William A. (Bill) Mitchell invented Pop Rocks Crackling Candy in 1956 as an attempt to create an instant carbonated drink. The fruit-flavored candy contained entrapped bubbles of carbon dioxide, which when released created tiny explosions with sound effects. As a research chemist at General Foods during the Pop Rocks heyday, Marvin J. Rudolph led a group assigned to bring Pop Rocks out of the laboratory and into the manufacturing plant. During that time, he was awarded six US patents based on Pop Rock production improvements, and one for Increda-Bubble, a popping bubble gum. Drawing on interviews with food technologists, engineers, marketing managers, and members of Bill Mitchell's family, Rudolph takes readers from the day Pop Rocks were invented to the present day.

(Easy Fake Book). Here are 100 top pop/rock songs that are easy to learn and play. All are in large notation and in the key of C, with lyrics and simplified chords that remain true to each tune. Includes: All Right Now * Billie Jean * Carry on Wayward Son * Change the World * Dancing Queen * Don't Fear the Reaper * Don't Worry, Be Happy * Eye of the Tiger * Fireflies * The Greatest Love of All * Hey, Soul Sister * How to Save a Life * How You Remind Me * I Want to Hold Your Hand * Kiss on My List * Like a Prayer * Love Shack * Mony, Mony * Oh, Pretty Woman * Pour Some Sugar on Me * She Will Be Loved * Smooth * Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) * Use Somebody * With or Without You * You Really Got Me * and more.

This practical guide is designed for aspiring amateur and professional musicians. The book covers every aspect of jazz, rock and pop arranging, from a basic lead sheet to scoring for full ensemble with voices. The book includes tips and hints, presented in an easy-to-use format.

One of Oprah Daily's 20 Favorite Books of 2021 • Selected as one of Pitchfork's Best Music Books of the Year “One of the best books of its kind in decades.” —The Wall Street Journal An epic achievement and a huge delight, the entire history of popular music over the past fifty years refracted through the big genres that have defined and dominated it: rock, R&B, country, punk, hip-hop, dance music, and pop Kelefa Sanneh, one of the essential voices of our time on music and culture, has made a deep study of how popular music unites and divides us, charting the way genres become communities. In Major Labels, Sanneh distills a career’s worth of knowledge about music and musicians into a brilliant and omnivorous reckoning with popular music—as an art form (actually, a bunch of art forms), as a cultural and economic force, and as a tool that we use to build our identities. He explains the history of slow jams, the genius of Shania Twain, and why rappers are always getting in trouble. Sanneh shows how these genres have been defined by the tension between mainstream and outsider, between authenticity and phoniness, between good and bad, right and wrong. Throughout, race is a powerful touchstone: just as there have always been Black audiences and white audiences, with more or less overlap depending on the moment, there has been Black music and white music, constantly mixing and separating. Sanneh debunks cherished myths, reappraises beloved heroes, and upends familiar ideas of musical greatness, arguing that sometimes, the best popular music isn’t transcendent. Songs express our grudges as well as our hopes, and they are motivated by greed as well as idealism; music is a powerful tool for human connection, but also for human antagonism. This is a book about the music everyone loves, the music everyone hates, and the decades-long argument over which is which. The opposite of a modest proposal, Major Labels pays in full.

This Companion maps the world of pop and rock, pinpointing the most significant moments in its history and presenting the key issues involved in understanding popular culture's most vital art form. Expert writers chart the changing patterns in the production and consumption of popular music, the emergence of a vast industry with a turnover of billions and the rise of global stars from Elvis to Public Enemy, Nirvana to the Spice Girls. They trace the way new technologies - from the amplifier to the internet - have changed the sounds and practices of pop and they analyse the way maverick entrepreneurs have given way to multimedia corporations. In particular they focus on the controversial issues concerning race and ethnicity, politics, gender and globalisation. Contains full profiles of a selection of figures from the pop and rock world.

Pop music and rock music are often treated as separate genres but the distinction has always been blurred. Motti Regev argues that pop-rock is best understood as a single musical form defined by the use of electric and electronic instruments, amplification and related techniques. The history of pop-rock extends from the emergence of rock'n'roll in the 1950s to a variety of contemporary fashions and trends – rock, punk, soul, funk, techno, hip hop, indie, metal, pop and many more. This book offers a highly original account of the emergence of pop-rock music as a global phenomenon in which Anglo-American and many other national and ethnic variants interact in complex ways. Pop-rock is analysed as a prime instance of 'aesthetic cosmopolitanism' – that is, the gradual formation, in late modernity, of world culture as a single interconnected entity in which different social groupings around the world increasingly share common ground in their aesthetic perceptions, expressive forms and cultural practices. Drawing on a wide array of examples, this path-breaking book will be of great interest to students and scholars in cultural sociology, media and cultural studies as well as the study of popular music.

Pop music surrounds us - in our cars, over supermarket speakers, even when we are laid out at the dentist - but how often do we really hear what's playing? Switched on Pop is the book based on the eponymous podcast that has been hailed by NPR, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and Entertainment Weekly for its witty and accessible analysis of Top 40 hits. Through close studies of sixteen modern classics, musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding shift pop from the background to the foreground, illuminating the essential musical concepts behind two decades of chart-topping songs. In 1939, Aaron Copland published What to Listen for in Music, the bestseller that made classical music approachable for generations of listeners. Eighty years later, Nate and Charlie update Copland's idea for a new audience and repertoire: 21st century pop, from Britney to Beyoncé, Outkast to Kendrick Lamar. Despite the importance of pop music in contemporary culture, most discourse only revolves around lyrics and celebrity. Switched on Pop gives readers the tools they need to interpret our modern soundtrack. Each chapter investigates a different song and artist, revealing musical insights such as how a single melodic motif follows Taylor Swift through every genre that she samples, André 3000 uses metric manipulation to get listeners to "shake it like a Polaroid picture," or Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee create harmonic ambiguity in "Despacito" that mirrors the patterns of global migration. Replete with engaging discussions and eye-catching illustrations, Switched on Pop brings to life the musical qualities that catapult songs into the pop pantheon. Readers will find themselves listening to familiar tracks in new waysand not just those from the Top 40. The timeless concepts that Nate and Charlie define can be applied to any musical style. From fanatics to skeptics, teenagers to octogenarians, non-musicians to professional composers, every music lover will discover something ear-opening in Switched on Pop.

Long out-of-print classic of rock criticism. Author worked with Black Flag, Negativland, Birthday Party, Dead Kennedys, Husker Du, Meat Puppets, and others. Excerpted in the Penguin Book of Rock & Roll Writing. "It is the Moby Dick of Rock-Crit -- nothing else I've read comes close." --James Parker / The Idler (U.K.)

First published in 2000

In The Pop Rock Guitar Looper Pedal Book, you will learn how to use your looper pedal and also improve your pop/rock guitar playing. There are 30 practice loops from 2 to 16 bars long divided into five separate loops or parts. The five parts are: riffs or melody, bass, chords, rhythm, and an extra optional part to enhance the overall loop. The book also covers a wide variety of instructional materials including looping and improvising tips, pop and rock chord progressions, scales and fingerboard charts, plus much more. Take your guitar playing to the next level and become a looper pro!