The Power of Music

Updated April 25, 2024
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How music works : the science and psychology of beautiful sounds, from Beethoven to the Beatles and beyond
Powell, John
Paper Book
"Any readers whose love of music has somehow not led them to explore the technical side before will surely find the result a thoroughly accessible, and occasionally revelatory, primer."--Seattle Post-Intelligencer What makes a musical note different from...
Renegades : born in the USA : dreams, myths, music
Springsteen, Bruce
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Two longtime friends share an intimate and urgent conversation about life, music, and their enduring love of America, with all its challenges and contradictions, in this stunningly produced expansion of their groundbreaking Higher Ground podcast, featuring more...
Music, math, and mind : the physics and neuroscience of music
Soldier, Dave
Paper Book
Why does a clarinet play at lower pitches than a flute? What does it mean for sounds to be in or out of tune? How are emotions carried by music? Do other animals perceive sound like we do? How might a musician use math to come up with new ideas? This book offers a lively exploration of...
Music and mind in everyday life
Clarke, Eric F.
Paper Book
Music pervades everyday life - in homes, on trains and planes, in cars and shops, at births and deaths, at weddings and war, in concert halls, clubs, stadiums, and fields. In so many ways, music marks and orchestrates the ways in which people experience the world together. What is it that makes...
Disney's land : Walt Disney and the invention of the amusement park that changed the world
Snow, Richard
Paper Book
A propulsive history chronicling the conception and creation of Disneyland, the masterpiece California theme park, as told like never before by popular historian Richard Snow. One day in the early 1950s, Walt Disney stood looking over 240 acres of farmland in Anaheim, California,...
Hip-hop (and other things) : a collection of questions asked, answered, illustrated
Serrano, Shea
Paper Book
HIP-HOP (AND OTHER THINGS) is about, as it were, rap, but also some other things. It's a smart, fun, funny, insightful book that spends the entirety of its time celebrating what has become the most dominant form of music these past two and a half decades. Tupac is in there. Jay Z is in...
Leon Russell : the master of space and time's journey through rock & roll history
Janovitz, Bill
Paper Book
The definitive New York Times bestselling biography of legendary musician, composer, and performer Leon Russell, who profoudly influenced George Harrison, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty, and the world of music as a whole.  ...
Split decision : life stories
Ice-T (Musician)
Paper Book
Award-winning actor, rapper, and producer Ice-T unveils a compelling and astonishing memoir of his early life robbing jewelry stores until he found fame and fortune--while a handful of bad choices sent his former crime partner down an incredibly different path. Ice-T rose to fame...
The storyteller : tales of life and music
Grohl, David
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times Bestseller * Named one of Variety's Best Music Books of 2021 * Included in Audible's Best of The Year list * A Business Insider Best Memoirs of 2021 * One of NME's Best Music Books of 2021 So, I've written a book. Having entertained the...
The healing power of hip hop
Travis, Raphael
Paper Book
Using the latest research, real-world examples, and a new theory of healthy development, this book explains Hip Hop culture's ongoing role in helping Black youths to live long, healthy, and productive lives. In The Healing Power of Hip Hop, Raphael Travis Jr. offers a passionate look...
The sounds of latinidad : immigrants making music and creating culture in a southern city
Byrd, Samuel K.
Paper Book
The Sounds of Latinidad explores the Latino music scene as a lens through which to understand changing ideas about latinidad in the New South. Focusing on Latino immigrant musicians and their fans in Charlotte, North Carolina, the volume shows how limited economic mobility, social marginalization...
Music as social life : the politics of participation
Turino, Thomas.
Paper Book
People around the world and throughout history have used music to express their inner emotions, reach out to the divine, woo lovers, celebrate weddings, inspire political movements, and lull babies to sleep. In Music as Social Life, Thomas Turino explores why it is that music and dance are so...
Ska : the rhythm of liberation
Augustyn, Heather
Paper Book
Like other major music genres, ska reflects, reveals, and reacts to the genesis and migration from its Afro-Caribbean roots and colonial origins to the shores of England and back across the Atlantic to the United States. Without ska music, there would be no reggae or Bob Marley, no British punk and...
Let's rock! : how 1950s America created Elvis and the rock & roll craze
Aquila, Richard
Paper Book
Rock & roll was one of the most important cultural developments in post-World War II America, yet its origins are shrouded in myth and legend. Let's Rock reclaims the lost history of rock & roll. Based on years of research, as well as interviews with Bo Diddley, Pat Boone, and other rock & roll...
Move on up : Chicago soul music and black cultural power
Cohen, Aaron (Writer on music)
Paper Book
A Chicago Tribune Book of 2019, Notable Chicago Reads A Booklist Top 10 Arts Book of 2019 A No Depression Top Music Book of 2019 Curtis Mayfield. The Chi-Lites. Chaka Khan. Chicago's...
The record players : DJ revolutionaries
Brewster, Bill.
Paper Book
Acclaimed authors and music historians Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton have spent years traveling across the world to interview the revolutionary and outrageous DJs who shaped the last half-century of pop music. The Record Players is the fun and revealing result--a collection of...
In the heart of the beat : the poetry of rap
Pate, Alexs D.
Paper Book
Despite its extraordinary popularity and worldwide influence, the world of rap and hip hop is under constant attack. Impressions and interpretations of its meaning and power are perpetually being challenged. Somewhere someone is bemoaning the negative impact of rap music on contemporary culture. In...
Vinyl freak : love letters to a dying medium
Corbett, John
Paper Book
From scouring flea markets and eBay to maxing out their credit cards, record collectors will do just about anything to score a long-sought-after album. In Vinyl Freak, music writer, curator, and collector John Corbett burrows deep inside the record fiend's mind, documenting and...
How music got free : the end of an industry, the turn of the century, and the patient zero of piracy
Witt, Stephen
Paper Book
* Named one of Time magazine's Best Books of 2015 So Far * "[How Music Got Free] has the clear writing and brisk reportorial acumen of a Michael Lewis book."--Dwight Garner, The New York Times What happens when an entire generation commits the same...
Shine bright : a very personal history of black women in pop
Smith, Danyel
Paper Book
American pop music is arguably this country's greatest cultural contribution to the world, and its singular voice and virtuosity were created by a shining thread of Black women geniuses stretching back to the country's founding. This is their surprising, heartbreaking, soaring story--from ...
The house of hidden meanings : a memoir
RuPaul
Paper Book
***An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller!*** From international drag superstar and pop culture icon RuPaul, comes his most revealing and personal work to date--a deeply intimate memoir of discovery, found family, and self-acceptance. The House of Hidden Meanings is a self-portrait of the...

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