burgeoning scholarship on contemporary Hollywood cinema, this deeply researched, densely reasoned book explodes a number of well-worn myths about the blockbuster film while advancing a provocative new thesis about its role in modern society. Drawing on a wealth of historical data, Acland demonstrates conclusively that the origins of blockbuster cinema lie not in the 1970s—as critics pointing to the mammoth success of movies like Jaws have often argued—but in the 1950s with the creation of such Hollywood super-productions as Ben-Hur. . . . [T]his landmark book illuminates much about US cinema and culture. Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." -- I. Olney * Choice *"Acland’s intelligent and unexpectedly absorbing book is the origin story of a World War II weapon that became synonymous with a postwar Hollywood economic strategy. . . ." -- Carrie Rickey * Film Quarterly *“American Blockbuster is an important study.... Acland successfully links midcentury Hollywood production history to today’s big budget spectacles and convincingly demonstrates their related appeal to audiences.” -- Richard Ravalli * Business History *"Acland's examination of the blockbuster film reveals much about not only the genre itself, but about the culture that produces and consumes this form of entertainment. For these reasons, and since the blockbuster has long-remained such a vital part of popular culture, Acland's American Blockbuster makes an important contribution to an ongoing dialog about the film category and its cultural impacts." -- Heather Duerre Humann * Journal of Popular Film and Television *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Part I. The Spectacle Industry 1. Blockbuster Ballyhoo 3 2. Industrial Regimes of Entertainment 35 Part II. The Rise of the Blockbuster 3. Delivering Blockbusters 87 4. The Business of Big 124 5. Hollywood's Return 160 6. Cosmopolitan Artlessness 191 Part III. The Technological Sublime of Entertainment Everywhere 7. The End of James Cameron's Quiet Years 233 8. The Technological Heart of Movie Culture 266 Epilogue. Exhausted Entertainment 296 Notes 305 Filmography 337 Bibliography 347 Index

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Book SynopsisIn Bigger Than Life Mary Ann Doane examines how the scalar operations of cinema, especially those of the close-up, disturb and reconfigure the spectator''s sense of place, space, and orientation. Doane traces the history of scalar transformations from early cinema to the contemporary use of digital technology. In the early years of cinema, audiences regarded the monumental close-up, particularly of the face, as grotesque and often horrifying, even as it sought to expose a character''s interiority through its magnification of detail and expression. Today, large-scale technologies such as IMAX and surround sound strive to dissolve the cinematic frame and invade the spectator''s space, “immersing” them in image and sound. The notion of immersion, Doane contends, is symptomatic of a crisis of location in technologically mediated space and a reconceptualization of position, scale, and distance. In this way, cinematic scale and its modes of spatialization and despatializatTrade Review“Matching her earlier, masterful treatment of cinematic time, Mary Ann Doane here offers a brilliant probing of cinematic space. She explores cinema’s dynamic use of scale, from the magnification of the face in close-up to new screen technologies ranging from the iPhone to IMAX. Drawing on a range of film styles and practices, including early cinema, avant-garde experiments, and Shanghai cinema of the 1930s, Doane reveals how cinema has shaped a modern abstract and even dematerialized world.” -- Tom Gunning, Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago“Mary Ann Doane’s highly innovative, theoretically brilliant, and eloquently incisive consideration of the history of the filmic close-up and its relation to scale will undoubtedly make Bigger Than Life a field-changing work.” -- Maggie Hennefeld, author of * Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes *"Bigger Than Life opens with a unique and crucial examination of the history and historiography of the close-up, its conclusion offers a look at cinema in its biggest and most impactful forms, even cinema beyond cinema itself – this is where Doane’s work becomes truly colossal." -- Harrison Whitaker * Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television *"Bigger Than Life’s wide-ranging interrogation of its subject makes for a thrilling and rewarding read. [It] is altogether awe-inspiring and overwhelming in ways appropriate to its subject, constituting an important meditation on the dialogue between new and old media." -- Alicia Byrnes * Film-Philosophy *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: Scale, the Cinematic Image, and the Negotiation of Space 1 Part I. Close-Up/Face 1. The Delirium of a Minimal Unit 29 2. The Cinematic Manufacture of Scale, or Historical Vicissitudes of the Close-Up 53 3. At Face Value 89 Part II. Scale/Screen 4. Screens, Female Faces, and Modernities 135 5. The Location of the Image: Projection, Perspective, and Scale 189 6. The Concept of Immersion: Mediated Space, Media Space, and the Location of the Subject 239 Notes 283 Bibliography 325 Index 343

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Book SynopsisIn Soundscapes of Liberation, Celeste Day Moore traces the popularization of African American music in postwar France, where it signaled new forms of power and protest. Moore surveys a wide range of musical genres, soundscapes, and media: the US military''s wartime records and radio programs; the French record industry''s catalogs of blues, jazz, and R&B recordings; the translations of jazz memoirs; a provincial choir specializing in spirituals; and US State Department-produced radio programs that broadcast jazz and gospel across the French empire. In each of these contexts, individual intermediaries such as educators, producers, writers, and radio deejays imbued African American music with new meaning, value, and political power. Their work resonated among diverse Francophone audiences and transformed the lives and labor of many African American musicians, who found financial and personal success as well as discrimination in France. By showing how the popularity of African AmerTrade Review“Celeste Day Moore takes us on a dazzling and deeply researched tour through the soundscapes and multisensory experiences of the Francophone Black world. Soundscapes of Liberation is indispensable reading for scholars and students of the African Diaspora, liberation projects, and the circulation of music in the twentieth century.” -- Penny M. Von Eschen, author of * Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War *“Celeste Day Moore provides the best account of the process by which African American culture was popularized in postwar France at a time when France was negotiating its relationship to decolonization, American culture, and power writ large. This fascinating and detailed book made me think anew about things I thought I knew well.” -- Daniel Widener, author of * Black Arts West: Culture and Struggle in Postwar Los Angeles *"What Moore describes is not a simple love affair between a music maligned at home and a country destined to embrace it. . . . Navigating broad territories, she moves from an era when African-American music could only be apprehended fragmentarily to the advent of mass broadcasting, long playing records, and the involvement of state powers. Although this history's outlines can feel familiar, it is approached in a fresh way." -- Pierre Crépon * The Wire *"Thoroughly researched, erudite, and well written, this volume is required reading for those who study the African diaspora and African American music. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers." -- F. J. Hay * Choice *"Soundscapes of Liberation is a meticulously, deeply, and broadly, researched work. It is well-written and compelling." -- Brett A. Berliner * Diplomatic History *Table of ContentsAbbreviations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction: Making Soundwaves 1 1. Jazz en Liberté: The US Military and the Soundscapes of Liberation 17 2. Writing Black, Talking Back: Jazz and the Value of African American Identity 43 3. Spinning Race: The French Record Industry and the Production of African American Music 71 4. Speaking in Tongues: The Negro Spiritual and the Circuits of Black Internationalism 103 5. The Voice of America: Radio, Race, and the Sounds of the Cold War 133 6. Liberation Revisited: African American Music and the Postcolonial Landscape 161 Epilogue: Sounding like a Revolution 195 Notes 201 Sources 251 Index 283

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Book SynopsisIn The Williamsburg Avant-Garde Cisco Bradley chronicles the rise and fall of the underground music and art scene in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn between the late 1980s and the early 2010s. Drawing on interviews, archival collections, musical recordings, videos, photos, and other ephemera, Bradley explores the scene’s social, cultural, and economic dynamics. Building on the neighborhood’s punk DIY approach and aesthetic, Williamsburg''s free jazz, postpunk, and noise musicians and groups---from Mary Halvorson, Zs, and Nate Wooley to Matana Roberts, Peter Evans, and Darius Jones---produced shows in a variety of unlicensed venues as well as in clubs and cafes. At the same time, pirate radio station free103point9 and music festivals made Williamsburg an epicenter of New York’s experimental culture. In 2005, New York’s rezoning act devastated the community as gentrification displaced its participants farther afield in Brooklyn and in Queens. WithTrade Review"The Williamsburg Avant-Garde is the most comprehensive study to date of one of the most important music scenes of the past 30-plus years." -- Dave Mandl * The Wire *"Well-researched. . . . Drawing on these first-hand accounts as well as on his access to the personal archives of some of the artists involved, Bradley provides a lively account of the neighborhood’s vital experimental music movement from its underground beginnings in various squats and abandoned industrial sites to its eventual dissolution in the face of rising rents and gentrification." -- Daniel Barbiero * Point of Departure *"One of the most important strengths of The Williamsburg Avant-Garde is that it elaborates with equal care, regardless of idiom or generation, on the intentions, ideas and aesthetic strategies of the highly diverse range of artists who could find a platform there. . . . What makes Bradley’s archeology at the same time so urgently contemporary is that so many of the artists covered are alive and active right now, even if a good number of them may still be underground." -- Patrick Brennan * Arteidolia *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Locating the Williamsburg Avant-Garde 1 Part I. Utopian Spaces for Sound 1. The Emergence of the Williamsburg Scene: Warehouses, Squatter Parties, and Punk Roots, 1988–1994 21 2. Pirate Radio and Jumping the River: The Williamsburg Loft Scene, 1997–2004 55 3. Art Galleries, Clubs, and Bohemian Cafés: The Williamsburg DIY, 2001–2006 100 Part II. Commercial DIY and the Last Underground Venues 4. A Point of Confluence: The Downtown Scene Comes to Zebulon, 2004–2006 145 5. A New Generation Emerges: Zebulon, 2005–2012 189 6. A Fractured Landscape: The Last Avant-Garde Music Spaces of Williamsburg, 2005–2014 228 Afterword. Art, Experiment, and Capital 263 Notes 271 Art Sources for the Williamsburg Avant-Garde 335 Bibliography 343 Index 367

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Book SynopsisIn Curating the Moving Image, influential curator and theorist Mark Nash draws on his work at Documenta11, the Venice Biennale, and elsewhere to explore the possibilities of contemporary curation. Constructing this richly illustrated book as a curatorial project in and of itself, Nash outlines several key concepts that range from exhibition architecture and curating as an affective and artistic practice to post-cold war aesthetics and contemporary Chinese art. Throughout these essays on contemporary art, film, and installation, Nash offers critical commentary and reflection on exhibitions he has curated, including those that focus on socialist and utopian ideals following the end of the Cold War. He also folds curating into a discussion of forms of artistic production that are connected to alternative trajectories of collective and collaborative practice. Ultimately, Nash demonstrates that the art world and contemporary curatorial practice constitute some of the most important tools for social and aesthetic exchange in the twenty-first century.Trade Review"As a well-established pioneer in curatorial studies, Nash provides copious notes and a well-stocked bibliography to enable expansion into this important area of research and scholarship." -- Mike Leggett * Leonardo Reviews *

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Book SynopsisThe Grateful Dead were one of the most successful live acts of the rock era. Performing more than 2,300 shows between 1965 and 1995, the Grateful Dead's reputation as a live band was-and continues to be-sustained by thousands of live concert recordings from every era of the group's long and colorful career. In Live Dead, musicologist John Brackett examines how live recordings-from the group's official releases to fan-produced tapes, bootlegs to Betty Boards, and Dick's Picks to From the Vault-have shaped the general history and popular mythology of the Grateful Dead for more than fifty years. Drawing on a diverse array of materials and documents contained in the Grateful Dead Archive, Live Dead details how live recordings became meaningful among the band and their fans not only as sonic souvenirs of past musical performances but also as expressions of assorted ideals, including notions of liveness, authenticity, and the power of recorded sound.Trade Review“Integrating material from popular, academic, and archival sources, John Brackett writes with the sensibilities of a Deadhead and the rigor of a scholar. As someone who likes her Dead live and prefers to dance to music in person, his perspective resonates with me. As an academic who studies Deadheads, I welcome this thoroughly researched and impeccably documented account of how and why ‘live recordings came to dominate the discourse of the Grateful Dead.’” -- Rebecca G. Adams, University of North Carolina Greensboro, coeditor of * Deadhead Social Science *“As avatars of without-a-net musical improvisation, the Grateful Dead staked out sonic territory that took the importance of live performance to whole new levels. John Brackett does an exceptional job of presenting the history of ‘liveness’ in modern music and then placing the Grateful Dead securely within that tradition.” -- Peter Conners, author of * Cornell '77: The Music, the Myth, and the Magnificence of the Grateful Dead’s Concert at Barton Hall *"Brackett’s measured and thoughtful approach makes this worthwhile reading for both committed Deadheads and those interested in the study of live music." * Publishers Weekly *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction. Becoming Live 1 1. “To Capture That Special Feeling”: Recorded (and Recording) Liveness (The Warner Bros. Years, 1966–1973) 31 2. “The Next Best Thing to Being There”: Tapes, Taping, and an Alternative Aesthetic of Recorded Liveness 61 3. A Time of Reckoning: New Approaches to Producing and Marketing Liveness (The 1980s, Part 1) 85 4. “That Quintessential Spirit of the Band”: “Touch of Grey,” the “Betty Boards,” and the Rebirth of the Dead (The 1980s, Part 2) 105 5. “The Live Feel of a Tape”: From the Vault, Dick’s Picks, and the Language(s) of Liveness 125 6. Post-Dead: “Obstinately Physical,” “Vaporous Cargo,” and the Material Remains of Liveness 152 Conclusion: Memento Mori 169 Notes 177 Bibliography 201 Index 211

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Book SynopsisArgues that the Delmer Daves' work warrants sustained scholarly attention. Examining all of Daves' films, his screenplays, scripts that were not filmed, and personal papers, Douglas Horlock argues that Daves was a serious and enlightened filmmaker whose work confronts the general conservatism of Hollywood in the mid-twentieth century.

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Book SynopsisBertrand Tavernier was widely considered to be the leading light in a generation of French filmmakers who launched their careers in the 1970s. In this collection of interviews he discusses the arc of his career following in the lineage of the Lumiere brothers, in that his goal, like theirs, is to ""show the world to the world.

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Book SynopsisEsther, the Beautiful Queen, was William Bradbury's choral setting of a text based on the biblical Book of Esther. Written for amateur singers, the uncomplicated score became enormously popular. In this volume Juanita Karpf traces the work's rich performance and reception history.Trade ReviewFrom Biblical Book to Musical Megahit is a gratifying exploration of a surprisingly important and durable work in nineteenth-century American musical life." - R. Allen Lott, professor of music history at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary"Clear and imminently readable, From Biblical Book to Musical Megahit is a veritable trove of information, photographs, and music." - Jake Johnson, author of Mormons, Musical Theater, and Belonging in America

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Book SynopsisFrom Gerald Ford''s preemptive pardon of Richard Nixon and Donald Trump''s claims that as president he could pardon himself to the posthumous royal pardon of Alan Turing, the power of the pardon has a powerful hold on the political and cultural imagination. In Theaters of Pardoning, Bernadette Meyler traces the roots of contemporary understandings of pardoning to tragicomic theaters of pardoning in the drama and politics of seventeenth-century England. Shifts in how pardoning was represented on the stage and discussed in political tracts and in Parliament reflected the transition from a more monarchical and judgment-focused form of the concept to an increasingly parliamentary and legislative vision of sovereignty.Meyler shows that on the English stage, individual pardons of revenge subtly transformed into more sweeping pardons of revolution, from Shakespeare''s Measure for Measure, where a series of final pardons interrupts what might otherwise have been a cycleTrade ReviewA valuable contribution to Law and Humanities scholarship and reflection on the future of liberal constitutionalism, Meyler's book cuts to the quick of pardoning practices from seventeenth-century England to contemporary America. Highlighting both the seemingly irresistible draw of pardoning as a theatrical assertion of sovereign power and the revolutionary opportunities latent in the uncoupling of sovereignty from the figure of the sovereign ruler, Meyler pierces the illusion of absolute authority and sets out an alternative Arendtian vision for the state grounded in forgiveness. * The New Rambler *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Theaters of Pardoning 1. Dramatic Judgments: Measure for Measure, Revenge, and the Institution of the Law 2. Emplotting Politics: James I and the "Powder Treason" 3. Non-Sovereign Forgiveness: Mercy among Equals in The Laws of Candy 4. From Sovereignty to the State: The Tragicomic Clemency of Massinger's The Bondman 5. Between Royal Pardons and Acts of Oblivion: The Transitional Justice of Cosmo Manuche and James Compton, Earl of Northampton 6. Pardoning Revolution: The 1660 Act of Oblivion and Hobbes's Recentering of Sovereignty Postlude: Pardoning and Liberal Constitutionalism Appendix A Appendix B Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA sustained engagement with Theodor Adorno, Jazz As Critique looks to jazz for ways of understanding the inadequacies of contemporary life. Adorno's writings on jazz are notoriously dismissive. Nevertheless, Adorno does have faith in the critical potential of some musical traditions. Music, he suggests, can provide insight into the controlling, destructive nature of modern society while offering a glimpse of more empathetic and less violent ways of being together in the world. Taking Adorno down a path he did not go, this book calls attention to an alternative sociality made manifest in jazz. In response to writing that tends to portray it as a mirror of American individualism and democracy, Fumi Okiji makes the case for jazz as a model of "gathering in difference."Noting that this mode of subjectivity emerged in response to the distinctive history of black America, she reveals that the music cannot but call the integrity of the world into question.Trade Review"A lucidly argued, historically grounded, theoretically sophisticated, and timely book, Jazz as Critique redraws our maps of the relationship between black cultures, jazz music, and critical theory." -- Alexander G. Weheliye * Northwestern University *"Fumi Okiji combines a serious understanding of Adorno with a powerful portrayal of the black experience in the United States and melds it all with an encyclopedic knowledge of and respect for the jazz tradition. The world needs a book like this, as much as it needs jazz." -- Martin Shuster * Goucher College *"This important and engagingly written study offers new angles of vision on Adorno's notorious 'jazz critique,' on the nature of the jazz work, and on jazz's utopian promise. Informed both by a judicious reading of Adorno and by considerable jazz literacy, it illuminates the intersections of critical theory, jazz studies, and African American studies." -- Lorenzo C. Simpson * Stony Brook University *"Jazz As Critique serves as an invaluable resource for thinking about the types of listening and conversations that need to take place in order to confront today's outstanding racial injustice and inequalities." -- Alexander K. Rothe, Core Lecturer * Columbia University *"Okiji's book is a rare treat, unexpected in its outcome, and unconventional in its methodological approach." -- James B. Haile III * The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism *"At stake in Okiji's text is not whether Adorno could have changed his mind about jazz but rather whether Black expression can, and should, change its mind about Adorno." -- Mark Christian Thompson * Monatshefte *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1Jazz, Individualism, and the Black Modern chapter abstractThis chapter seeks to establish the socio-historical basis of an alternate subjectivity, a gathering in difference in jazz, in contrast to the claims presented by some commentators—shown to relate more closely to the historical trajectory of the bourgeois. The inattention of both Adorno and jazz critics to the significance of a distinctive black American subject is shown to be a crucial oversight. It is argued that the notion of personal sovereignty (and its loss) must be seen as subordinate to fundamental everyday, often passive, battles between black life and how society tends to define it beyond recognition, the sequela of the dehumanization of African captives. This distinction is crucial to appreciating the manner in which jazz and other black expressive forms contribute to a model of a possible praxis. 2Double Consciousness and the Critical Potential of Black Expression chapter abstractAccording to Adorno, autonomous works of art, by virtue of their peculiar attuned-outsider perspective, are ideally positioned to provide a kind of social critique. Although implicated socio-historically in the advance of techno-rationality—in fact, because they are so implicated—musical works are able, in rearticulating available musical material, to expose the poor state of human relations within late capitalist society. It is essential to consider black expression's attuned-outsiderness within the specific historical and material conditions from which it emerged. These provide an alternative vantage to that of radical music of the European tradition. Resting on Nahum Chandler's illuminating interpretation of W.E.B. Du Bois's ideas concerning double consciousness, this chapter draws to the fore the importance of African America's contradictory nature, the critical character of its obligatory retention of conflicting positions. The chapter culminates in a discussion of jazz syncopation as a manifestation of this. 3Black Dwelling, a Refuge for the Homeless chapter abstractThis chapter frames some key turns of the study's central argument within a universalist inclination in black radical thought and expression. The chapter focuses on the opportunity the disjuncture between blackness and the world presents, and how it allows us to speculate on the broad ethical implications of black living in critical reflection on the world. Black wordlessness and homelessness are put into conversation with Adorno's ethics of resistance, particularly the imploration to not be at home in one's home. It is suggested that an embrace of blackness is a way to give up one's place in the world, and the prerequisite to any utopic future. 4Storytelling, Sound, and Silence chapter abstractThis chapter establishes the aesthetic terms of jazz's social character by showing that the tension between wanting to tell communal stories and doing so with distinction permeates jazz work and tradition. Drawing on Walter Benjamin's "The Storyteller: Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov," on black thought, and on the music itself, a descriptive formulation of collaborative work in jazz is advanced. Storytelling in jazz scholarship has traditionally been associated with the linearity and coherence of the individual solo, with values modeled closely on those of the modern European tradition. The inadequacy of such approaches is discussed. The chapter shows how the elision between sound and sense (an evasion of designation but also a refusal to relinquish meaning) enabled black music to continue to communicate content of social significance, despite being faced with traumas comparable to those that have robbed Benjamin's storytelling community of its ability to communicate experience. 5Postscript: Some Thoughts on the Inadequacy and Indispensability of Jazz Records chapter abstractThe study concludes with a dialectical riffing on the indispensability and the inadequacy of jazz recording as a representative of the music's principles of structuration. It is suggested that jazz recording is destructive, that it congeals and obscured how jazz work is done and compromises the incompletion, partiality, and imperfection encoded the practice. And yet, jazz records are shown to be of crucial importance to the way the tradition has developed, particularly for how it has democratized study and has facilitated inter-generational collaborations while retaining the features of oral tradition. Introduction chapter abstractThis introductory chapter sketches the broad strokes of the argument that unfolds over the course of the book. A recording of the Charles Mingus Sextet at Cornell University anchors the chapter. In it is heard socio-musical work that appears to instantiate Adorno's ideas of art's potential for providing social theory. It prepares the ground for the extended conversation staged between the critical theorist and black thought and expression.

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Book SynopsisIgor Levit ranks among the greatest pianists of his generation, described by The New York Times as ‘one of the essential artists of our time’. But his influence reaches far beyond music: he uses his public platform to speak out against racism, antisemitism and all forms of intolerance and prejudice. Convinced of the duty of the musician to remain an engaged citizen, he is recognized and admired for his willingness to take a stand on some of the great issues of our day, even though it has come at considerable personal cost. When the pandemic broke out and Levit was unable to give live concerts, he switched his piano recitals from concert halls to his living room and gained a huge international following. This book opens a window onto Levit’s life during the 2019–2020 concert season, charting the transition from his whirlwind life of back-to-back live concerts in packed concert halls to the eerie stillness of lockdown and the innovative series of house concerts livestreamed over Twitter. A year in which Levit spoke out against hate and received death threats in response. A year in which he found his voice and found himself – as an artist and as a person.Trade ReviewSelected as one of Richard Fairman’s Best Classical Music Books of 2022 in the Financial Times"Igor Levit is like no other pianist."Alex Ross, The New Yorker"House Concert captures that risky spirit of serendipity, seriousness and joy that defines Igor Levit's music making."Fiona Maddocks, The Observer"absorbing and highly readable… House Concert explores what it is to be a professional musician in the 21st century, and charts Levit’s career from an unknown young pianist to an internationally-acclaimed performer who plays to sold-out houses around the world."Interlude"Few musicians are as bold as (Igor Levit) has been in using the concert platform to speak about issues beyond music. In House Concert he is clear about why he felt compelled to do so, careful to reiterate precisely what he has said – and how he has been misreported – and honest in his admission of missteps. Most compellingly, he and Zinnecker relate his political development to his performing career. For the pianist, and his amanuensis, there is no separating the impulse to play… from the compulsion to call-out bigotry and xenophobia."VoxCarnyx"This absorbing and highly readable book is neither diary nor straightforward artist biography… It not only showcases the remarkable achievements of a charismatic classical musician, it also reveals their anxieties and doubts, strengths and weaknesses, and offers an important snapshot of the difficulties faced by professional musicians in a highly competitive industry riven with convention, power structures and tradition."The Cross-Eyed Pianist"Igor Levit is an original and valuable musician. He follows no leaders, leads no followers, and it is refreshingly impossible to predict what will interest him next."Wall Street Journal"a revealing look into the mind of a thoughtful, searching, driven artist navigating a world in which the old rules of performance have lost their validity. Like a Levit musical performance, this book lingers long after the last note is sounded."Library Journal"revealing,… thought-provoking, unquestionably interesting"Gramophone

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Book SynopsisFrom the young Black teenager who built a bass guitar in woodshop to the musician building a solo career with Motown Records—Prince’s bassist BrownMark on growing up in Minneapolis, joining Prince and The Revolution, and his life in the purple kingdom In the summer of 1981, Mark Brown was a teenager working at a 7-11 store when he wasn’t rehearsing with his high school band, Phantasy. Come fall, Brown, now called BrownMark, was onstage with Prince at the Los Angeles Coliseum, opening for the Rolling Stones in front of 90,000 people. My Life in the Purple Kingdom is BrownMark’s memoir of coming of age in the musical orbit of one of the most visionary artists of his generation. Raw, wry, real, this book takes us from his musical awakening as a boy in Minneapolis to the cold call from Prince at nineteen, from touring the world with The Revolution and performing in Purple Rain to inking his own contract with Motown.BrownMark’s story is that of a hometown kid, living for sunny days when his transistor would pick up KUXL, a solar-powered, shut-down-at-sundown station that was the only one that played R&B music in Minneapolis in 1968. But once he took up the bass guitar—and never looked back—he entered a whole new realm, and, literally at the right hand of Twin Cities musical royalty, he joined the funk revolution that integrated the Minneapolis music scene and catapulted him onto the international stage. BrownMark describes how his funky stylings earned him a reputation (leading to Prince’s call) and how he and Prince first played together at that night’s sudden audition—and never really stopped. He takes us behind the scenes as few can, into the confusing emotional and professional life among the denizens of Paisley Park, and offers a rare, intimate look into music at the heady heights that his childhood self could never have imagined.An inspiring memoir of making it against stacked odds, experiencing extreme highs and lows of success and pain, and breaking racial barriers, My Life in the Purple Kingdom is also the story of a young man learning his craft and honing his skill like any musician, but in a world like no other and in a way that only BrownMark could tell it.Trade Review"A story of low notes and high stakes, of Revolution and of evolution, of bands and fans and best-laid plans, of pills and thrills and daffodils. Hang tough, children, and read it."—Questlove, from the Foreword"This is not a tell-all book. It is simply a candid, honest, heartfelt story about a young kid who goes on to achieve his dream of making it in the music industry, and the price that he pays along the way. It’s an uplifting tale about working with Prince, and it is an enjoyable read that serves as another piece of the puzzle that is Prince."—The Great Song Traveler"This page-turning memoir... will appeal to BrownMark’s fans and general music enthusiasts."—Library Journal"Those looking for a memoir awash in sex, drugs, and the seamier sides of Prince’s private life will instead discover hard work and rigid discipline under a stern taskmaster, an artist who became what he was through minute attention to detail as well as genius. A memoir of vivid detail and understandable ambivalence."—Kirkus Reviews"If you want to get to know Mark Brown, the human, I would say this book is a good way to go."—Insight News"The profound life lessons BrownMark learned while playing in the Revolution, as well as his experiences touring the world with Prince, forever changed his life. And BrownMark proudly carries those memories with him as he continues to blaze new trails while keeping Prince’s legacy alive."—City Pages"Simultaneously poignant and inspiring."—The Arts Fuse"By turns a reflective examination of his own place in the Paisley world over those years and a straight-shooting account of the less beautiful side of Prince’s modus operandi at his commercial zenith."—SoulTracks"An arresting piece of social history, often interesting and original."—Moving the River"Enlightening."—Chicago Review of Books"This memoir could be a real inspiration to someone with dreams."—The Bookworm Sez"My Life in the Purple Kingdom makes it clear anyone who thinks BrownMark was handed phenomenal success at a young age on a platter can think again."—Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder "Seemingly overnight, BrownMark was thrown into an entirely different reality, sharing the stage with The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Sting and more. With Prince & The Revolution, he’d tour the world in one of the most iconic bands in history, perform some the greatest hits in popular music and experience an overwhelming level of fame."—Forbes Magazine Table of ContentsContentsForewordQuestlovePrologueRadio DaysDiscovery YearsChain ReactionsThe Skin I’m InNew Look, New SoundOff to See the WizardPrimping for PrnControversy, SexualityThreshold of a NightmareControversy TourMojo1999The ShadowLet’s Go CrazyThe Carrot and the Hat TrickThe Bitter TasteMoving OnEpilogue

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Book SynopsisThe story of the Minneapolis musicians who were unexpectedly summoned to re-record half of the songs on Bob Dylan's most acclaimed album When Bob Dylan recorded Blood on the Tracks in New York in September 1974, it was a great album. But it was not the album now ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the ten best of all time. “When something’s not right, it’s wrong,” as Dylan puts it in “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”—and something about that original recording led him to a studio in his native Minnesota to re-record five songs, including “Idiot Wind” and “Tangled Up in Blue.” Six Minnesota musicians participated in that two-night recording session at Sound 80, bringing their unique sound to some of Dylan’s best-known songs—only to have their names left off the album and their contribution unacknowledged for more than forty years. This book tells the story of those two nights in Minneapolis, introduces the musicians who gave the album so much of its ultimate form and sound, and describes their decades-long fight for recognition. Blood in the Tracks takes readers behind the scenes with these “mystery” Minnesota musicians: twenty-one-year-old mandolin virtuoso Peter Ostroushko; drummer Bill Berg and bass player Billy Peterson, the house rhythm section at Sound 80; progressive rock keyboardist Gregg Inhofer; guitarist Chris Weber, who owned The Podium guitar shop in Dinkytown; and Kevin Odegard, whose own career as a singer-songwriter had paralleled Dylan’s until he had to take a job as a railroad brakeman to make ends meet. Through in-depth interviews and assiduous research, Paul Metsa and Rick Shefchik trace the twists of fate that brought these musicians together and then set them on different paths in its wake: their musical experiences leading up to the December 1974 recording session, the divergent careers that followed, and the painstaking work required to finally obtain the official credit that they were due. A rare look at the making—or remaking—of an all-time great album, and a long overdue recognition of the musicians who made it happen, Blood in the Tracks brings to life a transformative moment in the history of rock and roll, for the first time in its true context and with its complete cast of players. Trade Review "Beyond the richly detailed account of the Sound 80 sessions, Rick Shefchik and Paul Metsa have crafted a gripping pre-Internet tale of what it took (and still takes) to be a struggling musician. Dylan looms over every page, but for anyone who’s ever given themselves up to a life in music—or loved someone who did—the stories told by the Minnesota Six about gigging, practicing, recording, family life, and all the heartaches and triumphs that come along with the chase are equal parts poignant, romantic, sad, funny, and inspiring. An essential slice of Minnesota music history."—Jim Walsh, songwriter, journalist, and author of Gold Experience: Following Prince in the ’90s "Paul Metsa and Rick Shefchik's biography of a record is like none I've ever read before. The intimate chronicling of the crafting and recording of Blood on the Tracks, from the songs' beginnings in Dylan's spiral notebooks to their shaping in New York and Minnesota, is indeed the life of Bob Dylan's masterpiece. Long may the names of the Minneapolis musicians and Sound 80 staff, some of them garnering a first official credit for their work on the record, be remembered now."—Anne Margaret Daniel, The New School

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Book SynopsisIn 1991, Jean-Luc Nancy''s heart gave out. In one of the first such procedures in France, a stranger''s heart was grafted into his body. Numerous complications followed, including more surgeries and lymphatic cancer. The procedure and illnesses he endured revealed to him, in a more visceral way than most of us ever experience, the strangeness of bodily existence itself and surviving the stranger within him. During this same period, Europe began closing its borders to those seeking refuge from war and poverty. Alarmed at this trend and drawn to a highly intimate form of strangeness with which he had been living for years, Nancy set out in The Intruder to articulate how intrusionwhether of a body or a borderis not antithetical to one's identity but constitutive of it. In 2004, Claire Denis adapted The Intruder into a film already hailed among the most important of our century. This edition includes Nancy's and Denis's accounts of turning philosophy into film

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Book SynopsisBrecht Yearbook 48 features a section on Brecht's and Heiner Müller's engagement with modern living, a group of essays on "Brecht Post-2020," and additional new Brecht research on various topics. The Brecht Yearbook, published on behalf of the International Brecht Society, is the central scholarly forum for the study of Brecht's life and work and of topics relevant to him. Volume 48 opens with an article on the research that informed the 2022 exhibition Brecht's Paper War. The next section examines Brecht's and Heiner Müller's engagement with modern living: from the housing question in the 1920s to the dramaturgical function of furniture to dialectical stage-auditorium configurations in the early GDR. The following section on "Brecht Post-2020" explores dramaturgical approaches to the learning play under pandemic conditions as well as the "spectrological" aspects of Drums in the Night. Additional new research includes essays on the critical edition of Brecht's notebooks, his reception in fascist Italy, the ambivalence of the heroic in his work, the prioritization of political parable over avant-garde aesthetics in Round Heads and Pointed Heads, boxing as inspiration for epic theater, Hegelian aspects of Refugee Conversations and The Measures Taken, and the working alliance of Brecht and Kurt Weill. Edited by Markus Wessendorf. Contributors: Fanti Baum, Luke Beller, Manuel Clancett, Daniel Cuonz, Fritz Hennenberg, Matthew Hines, Alba Knijff, Sophie König, Grischa Meyer, Marie Millutat, Zafiris Nikitas, Cornelia Ortlieb, Matthias Rothe, Kumars Salehi, Francesco Sani, Stephan Strunz, Lara Tarbuk, Raffaella Di Tizio, Julia Weber, Marten Weise, Noah Willumsen, Claus Zittel.Table of ContentsEditorial List of Abbreviations Research for an Exhibition Grischa Meyer (Berlin) Bertolt Brecht's Paper War - Reading Newspapers during Wartime Working with Brecht and Müller: "Dwelling in the Empty Center" Noah Willumsen (Berlin), Sophie König (Berlin), and Marten Weise (Frankfurt am Main) introduction: Leben im Falschen: Wohnen bei Brecht und Müller Stephan Strunz (Dresden) Wider die Deskription: Brecht und der Diskurs des Wohnungselends Lara Tarbuk (Berlin) "Man muss versuchen, sich einzurichten in Deutschland!": Zur Bedeutung der Möbel in Trommeln in der Nacht und Die Hochzeit Marie Millutat (Berlin) Einrichten und Einkleben: Brechts Collagewerkstatt im Exil Cornelia Ortlieb (Berlin) interlude i: Wohnen im Schreiben oder Kein Schreibtisch nirgends Julia Weber (Berlin) interlude ii: "Wohnen in der leeren Mitte": Zu einem Topos aus Heiner Müllers Medeamaterial Luke Beller (Baltimore) "I Can Go Hungry Everywhere": Brecht, Mr. Keuner, and Cosmopolitanism Matthew Hines (Cambridge, UK) Models of Socialist Drama in the Early GDR: The Dialectical Audience and the Spatial Metaphor in The Correction by Inge and Heiner Müller Fanti Baum (Frankfurt am Main) literary essay: Das Einnehmen der Mitte für ihre Freiräumung-eine Wohnfibel gegen das bürgerliche Leben Brecht Post-2020: Part 2-Pandemic Learning Plays and the Logic of the Specter Francesco Sani (Leicester) The Lehrstück as a Digital Space for Dialectics: Robinson Crusoe on His Deserted Island (2021) Zafiris Nikitas (Thessaloniki) Brechtian Future(s): Life of Galileo as a Pandemic Lehrstück Alba Knijff (Barcelona) Structural Undecidability and the Logic of the Specter in Bertolt Brecht's Drums in the Night New Brecht Research Claus Zittel (Stuttgart) Im Dickicht der Texte: Brechts Nachlass im Lichte der neuen kritischen Edition seiner Notizbücher Raffaella Di Tizio (Rome) Brecht's Reception in Italy at the Time of Fascism Daniel Cuonz (St. Gallen) Unglücklich der Held, dessen Land ihn nötig hat: Zur Ambivalenz des Heroischen bei Bertolt Brecht und zu ihrer Aktualität Matthias Rothe (Minneapolis) Round Heads and Pointed Heads and the End of Avantgarde Manuel Clancett (Lüneburg) Feine Raufereien. Brecht und die Evidenz des Boxens Kumars Salehi (Canton, NY) Too Dialectical by Half: Brecht as a Reader of Hegel Fritz Hennenberg (Leipzig) Hier Brecht-dort Weill: Bedeutung und Deutung eines Arbeitsbunds Book Reviews Patrick Eiden-Offe (Berlin) Georg Lukács. Texte zum Theater. Hrsg. von Jakob Hayner und Erik Zielke Anja Hartl (Innsbruck) Susanne Schmieden. Paradoxa über Politik und Theater: Zur Bedeutung der Gegenmeinung bei Denis Diderot und Bertolt Brecht Fadi Skeiker (Philadelphia) Sonja Mejcher-Atassi and Robert Myers (eds.). The Theatre of Sa'dallah Wannous: A Critical Study of the Syrian Playwright and Public Intellectual Joseph Prestwich (Cambridge, UK) Anja Hartl. Brecht and Post-1990s British Drama: Dialectical Theatre Today Ramona Mosse (Zurich) Martin Revermann. Brecht and Tragedy: Radicalism, Traditionalism, Eristics Notes on the Contributors

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Book SynopsisThe Biographic series presents an entirely new way of looking at the lives of the world's greatest thinkers and creatives. It takes the 50 defining facts, dates, thoughts, habits and achievements of each subject, and uses infographics to convey all of them in vivid snapshots. Each Biographic title is designed to be as entertaining as it is informative. Timelines not only pinpoint significant dates, but set them in the context and culture of their times. Dynamic maps locate biographical events alongside other points of interest. Character traits are illuminated by visual comparisons. Many people know that David Bowie (1947–2016) was an iconic singer, songwriter and actor, whose lyrics, performances and ever-changing persona were at the heart of pop culture for over five decades. What, perhaps, they don't know is that he smoked 80 cigarettes a day, acted in 27 films, sold over 140 million albums and once shared a Berlin apartment with Iggy Pop. Biographic: Bowie presents an instant impression of his life, work and fame, with an array of irresistible facts and figures converted into infographics to reveal the artist behind the music.

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Book SynopsisMost people know that Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) was a Hollywood movie star and world famous fashion icon. What, perhaps, they don't know is that she is one of a few select people to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony; that she could speak five different languages; that she owned a pet deer named Pippin; and that she broke her back after being thrown off her horse during the filming of Unforgiven. Biographic: Audrey presents an instant impression of her life, work and legacy, with an array of irresistible facts and figures converted into infographics to reveal the actor behind the movies.

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Book SynopsisMost people know that Prince (1958--2016) was an iconic singer-songwriter whose creative brilliance transformed music for more than four decades. What, perhaps, they don't know is that his real name actually was Prince; that he once simultaneously held the number one spots in the US for film, single, and album; that he has a back catalogue of more than 600 songs, many of which he wrote for other people, including Madonna and Alicia Keys; and that he performed at the wedding of Star Wars director George Lucas. Biographic Prince presents an instant impression of his life, work and legacy, with an array of irresistible facts and figures converted into infographics to reveal the musician behind the music.

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Book SynopsisMost people know that ABBA (1972-1982) were a Swedish band who became one of the world's most successful pop groups after winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with their song "Waterloo." What, perhaps, they don't know is that they have sold more than 380 million albums and singles; that their name was chosen through a newspaper competition, where alternatives included Alibaba, FABB, and Baba; that their royalties from the Soviet Union were so big they had to be paid in oil rights; and that 3.5 million people applied for tickets to see ABBA at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1977. Biographic ABBA presents an instant impression of their life, work, and legacy, with an array of irresistible facts and figures converted into infographics to reveal the musicians behind the music.

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Book SynopsisCovering Brahms's 32 song opuses published during four decades of song-writing, this book offers a way of understanding what Brahms believed to be the right poetic basis for his immortal music. Johannes Brahms's much-loved solo songs continue to be enjoyed in recordings and on recital stages all over the world. This book provides a wealth of information on the poets whose words he set, many of whom are still unfamiliar.A substantial introduction explores the multiple meanings song-poetry held for Brahms and challenges the widely held opinion that he responded only to the general mood of a poem. It is followed by alphabetically organised essays on the forty-six poets whose verses he set. Each summarises the settings, Brahms's links to the poet, interconnections between the poets, and offers further context situating the poet within a wider literary, cultural and political landscape. The poets are revealed to be part of a deeply collegial cultural community of which Brahms was an active part. Covering Brahms's 32 song opuses published during four decades of song-writing, this book offers a way of understanding what Brahms believed to be the right poetic basis for his immortal music. It is designed to be an essential reference tool for students and scholars of Johannes Brahms, as well as performers and lovers of his songs.Trade ReviewLoges's book looks set to become the definitive volume on [on Brahms's songs] for years to come...Loges's range of reference and attention to detail is impressive and her introduction neatly contextualises Brahms's reading habits while stressing the collaborative nature of song composition and performance. * FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE *[O]ffers a long-awaited, comprehensive guide to to the poets and literature related to Brahms's solo Lieder. . . . [E]nsures that future research will acknowledge the care and depth of reading that Brahms lavished on literature throughout his life. . . .[A] remarkable scholarly achievement and a wonderful reference book for scholars and performers. * AMERICAN BRAHMS SOCIETY NEWSLETTER *An extremely useful and endlessly fascinating book, which should be an invaluable volume for performers and listeners alike. * GRAMOPHONE *Turn to any one of these entries and your understanding of why and how Brahms set a particular text will be deepened many times over...the book's value to interpreters as well to the much wider community of Lieder-lovers cannot be overestimated - it will surely be regarded as an indispensable resource, but can also be dipped into for pleasure as well as information and insight. Five Stars. * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *The publication of Natasha Loges's book Brahms and His Poets: A Handbook offers a long-awaited, comprehensive guide to the poets and literature related to Brahms's solo Lieder. This volume has surely been anticipated by scholars and performers of this repertoire alike.... Loges's compendium is a remarkable scholarly achievement and a wonderful reference book for scholars and performers that will surely be welcomed by the Brahms community. Whether readers study the entire volume or occasionally dip into this rich resource, they will undoubtedly be rewarded and inspired by the depth of meaning that Loges finds in personal relationships that shaped the lives of Brahms and his poets, as well as in their collective production of literature and songs. -- Loretta Terrigno * American Brahms Society Newsletter *

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Book SynopsisFirst full comprehensive guide to one of the most important genres of music in the Middle Ages. Motets constitute the most important polyphonic genre of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Moreover, these compositions are intrinsically involved in the early development of polyphony. This volume - the first to be devotedexclusively to medieval motets - aims to provide a comprehensive guide to them, from a number of different disciplines and perspectives. It addresses crucial matters such as how the motet developed; the rich interplay of musical,poetic, and intertextual modes of meaning specific to the genre; and the changing social and historical circumstances surrounding motets in medieval France, England, and Italy. It also seeks to question many traditional assumptions and received opinions in the area. The first part of the book considers core concepts in motet scholarship: issues of genre, relationships between the motet and other musico-poetic forms, tenor organization, isorhythm, notational development, social functions, and manuscript layout. This is followed by a series of individual case studies which look in detail at a variety of specific pieces, compositional techniques, collections, and subgenres.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Approaching Medieval Motets - Jared C. Hartt The Genre(s) of Medieval Motets - Elizabeth Eva Leach Origins and Interactions: Clausula, Motet, Conductus - Catherine Bradley Tracing the Tenor in Medieval Motets - Alice V. Clark Isorhythm - Lawrence Earp Notations - Karen Desmond Thirteenth-Century Motet Functions: Views through the Lens of the Portare Motet Family - Dolores Pesce A Prism of its Time: Social Functions of the Motet in Fourteenth-Century France - Jacques Boogaart Motets, Manuscript Culture, Mise-en-page - John Haines and Stefan Udell Clerics, Courtiers, and the Vernacular Two-Voice Motet: The Case of Fines amouretes/Fiat and the Roman de la poire - Jennifer Saltzstein When Words Converge and Meanings Diverge: Counterexamples to Polytextuality in the Thirteenth-Century Motet - Suzannah Clark Motets in Chansonniers and the Other Culture of the French Thirteenth-Century Motet - Gaël Saint-Cricq Building a Motet around Quoted Material: Textual and Muscial Structure in Motets Based on Monophonic Songs - Matthew P. Thomson The Duet Motet in England: Genre, Tonal Coherence, Reconstruction - Jared C. Hartt Materia Matters: Reconstructing Colla/Bona - Anna Zayaruznaya Machaut's Motet 10 and its Interconnections - Margaret Bent A Motet Conceived in Troubled Times: Machaut's Motet 22 - Sarah Fuller A Motet Ahead of its Time? The Curious Case of Portio nature/Ida capillorum - Emily Zazulia Bibliography of Works Cited

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Book SynopsisTraces the position, experiences and reception of women in Irish traditional music through detailed ethnographic and statistical findings.This book is the first of its kind to engage in the larger subject of women in commercial Irish traditional music. It considers the experiences of performers in the various commercial arenas of the tradition, while also engaging in critical discussions of choice, agency, feminism and sexualisation. It reveals how the commercial music industry and Celtic music label continues to place women within a stereotypical idealised role or occupation.The book provides new insight into the legacy of women-led bands and compilations as well as their impact on Irish traditional music over five decades. Its findings on commercial dance shows are equally significant. While these shows had a positive impact on performers, at the same time they enforced gendered, racial and heteronormative expectations. Drawing on extensive ethnographic and statistical research, the book finds strong evidence that women and other marginalised practitioners continue to face greater challenges and different expectations when maintaining a professional career and participating in Irish traditional music. It also uncovers characteristics and dynamics related to the recreational and commercial spaces of the Irish traditional music and Irish dance scene that enable harmful and predatory behaviour. The author's findings support understandings and aid future legislation for creating a safe, inclusive and equitable performance space for all.Cover artwork by Claire Prouvost

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