The Virgin Encyclopedia of Indie & New Wave

The Virgin Encyclopedia of Indie & New Wave
Author: Colin Larkin
Publisher: Virgin Books Limited
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1998
Genre: Alternative rock music
ISBN: 9780753502310

This is a complete handbook of information and opinion about the development of indie and new wave music. Based on the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, the book contains over 1400 entries covering musicians, bands, songwriters, producers and record labels which have made a significant impact on the development of indie and new wave music and traces the emergence of the original punk and garage acts like the Sex Pistols and the Ramones. The encyclopaedia also covers more recent bands such as the Foo Fighters and Oasis as well as cult artists like The Pastels and The Cocteau Twins. Each entry offers information such as dates, career facts, discography and album ratings.

The Virgin Encyclopedia of The Blues

The Virgin Encyclopedia of The Blues
Author: Colin Larkin
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 726
Release: 2013-09-30
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1448132746

The Virgin Encyclopaedia of the Blues is a complete handbook of information and opinion about the history of the most classically simple, enduring and inspiring genre in the history of popular music. All entries have been created from the massive database of The Encyclopaedia of Popular Music, which has swiftly and firmly established itself as the undisputed champion of contemporary music reference books. Brand new research ensures that the 1000 entries are bang up-to-date and cover everyone - the musicians, bands, songwriters, producers and record labels - who has made a significant impact on the development of the blues. It brings together pioneers like Robert Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson, the influence of Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon on the blues boom of the 1960s, and the most recent blues resurgence featuring Keb'Mo, Larry Garner and Jonny Lang. As well as the giants of the blues, this encyclopaedia has the range and depth to include performers who flew the blues flag during fallow periods, the 1980s band Roomful of Blues for example, or acts like Paul Butterfield, Chicken Shack, Stevie Ray Vaughan, who took the music to a wider, whiter, audience. Some blues musicians, including John Lee Hooker and Taj Mahal, seem to last forever. Others simply defined the genre, like Lead Belly, Bessie Smith and Howlin' Wolf. Whomever you remember or want to know more about, each entry gives the essential elements - dates, career facts, discography and album ratings - as well as a sense of context, striking a balance between the extremes of the self-opinionated and the bland.

The Virgin Encyclopedia of R&B and Soul

The Virgin Encyclopedia of R&B and Soul
Author: Colin Larkin
Publisher: Virgin Books Limited
Total Pages: 420
Release: 1998
Genre: Music
ISBN:

This is a complete handbook of information and opinion about the history of R&B and soul music. Based on the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, the book contains over 1000 entries covering musicians, bands, songwriters, producers and record labels which have made a significant impact on the development of R&B and soul music. It brings together people such as Otis Reading and Aretha Franklin with the great Philly groups of the 1970s, the mainstream soul of Will Downing and Anita Baker and the modern generation of artists such as Mary J. Blige, Babyface and Toni Braxton. As well as headline acts, the book also covers performers who flourished briefly. Each entry offers information such as dates, career facts, discography and album ratings.

The Popular Music Teaching Handbook

The Popular Music Teaching Handbook
Author: B. Lee Cooper
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2004-04-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0313072728

The function of print resources as instructional guides and descriptors of popular music pedagogy are addressed in this concise volume. Increasingly, public school teachers and college-level faculty members are introducing and utilizing music-related educational approaches in their classrooms. This book lists reports dealing with popular music resources as classroom teaching materials, and will stimulate further thought among students and teachers. It focuses on the growing spectrum of published scholarship available to instructors in specific teaching fields (art, geography, social studies, urban studies, and so on) as well as on the multitude of general resources (including biographical directories and encyclopedias of artist profiles). Building on two recent publications: Teaching with Popular Music Resources: A Bibliography of Interdisciplinary Instructional Approaches, Popular Music and Society, XXII, no. 2 (Summer 1998), and American Culture Interpreted through Popular Music: Interdisciplinary Teaching Approaches (Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 2000), this volume focuses on the growing spectrum of published scholarship that is available to instructors in specific teaching fields (art, geography, social studies, urban studies, and so on) as well as on the multitude of general resources (including biographical directories and encyclopedias of artist profiles).

The Virgin Encyclopedia of Country Music

The Virgin Encyclopedia of Country Music
Author: Colin Larkin
Publisher: Virgin Books Limited
Total Pages: 520
Release: 1998
Genre: Music
ISBN:

This is a complete handbook of information and opinion about the history of country music. Based on the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, the book contains over 1000 entries covering musicians, bands, songwriters, producers and record labels which have made a significant impact on the development of country music. It brings together people such as Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks and Jimmie Rogers and the influence of Patsy Cline and Hank Williams and more recent figures such as Mary-Chapin Carpenter and LeAnn Rimes. Each entry offers information such as dates, career facts, discography and album ratings.

The Virgin Encyclopedia of Dance Music

The Virgin Encyclopedia of Dance Music
Author: Colin Larkin
Publisher: Virgin Books Limited
Total Pages: 388
Release: 1998
Genre: Music
ISBN:

The bands, producers, labels and remixers of the diverse dance music culture are listed here in this reference book. Dates, career facts, discographies and star ratings are given, along with considered opinion on the prime movers and shakers in the business.

The Virgin Encyclopedia of Stage and Film Musicals

The Virgin Encyclopedia of Stage and Film Musicals
Author: Colin Larkin
Publisher: Virgin Books
Total Pages: 688
Release: 1999
Genre: Music
ISBN:

A guide to the greatest shows and films in the history of the musical, as well as their stars, lyricists and composers. Over 1600 entries provide facts, figures and critical opinion on all aspects of the field.

Flickering Light

Flickering Light
Author: Christoph Ribbat
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2013-07-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 178023127X

Without neon, Las Vegas might still be a sleepy desert town in Nevada and Times Square merely another busy intersection in New York City. Transformed by the installation of these brightly colored signs, these destinations are now world-famous, representing the vibrant heart of popular culture. But for some, neon lighting represents the worst of commercialism. Energized by the conflicting love and hatred people have for neon, Flickering Light explores its technological and intellectual history, from the discovery of the noble gas in late nineteenth-century London to its fading popularity today. Christoph Ribbat follows writers, artists, and musicians—from cultural critic Theodor Adorno, British rock band the Verve, and artist Tracey Emin to Vladimir Nabokov, Langston Hughes, and American country singers—through the neon cities in Europe, America, and Asia, demonstrating how they turned these blinking lights and letters into metaphors of the modern era. He examines how gifted craftsmen carefully sculpted neon advertisements, introducing elegance to modern metropolises during neon’s heyday between the wars followed by its subsequent popularity in Las Vegas during the 1950s and '60s. Ribbat ends with a melancholy discussion of neon’s decline, describing how these glowing signs and installations came to be seen as dated and characteristic of run-down neighborhoods. From elaborate neon lighting displays to neglected diner signs with unlit letters, Flickering Light tells the engrossing story of how a glowing tube of gas took over the world—and faded almost as quickly as it arrived.