Music : Rock

From geeks in short pants to multiplatinum artists, Barenaked Ladies are nothing less than a phenomenon. Now, for the first time in the United States, we can read their astonishing story. Steven, Ed, Jim, Tyler, and Kevin have two Grammy nominations under their belts, they've appeared on The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live, and their music is featured in commercials. They've even preempted the Olympics and rocked the vote on The West Wing. Their quirky, bizarre lyrics and unforgettable live performances have secured a rabidly loyal fan base across North America. They are Barenaked Ladies. more...

Price: $11.99

This guide examines the growth of Bruce Springsteen’s career, from the optimistic youth who wrote Born To Run to the respected heavyweight songwriter of today. Collaborations and side projects, and the work of band members away from E Street are also detailed and rated. more...

Price: $7.99

Presents an analysis of cyberculture and its popular cultural productions. This work begins with a Foucaultian model of cyberculture as a discursive formation, and explains how some key concepts (such as virtuality, speed, and connectivity) operate as a conceptual architecture network linking technologies to information and individual subjects. more...

Price: $95.00

Rock 'n' roll music in all of its forms has had as profound an effect on American culture as any art form ever. Its impact on the 1960s helped to end the war in Vietnam, and assuage the guilt of that war on the American psyche. In this highly original and engaging book, respected music journalist Mark Kemp shows how rock music helped a generation of Southerners finally come to grips with its past. He masterfully blends his own background growing up in the South with the stories of the Allman Brothers, REM, and many other musicians into a seamless narrative. As kids Kemp and his friends listened to rock from England, from LA, from New York, not realizing until later that these white musicians in Europe and the United States were incorporating into their own music the rhythms and styles of black blues masters from Kemp's part of the world, men such as Robert Johnson, Willie Dixon, and Chuck Berry. The musical influence came full circle when white Southerners like the Allman Brothers, the Charlie Daniels Band, and Lynyrd Skynyrd started playing rock 'n' roll. Kemp argues that the music and the sense of community derived from these bands (and many others, like R.E.M., the B-52s, and the Dave Matthews Band) have helped heal the racial guilt experienced by many white people who came of age in the 1970s and 80s in the South. Kemp describes his youthful ambivalence about his home: "I loved the land that surrounded me but hated the history that haunted that land." Southern rock from the 1960s through the present has offered a different identity than the pervasive shame that many white Southerners grew up with. Mark Kemp has written a book that will get major attention for both its strong writing and fascinating thesis, a book of enduring power that could rank among the best music books of all time. more...

Price: $17.99

Examines the life and times of Jerry Garcia, capturing the psychedelic world of the musician and songwriter, his relationship with members of the Grateful Dead, his battle with drug addiction, and his lasting influence on popular music. more...

Price: $15.95