"If this book moves, I hope it moves in the way pop songs do. There will be a lot of talk about songs, but inasmuch as this is a book about listening to music, it's also about how listening to music makes us who we are, or at least about how it makes me who I am, and so it is an exploration, an idiosyncratic and opinionated and particular one, of a self shaped by the oddly intersecting forces of the American evangelical Protestant church and the American popular music scene. I don't mean for that to sound hoity-toity--if this were fifteen years ago, I would say that this book was about Christian music, and I would know exactly what I meant. My purpose now is not only to talk about "Christian music." I am not here to explicate Christian music, to explain why it exists and whether it is any good. Instead, think of what you're about to read as like an iPod playlist, a collection of essays and thoughts on listening to music and having faith and how they have made me, and a lot of people like me, and maybe you. Also, there will be some jokes about Stryper." --From the Introduction

"If this book moves, I hope it moves in the way pop songs do. There will be a lot of talk about songs, but inasmuch as this is a book about listening to music, it's also about how listening to music makes us who we are, or at least about how it makes me who I am, and so it is an exploration, an idiosyncratic and opinionated and particular one, of a self shaped by the oddly intersecting forces of the American evangelical Protestant church and the American popular music scene. I don't mean for that to sound hoity-toity--if this were fifteen years ago, I would say that this book was about Christian music, and I would know exactly what I meant. My purpose now is not only to talk about "Christian music." I am not here to explicate Christian music, to explain why it exists and whether it is any good. Instead, think of what you're about to read as like an iPod playlist, a collection of essays and thoughts on listening to music and having faith and how they have made me, and a lot of people like me, and maybe you. Also, there will be some jokes about Stryper."

Writing about music, far from being the specialized domain of the rock critic with encyclopedic knowledge of micro-genres or the fancy-pants star journalist flying on private planes with Led Zeppelin, has become something almost any music lover can do—and does. It’s been said, however, that writing about music is a difficult, even pointless enterprise—an absurd impossibility, like “dancing about architecture.” But aside from the fact that dancing about architecture would be awesome, what is that ineffable something that drives people to write about music at all? In this short, insightful book, Joel Heng Hartse unpacks the rock writer Richard Meltzer’s assertion that writing about music should be a “parallel artistic effort” with music itself—and argues that music and the impulse to write about it is part of the eminently mysterious desire for meaning-making that makes us human. Touching on the close resonances between music, language, love, and belief, Dancing about Architecture is a Reasonable Thing to Do is relevant to anyone who finds deep human and spiritual meaning in music, writing, and the mysterious connections between them.

The Other Journal's first print edition focuses on the role of celebrity in North American culture--its phenomena, its significance, its utility. The articles illuminate different facets of celebrity culture through multiple vantage points and methodologies.Ê This issue features articles, art exhibits, and interviews by such prominent thinkers as Graham Ward, Carl Raschke, James K. A. Smith, James Davison Hunter, Brian McLaren, Luci Shaw, Gary Dorrien, and many others. Essays and reviews by Ruth Adams, Paul Jaussen, Katie Kresser, James K. A. Smith, Brad Elliott Stone, Gary David Stratton, Kj Swanson, John Totten, and Graham Ward Interviews by Allison Backous, David Horstkoetter, Chris Keller, Tom Ryan, James K. A. Smith, and Heather Smith Stringer with Gary Dorrien, Ron Hansen, James Davison Hunter, Brian McLaren, Carl Raschke, and the Opiate Mass Creative writing and poetry by Daniel Bowman, Jr., Joel Heng Hartse, Luci Shaw, and Schuy R. Weishaar

This collection of 16 reflective accounts and data-driven studies explores the interrelationship of religious identity and English Language Teaching (ELT). The chapters broaden a topic which has traditionally focused on Christianity by including Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and non-religious perspectives. They address the ways in which faith and ELT intersect in the realms of teacher identity, pedagogy and the context and content of ELT, and explore a diverse range of geographical contexts, making use of a number of different research methodologies. The book will be of particular interest to researchers in TESOL and EFL, as well as teachers and teacher trainers.

Writing about music, far from being the specialized domain of the rock critic with encyclopedic knowledge of micro-genres or the fancy-pants star journalist flying on private planes with Led Zeppelin, has become something almost any music lover can do--and does. It's been said, however, that writing about music is a difficult, even pointless enterprise--an absurd impossibility, like "dancing about architecture." But aside from the fact that dancing about architecture would be awesome, what is that ineffable something that drives people to write about music at all? In this short, insightful book, Joel Heng Hartse unpacks the rock writer Richard Meltzer's assertion that writing about music should be a "parallel artistic effort" with music itself--and argues that music and the impulse to write about it is part of the eminently mysterious desire for meaning-making that makes us human. Touching on the close resonances between music, language, love, and belief, Dancing about Architecture is a Reasonable Thing to Do is relevant to anyone who finds deep human and spiritual meaning in music, writing, and the mysterious connections between them.

The tale that follows is not another clichéd collection of rock'n'roll debaucheries (sorry) nor is it another tired fable of triumph over adversity (you're welcome).It's the story of a half-deaf kid from a tiny, remote village in South Wales who was hailed as a genius by the UK's biggest radio station and headhunted by major record labels, only for the music industry to collapse. It crashed hard, taking with it an entire generation of talented artists who would never now get their shot. CNN called it &‘music's lost decade'.Along the way, there are goodies, baddies, gun-toting label execs, life-saving surgeons, therapy, true love, loyalty, hope, breakdowns, suicidal managers, betrayal, drummers and way too many hangovers. James Kennedy shows that the best lessons are to be learned from good losers. It really is all about the journey.Part memoir, part exposé of the music world's murky underbelly, Noise Damage is emotional, painfully honest, funny, informative and ridiculous. It's also a celebration of the life-changing magic of music.

This monster Rock-n-Roll survey focuses on the songs and the vibrant personalities who create them, for college audiences and the general public. Dean published the world's first history of Rock in 1966. Here, in his ebullient style, he buzzes through piles of musical singles from the whole last half century, describing what is fun about each major and minor hit, pointing out what elements were exciting or new or significant in the development of musical styles. He relates some tantalizing tidbits about the earlier musical heritage that artists have drawn upon in crafting ever more amazing evolutions of rock music. This snappy, witty and informative album has universal appeal, doubling as a coffee-table trivia treasure and a college-level popular music history text. It includes hundreds of photos, chapter questions, and an extensive index. Reader-friendly and informationally complete, it covers soft rock, heavy metal, rhythm & blues, country rock and classic oldies, all with tender loving care, for the specialist and casual listener alike. Its mini-portraits of the artists who move so many hearts (and feet), the photos and the insightful sound bites get to the essence of each song and each musician's contribution to the music of our age. The single-song focus makes the book unique. It's a playlist for R'n'R professors and the general public, written with a collegiate vocabulary, tight organization and a respect for all. "Hearing Elvis for the first time was like busting out of jail." - Bob Dylan That being said, no one is being incited, here, to bust out of jail or to emulate the quixotic habits of rock stars. "There's nothing in here to hide from the kids, the clergy or grandma." Gold Rush can be used as a university or community college text, but most people will grab it for the sheer pleasure of reading about everyone's favorites. Great gift for Rock enthusiasts. Gold Rush is the first book of its kind to feature a celebration of the great single songs of the rock era and beyond. Gold Rush takes thousands of songs, spanning three centuries, and brings them back uniquely as if they came out just yesterday. Gold Rush unites the Anglo-American and later worldwide spirit of Rock and Roll in a tapestry of interconnected melodies and adventures. As Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide helps you select videos at Blockbuster, so Gold Rush is a powerful playlist for your music collection, with many new and fascinating photos of favorite stars. Gold Rush explains the most important stories behind the songs you picked to be played, the songs that 'went gold,' from the 1897 Alaska/Klondike Gold Rush to the #1 songs of today and beyond.

The love song is timeless. From its beginnings, it has been shaped by bohemians and renegades, slaves and oppressed minorities, prostitutes, immigrants and other excluded groups. But what do we really know about the origins of these intimate expressions of the heart? And how have our changing perceptions about topics such as sexuality and gender roles changed our attitudes towards these songs? In Love Songs: The Hidden History, Ted Gioia uncovers the unexplored story of the love song for the first time. Drawing on two decades of research, Gioia presents the full range of love songs, from the fertility rites of ancient cultures to the sexualized YouTube videos of the present day. The book traces the battles over each new insurgency in the music of love--whether spurred by wandering scholars of medieval days or by four lads from Liverpool in more recent times. In these pages, Gioia reveals that the tenderest music has, in different eras, driven many of the most heated cultural conflicts, and how the humble love song has played a key role in expanding the sphere of individualism and personal autonomy in societies around the world. Gioia forefronts the conflicts, controversies, and the battles over censorship and suppression spurred by such music, revealing the outsiders and marginalized groups that have played a decisive role in shaping our songs of romance and courtship, and the ways their innovations have led to reprisals and strife. And he describes the surprising paths by which the love song has triumphed over these obstacles, and emerged as the dominant form of musical expression in modern society.

The definitive biography of the revolutionary band Nirvana and its star-crossed frontman Kurt Cobain, hailed by Rolling Stone as “the first [book] to comprehensively tell the band’s tale from Aberdeen, Wash., to world domination” “Amazingly raw and candid . . . an unsparing and extremely honest depiction of the group’s highly tumultuous history . . . Come As You Are is as good as rock bios get.”—Billboard “Just tell the truth. That’ll be better than anything else that’s been written about me.”—Kurt Cobain Nirvana came out of nowhere in 1991 to sell nearly five million copies of their landmark album Nevermind, whose thunderous sound and indelible melodies embodied all the confusion, frustration, and passion of the emerging Generation X. Come As You Are is the close-up, intimate story of Nirvana—the only book with exclusive in-depth interviews with bandmembers Kurt Cobain, Krist Noveselic, and Dave Grohl, as well as friends, relatives, former bandmembers, and associates—now updated to include a final chapter detailing the last year of Kurt Cobain's life, before his tragic suicide in April 1994. Vivid, evocative, and thought-provoking, Come As You Are is an essential document not just for Nirvana fans but for anyone interested in the cultural legacy of the 1990s.