Vinyl Freak

Vinyl Freak PDF

Author: John Corbett

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2017-05-12

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0822373157

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From scouring flea markets and eBay to maxing out their credit cards, record collectors will do just about anything to score a long-sought-after album. In Vinyl Freak, music writer, curator, and collector John Corbett burrows deep inside the record fiend’s mind, documenting and reflecting on his decades-long love affair with vinyl. Discussing more than 200 rare and out-of-print LPs, Vinyl Freak is composed in part of Corbett's long-running DownBeat magazine column of the same name, which was devoted to records that had not appeared on CD. In other essays where he combines memoir and criticism, Corbett considers the current vinyl boom, explains why vinyl is his preferred medium, profiles collector subcultures, and recounts his adventures assembling the Alton Abraham Sun Ra Archive, an event so all-consuming that he claims it cured his record-collecting addiction. Perfect for vinyl newbies and veteran crate diggers alike, Vinyl Freak plumbs the motivations that drive Corbett and collectors everywhere.

Microgroove

Microgroove PDF

Author: John Corbett

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2015-09-14

Total Pages: 496

ISBN-13: 0822375532

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Microgroove continues John Corbett's exploration of diverse musics, with essays, interviews, and musician profiles that focus on jazz, improvised music, contemporary classical, rock, folk, blues, post-punk, and cartoon music. Corbett's approach to writing is as polymorphous as the music, ranging from oral history and journalistic portraiture to deeply engaged cultural critique. Corbett advocates for the relevance of "little" music, which despite its smaller audience is of enormous cultural significance. He writes on musicians as varied as Sun Ra, PJ Harvey, Koko Taylor, Steve Lacy, and Helmut Lachenmann. Among other topics, he discusses recording formats; the relationship between music and visual art, dance, and poetry; and, with Terri Kapsalis, the role of female orgasm sounds in contemporary popular music. Above all, Corbett privileges the importance of improvisation; he insists on the need to pay close attention to “other” music and celebrates its ability to open up pathways to new ideas, fresh modes of expression, and unforeseen ways of knowing.

The Record Players

The Record Players PDF

Author: Bill Brewster

Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Published: 2011-04-12

Total Pages: 716

ISBN-13: 0802195350

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From the co-authors of the classic Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: A fascinating oral history of record spinning told by the groundbreaking DJs themselves. Acclaimed authors and music historians Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton have spent years traveling across the world to interview the revolutionary and outrageous DJs who shaped the last half-century of pop music. The Record Players is the fun and revealing result—a collection of firsthand accounts from the obsessives, the playboys, and the eccentrics that dominated the music scene and contributed to the evolution of DJ culture. In the sixties, radio tastemakers brought their sound to the masses, while early trendsetters birthed the role of the club DJ at temples of hip like the Peppermint Lounge. By the seventies, DJs were changing the course of popular music; and in the eighties, young innovators wore out their cross-faders developing techniques that turned their craft into its own form of music. With discographies, favorite songs, and amazing photos of all the DJs as young firebrands, The Record Players offers an unparalleled music education: from records to synthesizers, from disco to techno, and from influential cliques to arenas packed with thousands of dancing fans.

Democracy of Sound

Democracy of Sound PDF

Author: Alex Sayf Cummings

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 019067511X

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It was a time when music fans copied and traded recordings without permission. An outraged music industry pushed Congress to pass anti-piracy legislation. Yes, that time is now; it was also the era of Napster in the 1990s, of cassette tapes in the 1970s, of reel-to-reel tapes in the 1950s, even the phonograph epoch of the 1930s. Piracy, it turns out, is as old as recorded music itself. In Democracy of Sound, Alex Sayf Cummings uncovers the little-known history of music piracy and its sweeping effects on the definition of copyright in the United States. When copyright emerged, only visual material such as books and maps were thought to deserve protection; even musical compositions were not included until 1831. Once a performance could be captured on a wax cylinder or vinyl disc, profound questions arose over the meaning of intellectual property. Is only a written composition defined as a piece of art? If a singer performs a different interpretation of a song, is it a new and distinct work? Such questions have only grown more pressing with the rise of sampling and other forms of musical pastiche. Indeed, music has become the prime battleground between piracy and copyright. It is compact, making it easy to copy. And it is highly social, shared or traded through social networks--often networks that arise around music itself. But such networks also pose a counter-argument: as channels for copying and sharing sounds, they were instrumental in nourishing hip-hop and other new forms of music central to American culture today. Piracy is not always a bad thing. An insightful and often entertaining look at the history of music piracy, Democracy of Sound offers invaluable background to one of the hot-button issues involving creativity and the law.

Jazz on the Line

Jazz on the Line PDF

Author: Petter Frost Fadnes

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-04-21

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1000062740

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Jazz on the Line: Improvisation in Practice presents an ethnographic reflection on improvisation as performance, examining how musicians think and act when negotiating improvisational frameworks. This multidisciplinary discussion—guided by a focus on recordings, composition, authenticity, and venues—explores the musical choices made by performers, emphasizing how these choices can be logically understood within the context of controlled, musical outputs. Throughout the text, the author engages directly with musicians and their varied practices—from canonized dogmas to innovative experimentalism—offering interviews both planned and spontaneous. Musical agency is posited as a tightrope balancing act, signifying the skill and excitement of improvisational performativity and exemplifying the life of a jazzaerialist. With a travel journal approach as a backdrop, Jazz on the Line provides concepts and theories that demystify the creative processes of improvisation.

The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Record Store

The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Record Store PDF

Author: Gina Arnold

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2023-06-15

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 150138452X

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Once conduits to new music, frequently bypassing the corporate music industry in ways now done more easily via the Internet, record stores championed the most local of economic enterprises, allowing social mobility to well up from them in unexpected ways. Record stores speak volumes about our relationship to shopping, capitalism, and art. This book takes a comprehensive look at what individual record stores meant to individual people, but also what they meant to communities, to musical genres, and to society in general. What was their role in shaping social practices, aesthetic tastes, and even, loosely put, ideologies? From women-owned and independent record stores, to Reggae record shops in London, to Rough Trade in Paris, this book takes on a global and interdisciplinary approach to evaluating record stores. It collects stories and memories, and facts about a variety of local stores that not only re-centers the record store as a marketplace of ideas, but also explore and celebrate a neglected personal history of many lives.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music, Space and Place

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music, Space and Place PDF

Author: Geoff Stahl

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2022-01-13

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 1501336290

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Popular music scholars have long been interested in the connection between place and music. This collection brings together a number of key scholars in order to introduce readers to concepts and theories used to explore the relationships between place and music. An interdisciplinary volume, drawing from sociology, geography, ethnomusicology, media, cultural, and communication studies, this book covers a wide-range of topics germane to the production and consumption of place in popular music. Through considerations of changes in technology and the mediascape that have shaped the experience of popular music (vinyl, iPods, social media), the role of social difference and how it shapes sociomusical encounters (queer spaces, gendered and racialised spaces), as well as the construction and representations of place (musical tourism, city branding, urban mythologies), this is an up-to-the-moment overview of central discussions about place and music. The contributors explore a range of contexts, moving from the studio to the stage, the city to the suburb, the bedroom to festival, from nightclub to museum, with each entry highlighting the diverse and complex ways in which music and place are mutually constitutive.

Vinyl

Vinyl PDF

Author: Mike Evans

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2022-09-06

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1645178161

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This history of the LP is a must-have for any music connoisseur! When vinyl LP records took over the music industry in the late 1950s, a new era began. No longer bound by the time constraints of the shellac 78s that had been in use since the 1910s, recording artists could now present an entire album—rather than a lone three-minute single—on a vinyl LP, giving listeners a completely new way to experience their music. In recent years, vinyl has found a second life as an art form, collected and appreciated by music connoisseurs across the world. Vinyl: The Art of Making Records examines the origins of the vinyl format and its evolution throughout the 20th century, and also provides an in-depth look at how vinyl LPs are manufactured and packaged—often with striking artwork that makes them beloved by music enthusiasts today. Also included are four removable art prints, each representing a sample of album covers from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

Echolands Vol. 1

Echolands Vol. 1 PDF

Author: J.H. Williams III

Publisher: Image Comics

Published: 2022-08-17

Total Pages: 141

ISBN-13: 1534325360

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The story of Earth’s last war starts with Hope’s sticky fingers… The multiple award-winning Batwoman team of J. H. WILLIAMS III (Promethea, The Sandman: Overture, Batman) and W. HADEN BLACKMAN (Star Wars, Elektra) reunites! They’re joined once again by colorist supreme DAVE STEWART and master letterer TODD KLEIN. In a bizarre future world that has forgotten its history, reckless thief Hope Redhood holds the key to excavating its dark, strange past―if only she and her crew can escape a tyrannical wizard and his unstoppable daughter. But fate will send them all on a path leading to a war between worlds. ECHOLANDS is a landscape-format, mythic-fiction epic where anything is possible―a fast-paced genre mashup adventure that combines everything from horror movie vampires, to classic mobsters and cyborg elves, to Roman demigods and retro rocket ships. It’s going to be a helluva ride! Select praise for ECHOLANDS: “Subverts expectations at every turn while building an ever-expanding world. J. H. WILLIAMS III & W. HADEN BLACKMAN have constructed a magical world for their charming characters in ECHOLANDS.” —Comic Book Resources “With a format and style all its own, ECHOLANDS is nearly a brochure for its own potential to be the Next Big Important Comic.” —AIPT “Overflowing in the best way possible… this comic is an explosion of excess and unyielding, chaotic fun.” —Multiversity Comics “A comic you should try based on artwork alone.” —ComicBook.com “A blast of immersive fantastical originality. The story J. H. WILLIAMS III & W. HADEN BLACKMAN have come up with is rife with mystery and suspense, and delivered with masterful precision. Williams and Dave Stewart’s visuals are inconceivably wild and wonderful, matched only by the pair’s other works.” —Monkeys Fighting Robots “It’s every fictional world, each with its own artistic style, intersecting and exploding with JHW3 magic and crackle. I can’t wait to see where he and W. HADEN BLACKMAN are taking us―into a world in which anything can happen, and undoubtedly will.” ―NEIL GAIMAN “So complex and unique and expertly executed it pushes the medium forward in new directions and leads to invigorated interest in the medium of comics itself.” ―ROBERT KIRKMAN “A dazzling, kinetic ride through an exquisitely realized fantasy world, bursting with graphic energy and excitement.” ―DAVE GIBBONS Collects ECHOLANDS #1-6 TRIM SIZE: 11.125" x 7.25"

Mixtape Nostalgia

Mixtape Nostalgia PDF

Author: Jehnie I. Burns

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-10-19

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 1793616809

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Mixtape Nostalgia: Culture, Memory, and Representation tells the story of the mixtape from its history in 1970s bootlegging to its resurgence as an icon of nostalgic analog technology. Burns looks at the history of the mixtape from the early 1980s and the rise of the cassette as a fundamental aspect of the music industry. Stories from music fans collecting hip hop mixtapes in the Bronx or recording songs off the radio permeate the book. She discusses the continued contemporary appeal of the mixtape as musicians, novelists, memoirists, playwrights, and even podcasters have used it as a metaphor for connection and identity. From Rob Sheffield’s Love is a Mix Tape to Questlove’s Mixtape Potluck Cookbook, Burns analyzes how the mixtape can function as a plot point, a stand-in for emotional connection, or an organizing structure. The book shows how creators use the iconography of the mixtape cassette to create ephemera, from coffee subscriptions to board games, which speaks to the appreciation of the tangible and the analog. The desire to find connection through sharing a physical artifact permeates the various creative uses of the mixtape. From blockbuster films like Guardians of the Galaxy to mixtape throw pillows, Burns highlights the mixtape as a site of collective memory tied to youth culture, community identity, and sharing music.