Discusses topics ranging from prehistoric instruments to modern-day pop to explain how respective musical innovations were inspired by original forces that reflected common human themes.

A personal exploration of what singing means and how it works, Voices is a book about our deepest, most telling relationships with music. Nick Coleman examines the act of singing not as a performance, but as a close, difficult moment of hopeful connection. What does it do to us, emotionally and psychologically, to listen hard and habitually to somebody else's singing? Why is human song so essential to our lives? The book asks many other questions,...

A year-by-year history of people and events, this lively multi-layered account tells the whole story of jazz music and its personalities. The Chronicle of Jazz charts the evolution of jazz from its roots in Africa and the southern United States to the myriad urban styles heard around the world today, Mervyn Cooke gives us a narrative rich with innovation, experimentation, controversy, and emotion. The book is completely up to date, exploring the exciting...

The 700-year history of the novel in English defies straightforward telling. Geographically and culturally diverse, with contributions from Great Britain, Ireland, America, Canada, Australia, India, the Caribbean, and Southern Africa, influenced by great novelists working in other languages, and encompassing a range of genres, the story of the novel in English unfolds like a richly varied landscape that invites exploration rather than a linear journey....

Surveys the history and components of music, concentrating on Western musical traditions.

An addictively readable, encyclopedic history of pop music that includes individual chapters to groups and individuals -- the Monkees, the Beach Boys, the Bee Gees, Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna -- that changed the shape of pop music.