The Words and Music of Ice Cube

The Words and Music of Ice Cube PDF

Author: Gail Hilson Woldu

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2008-10-30

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 031308078X

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Ice Cube is one of the most influential figures in the history of rap and hip-hop. Best known for the vitriol of his angry black man recordings of the late 1980s and mid 1990s, Ice Cube epitomizes the genre often referred to as gangsta rap. Much of his music from these years is focused on the disturbing realities of life in black urban ghettos, and as a result it chronicles such complex and controversial issues as racial stereotypes, street gangs, racial profiling, black on black crime, teen pregnancy, absentee fathers, and male-female relationships. His recordings with NWA are noteworthy for their sardonic humor in discussing dire issues. The group's landmark CD Straight Outta Compton (1988) is a palette of urban woes recounted in aggressive and hostile street vernacular, while Ice Cube's recordings of the 1990s now represent paradigms of the gangsta style. The first three chapters of The Words and Music of Ice Cube explore Ice Cube's recordings between 1988 and 1996 and situate Ice Cube in the context of other rappers of this period-most notably Public Enemy, Ice-T, Tupac, Biggie, and Snoop Dogg-whose music also chronicled explosive issues in urban ghettos. The fourth chapter considers Ice Cube's career in film, beginning with a discussion of his performance in Boyz n the Hood and ending with a look at his most recent films, Barber Shop, Barber Shop II, Are We There Yet? And Are We Done Yet? The fifth and final chapter looks back over all of Ice Cube's work to date and considers his impact and his legacy in music and popular culture at large. .

The Words and Music of Billy Joel

The Words and Music of Billy Joel PDF

Author: Ken Bielen

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2011-07-22

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 0313380171

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This detailed exploration looks at the musical works of recording artist Billy Joel and his impact on popular culture. Billy Joel skyrocketed to popularity in 1977 with his fifth album, The Stranger, and he has been a major American artist ever since. His songs are timeless and appreciated by generations of fans. The Words and Music of Billy Joel examines this influential musician's songs in detail, exploring the meaning of the lyrics and placing Joel's artistry in a regional and cultural context. Covering work that ranges from Joel's recordings with the Lost Souls to his classical compositions, the book focuses on the dozen studio albums of popular music released between 1971 and 1993. A bibliographic essay is included, as are both a discography and a filmography. There is also a special focus on the interpretation of Joel's songs by other recording artists.

The Words and Music of Van Morrison

The Words and Music of Van Morrison PDF

Author: Erik Hage

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2009-03-20

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 031335863X

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Van Morrison is primal but sophisticated; he's accessible but inscrutable; he's a complex songwriter and a raw blues shouter; he's a steady influence on the musical scene but wildly unpredictable as well, and it's these complex and often conflicting qualities that make him such a compelling subject for the Singer-Songwriter series. Journalist Erik Hage here eschews a cold, empirical study of structures and influence, and seeks instead more natural and intuitive means of appreciating all that is unique, eclectic, and surprising about Van Morrison's impressive output. In addition to covering almost all of Van Morrison's musical work and offering new readings of many iconic songs, Hage also provides a biographical introduction and a complete discography that can help listeners find new perspective on Morrison's body of work. Even in his darkest and most naked moments-in Astral Weeks for instance-Van Morrison's songs can still suggest something uplifting. Sometimes these two poles are present simultaneously, and at other times they each find distinct expression in a different musical moment. Even on his first solo album, Blowin' Your Mind (which contained the iconic Brown-Eyed Girl) Van Morrison was wrestling with something thornier and deeper, as evidenced by the wrenching T.B. Sheets - a nine-minute opus about the discomfort of visiting a lover in a small room as she lies in bed, wracked with Tuberculosis. Those two songs, at artistic odds with each other and on the same album, are representative of the oppositional forces that fuel much of his work. Hage here provides a guide through all the layers of emotional meaning and musical resonance present in Morrison's work.

The Words and Music of Jimi Hendrix

The Words and Music of Jimi Hendrix PDF

Author: David V. Moskowitz

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2010-10-21

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0313375933

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This comprehensive discussion of the singer/songwriter/guitarist's life carves autobiographical details from the lyrics of his song catalog. Jimi Hendrix was a rock 'n' roll guitar god and remains an important rock icon, still popular despite the four decades that have passed since his death in 1970. The Words and Music of Jimi Hendrix uses Hendrix's music—including the posthumous album Valleys of Neptune, released on March 9, 2010—to shed light on the details of the singer/songwriter's all-too-brief life. Organized chronologically, the book provides an in-depth look at Hendrix's life, carving autobiographical details from his lyrics. At the same time, it offers readers a better understanding of the superstar's music and the forces behind it. The book focuses on the three albums released during Hendrix's life, as well as the major posthumous works. Priority is also given to touring and to the influence of other guitarists.

The Words and Music of Melissa Etheridge

The Words and Music of Melissa Etheridge PDF

Author: James E. Perone

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2014-03-17

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 1440830088

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For a quarter century, Melissa Etheridge has been one of the most iconic and prolific female rock musicians. This book critically examines this songwriter's portrayal of universal human emotions and experiences against the context of her life. Songwriter. Pop star. Gay activist. Cancer survivor. Advocate for cancer victims. Human being. Melissa Etheridge is all of these things, and all of these elements of who she is have played an instrumental role in her music from the beginning of her career to the present day. The Words and Music of Melissa Etheridge examines Melissa Etheridge's contributions to pop music in the tradition of other greats such as Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, and Rod Stewart. Written by a music scholar and Etheridge fan, this book investigates her work chronologically by time period, underscoring her growth as a songwriter and musician and demonstrating how her music reflected the events in her life, both positive and negative. Author James E. Perone spotlights how Etheridge's songs defy traditional gender roles and stereotypes and appeal to general audiences with their universal themes, yet serve those in the lesbian community because of the specific applicability of her words to the members of this minority group. The book supplies expert, critical, and easy-to-understand analysis of all of the songs of Melissa Etheridge's studio albums from the 1980s through to her autobiographical and reflective album, 4th Street Feeling, released in 2012.

The Words and Music of Alanis Morissette

The Words and Music of Alanis Morissette PDF

Author: Karen Fournier

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2015-01-16

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 144083069X

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Through an examination of her music, videos, philanthropic work, and biographical details, this book gives insight into Alanis Morissette's musical career and day-to-day life, from her early pop beginnings in Canada to her work today. As a whole, Alanis Morissette's work has never been critically analyzed. The Words and Music of Alanis Morissette addresses this oversight through its examination of Morissette's work in the context of biographical facts, its relationship to other cultural trends, and its reflection of the female perspective. This book merges biographical information with a critical examination of the music that she produced and performed during all periods of her life, thereby providing a needed overview of Morissette's body of work. All Morissette fans will appreciate learning about the details of her life, but the author's melding of the star's personal life story with an informed analysis of popular music will also appeal to a wider audience—readers interested in music, culture, women's studies, or female musicians, for example. The book provides entertaining and engrossing reading for any Alanis Morissette fan and serves as a resource that documents her broad contributions to the music industry.

The Words and Music of George Harrison

The Words and Music of George Harrison PDF

Author: Ian Inglis

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2010-03-23

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 031337533X

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This book offers a comprehensive assessment of the music of George Harrison, revealing him as one of the most gifted and authentic singer-songwriters of his generation. The Words and Music of George Harrison is an in-depth appreciation of this often underappreciated musician, following Harrison's development as a singer-songwriter from his earliest songs with The Beatles through his final album, Brainwashed, released after his 2001 death from brain cancer. The Words and Music of George Harrison sheds new light on Harrison's 40-year career, examining his music output in the context of the enormous personal and professional changes he underwent, from the early days in Liverpool and the global explosion of Beatlemania through a solo career marked by spiritual concerns, political activism, and high-profile collaborations. As the book shows, at every stage, George Harrison's songs posed questions, provided commentaries, and looked for solutions, with results that add up to a remarkable music legacy.

Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity

Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity PDF

Author: Adam Krims

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2000-04-24

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9780521634472

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This is the first book to discuss in detail how rap music is put together musically and how it contributes to the formation of cultural identities for both artists and audiences. It also argues that current skeptical attitudes toward music analysis in popular music studies are misplaced and need to be reconsidered if cultural studies are to treat seriously the social force of rap music, popular musics, and music in general. Drawing extensively on recent scholarship in popular music studies, cultural theory, communications, critical theory, and musicology, Krims redefines 'music theory' as meaning simply 'theory about music', in which musical poetics (the study of how musical sound is deployed) may play a crucial role when its claims are contextualized and demystified. Theorizing local and global geographies of rap, Krims discusses at length the music of Ice Cube, the Goodie MoB, KRS-One, Dutch group the Spookrijders, and Canadian Cree rapper Bannock.

Nuthin' But a "G" Thang

Nuthin' But a

Author: Eithne Quinn

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 0231124082

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In the late 1980s, gansta rap music emerged in urban America, giving voice to, & making money for, a social group widely believed to be in crisis: young, poor, black men. Quinn probes the origins of the genre, & follows its development, focusing on artists such as Ice Cube & Tupac Shakur.

The Album

The Album PDF

Author: James E. Perone

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2012-10-17

Total Pages: 1318

ISBN-13: 0313379076

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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.