The Biographical Dictionary Of Popular Music

The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music is an incredible and opinionated collection of celebrated cultural critic Dylan Jones's thoughts on more than 350 of the most important artists around the world—alive and dead, big and small, at length and in brief. This A to Z reference is the true musical heir to David Thomson's seminal The New Biographical Dictionary of Popular Film. Jones writes entertainingly about bands that have inspired, bedeviled, and fascinated him over the years.

Contains nearly 1000 pages of precise and accessible information on all musical subjects.

From Aaliyah to Lynyrd Skynyrd, this volume surveys musical artists who have made a significant impact on current popular culture.

There are dozens of music encyclopedias, and many are full of career minutiae and critical acuity They & rsquo;re also obsessively objective and pathologically comprehensive. The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music is a book that springs from personal prejudice. Celebrated journalist Dylan Jones works his way through the work of over three hundred fifty of the most important artists in the world & mdash;alive and dead, big and small, at length and in brief. From A Tribe Called Quest to Frank Zappa, via Chet Baker, the Clash, Brian Eno, and Gorillaz, with a nod to Quincy Jones, Frank Sinatra, Tame Impala, and Scott Walker. Along the way he discusses the White Man & rsquo;s Overbite, Aquacrunk, Air Snare, the Brill Building, doo wop, Eel Pie Island, funeral music, and Neurotic Boy Outsiders. Many of the people here have been included because they & rsquo;re intriguing, and many more because it would have been perverse not to include them. Others are here for different reasons. We know that Julian Lennon will never have as much cultural resonance as his father, but as the child of one of the most influential entertainers of the twentieth century, his story is no less fascinating. And Lloyd Cole might not have built a career as sturdy as Leonard Cohen & rsquo;s, yet as a tale of unfilled promise, his CV is second to none. & ldquo;As a critic, the music you like completely informs any objectivity you might attempt about a particular artist & mdash;if you & rsquo;re seeking communion with something, how can you not have an opinion about it? When music moves you, it makes you dizzy, and you & rsquo;ve got every right to dismiss music that leaves you cold and unmoved. Yes, you might trust the judgment of those whose opinion you respect, but in the end, personal prejudice has to win out. & rdquo; The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music is the most opinionated book about music you will ever read. & ldquo;Amazing, brilliant and absolutely compelling. A knockout. & rdquo; & mdash;David Thomson Dylan Jones studied at Chelsea and then Saint Martins School of Art. He is the award-winning editor of GQ magazine, and has won the BSME Editor of the Year award seven times. A former editor at i-D, the Face, Arena, the Observer, and the Sunday Times, he is the author of the internationally bestselling biography Jim Morrison : Dark Star, the much-translated iPod, Therefore I Am, and Mr Jones & rsquo; Rules, as well as the editor of the classic collection of music writing Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy . He edited a collection of journalism from Arena & mdash; Sex, Power and Travel & mdash; and collaborated with David Cameron on Cameron on Cameron : Conversations with Dylan Jones (shortlisted for the Channel 4 Political Book of the Year). He was the chairman of the Prince & rsquo;s Trust & rsquo;s Fashion Rocks, is a board member of the Norman Mailer Writers Colony, and is a vice president of the Hay Festival. His most recent book, British Heroes in Afghanistan, is a collaboration with the photographer David Bailey.

As an influential and well-connected composer, Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) had encountered, befriended, and collaborated with hundreds of people over his significant career. In Brahms and His World: A Biographical Dictionary, author Peter Clive provides extensive and up-to-date information on the composer's personal and professional association with some 430 persons. These persons include relatives, friends, acquaintances, and physicians; fellow musicians and composers whom Brahms particularly admired and in the editions of whose works he was involved; conductors, instrumentalists, and singers who took part in notable or first performances of his works; poets whose texts he set to music; publishers and artists; and even the rulers of certain German states with whom he had significant contact. Offering information not usually available in Brahms biographies, this volume combines findings from both primary and secondary sources, giving insights into Brahms' character, his life, and his career, and shedding light on the educated middle and upper class culture of the nineteenth century. A comprehensive chronology of Brahms' life, a bibliography, and two indexes round out this important reference guide.

An extensive biographical and critical survey of more than 300 jazz and popular singers is comprised of provocative, opinionated essays that incorporate the views of peers, fans and critics while assessing key movements and genres.

This illustrated A-Z guide covers more than 700 country music artists, groups, and bands. Articles also cover specific genres within country music as well as instruments used. Written in a lively, engaging style, the entries not only outline the careers of country music's greatest artists, they provide an understanding of the artist's importance or failings, and a feeling for his or her style. Select discographies are provided at the end of each entry, while a bibliography and indexes by instrument, musical style, genre, and song title round out the work. For a full list of entries, a generous selection of sample entries, and more, visit the Country Music: A Biographical Dictionary website.