Photo Nathan Bingle / Unsplash
How music works
Former Talking Heads rock band leader David Byrne talks about the “inner kitchen” of contemporary music. The author builds the story based on his own experience. At the same time, he reinforces the research of scientists. This book is not a memoir, but many chapters are devoted to Byrne's memoirs and his collaboration with other musicians - for example, the British composer Brian Eno and the Brazilian performer Cayetan Veloso .
Most of the publication nevertheless tells the story of audio carriers and the music market. How Music Works will be interesting for those who want to look at the music business from the inside, to understand the laws by which this market lives. And, of course, to fans of Talking Heads.
“Please kill me!”
This is a kind of collection of interviews with those who influenced the formation of American punk culture. The story begins with the founding of Velvet Underground in 1964 and ends with the death of New York Dolls drummer Jerry Nolan in 1992.
In the book you will find the memories of the author - Legs McNeil - one of the founders of Punk magazine, an interview with Iggy Pop, poetry Patti Smith, Ramones, Sex Pistols and other punk rock musicians. It is interesting that some of the materials from “Please Kill Me!” Formed the basis of the film “ CBGB Club ”, which tells the story of the legendary New York club - the founder of underground punk.
Photo Florentine Pautet / Unsplash
“Retromania. Pop culture captured by its own past "
The author of the book is journalist and music critic Simon Reynolds . He talks about the phenomenon of “retro-mania” - according to Reynolds, pop culture is obsessed with its own past. The author notes that since the beginning of the 2000s, fresh genres and ideas have not appeared in music. All that Western pop musicians do is rethink past experiences. He proves his point of view by analyzing social phenomena and historical events.
The book will be interesting to those who want to know the history of music and pop culture in particular. The book has many links to music and video platforms. Therefore, the book is recommended to be read twice: the first time just for review, and the second - together with YouTube.
“Half an hour of music: how to understand and love the classics”
Material for those who have not had time to fall in love with the classics. Its author is Lyalya Kandaurova, violinist and music popularizer: she leads several copyrighted music courses and a column in the magazine Seasons of life. Each chapter of the book is a story about a specific classical work or composer. The list includes Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Schubert and many others. In general, the author was able to systematize the 600-year history of Western European music. There are QR codes in the text - with their help you can listen to the compositions referred to in the text.
Photo Alberto Bigoni / Unsplash
“How music became free”
If you want to know more about digital music piracy, the book by Stephen Witt, an American journalist, is perfect. This is a dramatic story about how technology has influenced the music market. The author begins his story with the advent of the MP3 format, and then transfers readers to the CD manufacturing plant in North Carolina, where one of the employees "leaked" more than 2 thousand albums. Witt will also talk about the life of pirate gangs on the darknet. “How music became free” was written in a simple and fascinating language, as a result of which it reminds a detective novel more than non-fixation.
Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop
The book does not have a translation into Russian, but this is not required. Contact High is a photobook that tells the forty-year history of hip-hop from the perspective of sixty photographers. It presents pictures of musicians from the late seventies to the end of the zero.
The author of the project is Vikki Tobak, an American journalist from Kazakhstan who started with an Instagram account in 2016. But a year later, his work was shown at the Photoville exhibition in Brooklyn and published as a book. Under the cover you can find photos of Tupac Shakur, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Eminem and other famous artists. The book was included in the "25 best photo books of 2018" according to Time magazine.
Other selections from our Hi-Fi World blog:
Sounds for UI: A Compilation of Themed Resources
Where to get audio samples for your projects: a selection of nine thematic resources
Music for your projects: 12 thematic resources with Creative Commons tracks
Interesting about sound and music:
“Bitchy Betty” and modern audio interfaces: why do they speak in a female voice?
“Everything you read will be used against you”: how rap music got into the courtroom
What is music programming - who does it and arranges live sessions