Embark on a captivating journey through the colorful world of pop music with 'Pop Explorations: A Beginner's Guide to the World of Popular Music.' From the foot-tapping rhythms of classic hits to the chart-topping anthems of today, this comprehensive guide illuminates the history, evolution, and cultural significance of pop music. Delve into the lives of legendary icons like The Beatles and Madonna, and discover the diverse subgenres shaping the modern musical landscape. Uncover the secrets of songwriting, production techniques, and the business behind the beats, as you immerse yourself in the melodies that define generations. Whether you're a curious newcomer or a seasoned enthusiast, 'Pop Explorations' invites you to embrace the rhythm, the melody, and the magic of pop music.

This four-volume work provides provocative critical analyses of 160 of the best popular music albums of the past 50 years, from the well-known and mainstream to the quirky and offbeat. The Album: A Guide to Pop Music's Most Provocative, Influential, and Important Creations contains critical analysis essays on 160 significant pop music albums from 1960 to 2010. The selected albums represent the pop, rock, soul, R&B, hip hop, country, and alternative genres, including artists such as 2Pac, Carole King, James Brown, The Beatles, and Willie Nelson. Each volume contains brief sidebars with biographical information about key performers and producers, as well as descriptions of particular music industry topics pertaining to the development of the album over this 50-year period. Due to its examination of a broad time frame and wide range of musical styles, and its depth of analysis that goes beyond that in other books about essential albums of the past and present, this collection will appeal strongly to music fans of all tastes and interests.

This new Rough Guide is devoted to pop music, the tacky, catchy yet enduring music we grew up listening to when we should have been listening to something more profound. We celebrate the hits, the singers, the impresarios and the songs which have made up the soundtrack to our lives. So come along pop pickers, put on your blue suede shoes (or your tartan trousers or puffball skirt, it's your call) and take a stroll down Electric Avenue. Not aarf! Features include: bull; The Stars A celebration of those performers, from Robbie Williams to Andy Williams (and Madonna to Mungo Jerry), who have had us singing along or, in the case of Dean Friedman and Kajagoogoo, left us wondering what the world is coming to.

Arranged in sixteen musical categories, provides entries for twenty thousand releases from four thousand artists, and includes a history of each musical genre.

The anthology Global Popular Music features readings that examine the commonalities and differences among different popular music traditions in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe. The text explores the ways in which each tradition developed, evolved, eventually disseminated, and how they gained global reach. The book begins with an introduction to global and popular music and answers the all-important question: what is pop? The readings that follow include both material evidence and historical narrative to provide students with greater awareness of how popular music has evolved throughout different cultures. The selections explore various musical traditions, including the blues, samba-reggae, mariachi, afro-pop, bhangra, K-pop, and rap, among other styles of music, all written by renowned and revered musicologists in the field. Compelling and complex in nature, Global Popular Music is an excellent supplementary resource for courses in world music, as well as any course that examines popular music in a global context.

The first detailed examination of the place of pop music film in British cinema, Stephen Glynn explores the interpenetration of music and cinema in an economic, social and aesthetic context through case studies ranging from Cliff Richard to The Rolling Stones, and from The Beatles to Plan B.

This text presents a comprehensive and up-to-date reference work on popular music, from the early 20th century to the present day.

Now in an updated fourth edition, this popular A-Z student handbook provides a comprehensive survey of key ideas and concepts in popular music culture. With new and expanded entries on genres and subgenres, the text comprehensively examines the social and cultural aspects of popular music, taking into account the digital music revolution and changes in the way that music is manufactured, marketed and delivered. New and updated entries include: Age and youth Black music Digital music culture K-Pop Mash-ups Philadelphia Soul Pub music Religion and spirituality Remix Southern Soul Streaming Vinyl With further reading and listening included throughout, Popular Music: The Key Concepts is an essential reference text for all students studying the social and cultural dimensions of popular music.

The must-read music book of the year—and the first such history bringing together all musical genres to tell the definitive narrative of the birth of Pop—from 1900 to the mid-1950s. Pop music didn't begin with the Beatles in 1963, or with Elvis in 1956, or even with the first seven-inch singles in 1949. There was a pre-history that went back to the first recorded music, right back to the turn of the century. Who were these earliest record stars—and were they in any meaningful way "pop stars"? Who was George Gershwin writing songs for? Why did swing, the hit sound for a decade or more, become almost invisible after World War II? The prequel to Bob Stanley’s celebrated Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!, this new volume is the first book to tell the definitive story of the birth of pop, from the invention of the 78 rpm record at the end of the nineteenth century to the beginnings of rock and the modern pop age. Covering superstars such as Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra, alongside the unheralded songwriters and arrangers behind some of our most enduring songs, Stanley paints an aural portrait of pop music's formative years in stunning clarity, uncovering the silver threads and golden needles that bind the form together. Bringing the eclectic, evolving world of early pop to life—from ragtime, blues and jazz to Broadway, country, crooning, and beyond—Let's Do It is essential reading for all music lovers. "An encyclopaedic introduction to the fascinating and often forgotten creators of Anglo-American hit music in the first half of the twentieth century."—Neil Tennant (The Pet Shop Boys)