New York Times bestselling Music Is History combines Questlove’s deep musical expertise with his curiosity about history, examining America over the past fifty years—now in paperback
Focusing on the years 1971 to the present, Questlove finds the hidden connections in the American tapes, whether investigating how the blaxploitation era reshaped Black identity or considering the way disco took an assembly-line approach...

"Every great song has a fascinating backstory. In Anatomy of a Song, based on the ongoing Wall Street Journal column, writer and music historian Marc Myers brings to life five decades of music through oral histories of forty-five transformative songs woven from interviews with the artists who created them. Bringing readers inside the making of a hit, Anatomy of a Song includes the Isley Brothers' memorable song "Shout," Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta...

Music has always played an important part in American life--from the hymns sung in colonial days, to partisan songs that supported independence, and war songs that boosted morale. Immigration, westward movement and industrialization all helped contribute to America's musical archives. This outstanding collection of 100 all-time favorite songs offers an unbeatable combination: the music and lyrics of well-known tunes in easy-to-sing keys, together...

Drawing on the insights of artists such as Chuck D, Ani DiFranco, and Michael Franti, Money for Nothing documents how musical and artistic expression have been severely curtailed by a new world business order in which six huge media conglomerates control virtually the entire music industry.

From the age of song sheets in the late nineteenth century to the contemporary era of digital streaming, pop music has been our most influential laboratory for social and aesthetic experimentation, changing the world three minutes at a time. Hajdu shows how pop has done much more than peddle fantasies of love and sex to teenagers. Exhaustively researched and rich with fresh insights, Love for Sale details pop music from Eva Tanguay, who upended Victorian...