Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith – författare

Listen to Classic Rock! Exploring a Musical Genre provides an overview of this diverse and complex musical genre for scholars of classic rock and curious novices alike, with a focus on 50 must-hear musicians, songwriters, bands, and albums.Listen to Classic Rock! Exploring a Musical Genre explores in detail the genesis, evolution, and proliferation of classic rock. It begins with a background on the development of classic rock and its subgenres. Next, an A to Z listing of artists (musicians, songwriters, and bands), albums, important concerts, and songs; a chapter on classic rock's impact on popular culture; a chapter on classic rock's legacy; and a bibliography. This organization gives readers the choice of starting from the beginning to learn how classic rock and each of its subgenres emerged after rock and roll or skip ahead to a specific artist, recording, or song in the Must-Hear Music section. This volume stands out from other resources on classic rock for its listening-centered approach. Most books on classic rock focus on trivia, history, terminology, or criticism. It also explores the sound of the music of important artists and offers musical analyses that are accessible to upper-level high school and lower-level undergraduates while at the same time maintaining the interest of classic rock aficionados and scholars.

With a focus on 50 defining artists, songs, and albums, Listen to Hip Hop! Exploring a Musical Genre provides an overview of hip-hop music for scholars and fans of the genre.This title explores non-rap hip hop music, and as such it serves as a compliment to Listen to Rap! Exploring a Musical Genre (Greenwood Press, Anthony J. Fonseca, 2019), which discussed at length 50 must-hear rap artists, albums, and songs. This book aims to provide a close listening/reading of a diverse set of songs and lyrics by a variety of artists who represent different styles outside of rap music.Most entries focus on specific songs, carefully analyzing and deconstructing musical elements, discussing their sound, and paying close attention to instrumentation and production values – including sampling, a staple of rap and an element used in some hip hop dance songs. Though some of the artists included may be normally associated with other musical genres and use hip hop elements sparingly, those in this book have achieved iconic status. Finally, sections on the background and history of hip hop, hip hop's impact on popular culture, and the legacy of hip hop provide context through which readers can approach the entries.

Listen to Jazz!: Exploring a Musical Genre explores jazz as both an American musical genre and a global creative exchange, with a focus on 50 must-hear musicians, composers, bands, groups, albums, and songs.Rather than focusing on jazz as a solely American genre with a limited set of established jazz greats, Listen to Jazz! explores the diversity of jazz's sounds, compositions, recordings, and styles. A background chapter concisely surveys the genre's sounds, concepts, performance practices, and interactions with the sound recording industry and technological advances in recording. The A-to-Z Must-Hear Music entries include recent jazz musicians from around the world, jazz musicians and recordings that have been marginalized or overlooked, as well as musicians, songs, and albums that have been recognized already for contributing to the defining aspects of specific jazz styles. Chapters on the impact of jazz on popular culture and its legacy, as well as a bibliography, enhance the historical and analytical content found in many jazz resources.This book stands out for its inclusive and comparative listening-centered approach, often pairing or grouping musicians and recordings in its entries. Music concepts such as improvisation, syncopation, tone color, musical structure, harmonic and rhythmic patterns, and music production techniques are introduced and explained thoroughly, making the book accessible to high school and undergraduate students without any previous musical background while still being of interest to jazz aficionados and scholars.

Musicians, both fictional and real, have long been subjects of cinema. From biopics of composers Beethoven and Mozart to the rise (and often fall) of imaginary bands in The Commitments and Almost Famous, music of all types has inspired hundreds of films. The Encyclopedia of Musicians and Bands on Film features the most significant productions from around the world, including straightforward biographies, rockumentaries, and even the occasional mockumentary. The wide-ranging scope of this volume allows for the inclusion of films about fictional singers and bands, with emphasis on a variety of themes: songwriter–band relationships, the rise and fall of a career, music saving the day, the promoter’s point of view, band competitions, the traveling band, and rock-based absurdity.Among the films discussed in this book are Amadeus, The Blues Brothers, The Buddy Holly Story, The Commitments, Dreamgirls, The Glenn Miller Story, A Hard Day’s Night, I’m Not There, Jailhouse Rock, A Mighty Wind, Ray, ’Round Midnight, The Runaways, School of Rock, That Thing You Do!, and Walk the Line.With entries that span the decades and highlight a variety of music genres, The Encyclopedia of Musicians and Bands on Film is a valuable resource for moviegoers and music lovers alike, as well as scholars of both film and music.