Blink and Boz, Oasis and Onyx, Viv Campbell and Cole Porter, Jenkins and jazz — and the usual tomes on perennial faves like Taylor and Bowie, natch. Full disclosure: I didn’t include the book about how to “be more Ariana Grande.” Nobody needs that. But maybe you need some of these:
David Bowie: The Collector
By Nick Smart
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Nick Smart explores the influences and collaborators that shaped David Bowie’s unique creative genius and success. If it’s true that most musicians who worked with Bowie did their best work with him, is it also the case that Bowie’s work benefited enormously from the ideas and creativity of the people he surrounded himself with? As he himself said, ‘It’s not what you steal, it’s how you use it!’ A study of the people from whom Bowie borrowed from is long overdue. Bowie’s own genius is beyond question, but Smart teases out the elements on which Bowie built his success. His profound sense of artifice, his ability to tap into the zeitgeist of his times and his gift for gathering ideas and influences from a variety of sources and rearranging them to produce not only new perspectives but also brand-new ideas made him the artist he became. Having interviewed dozens of Bowie’s friends and collaborators, Nick finds himself with an enviable perspective about what — and who — made the Bowie celebrated worldwide.”
There’s Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift
By Kevin Evers
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Singer-songwriter. Trailblazer. Mastermind. From her genre-busting rise in country music as a teenager to the economic juggernaut that is the Eras Tour, Taylor Swift has blazed a path that is uniquely hers. But how exactly has she managed to scale her success — multiple times — while dominating an industry that cycles through artists and stars like fashion trends? How has she managed to make and remake herself time and again while remaining true to her artistic vision? And how has she managed to master the constant disruption in the music business that has made it so hard for others to adapt and endure? In There’s Nothing Like This, Kevin Evers, a senior editor at Harvard Business Review, answers these questions in riveting detail. With the same thoughtful analysis usually devoted to iconic founders, game-changing innovators, and pioneering brands, Evers chronicles the business and creative decisions that have defined each phase of Swift’s career. Mixing business and art, analysis and narrative, and pulling from research in innovation, creativity, psychology, and strategy, There’s Nothing Like This presents Swift as the modern and multidimensional superstar that she is. Swift’s fans will see their icon from a fresh perspective. Others will gain more than a measure of admiration for her ability to stay at the top of her game. And everyone will come away understanding why, even after two decades, Swift keeps winning.”
The Musicals of Cole Porter: Broadway, Hollywood, Television
By Bernard F. Dick
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Cole Porter (1891-1964) remains one of America’s most popular composer-songwriters, known for the many urbane, witty, romantic songs he wrote for stage musicals and Hollywood films. Porter was unique among his contemporaries for writing both the music and lyrics for his compositions. To this day, several of his numbers — Night and Day, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, Youre the Top, and I Get a Kick Out of You, to name a few — endure as standards. In The Musicals of Cole Porter: Broadway, Hollywood, Television, Bernard F. Dick presents a critical study of Porter — his Broadway and movie musicals, and his one foray into live television, Aladdin — covering the period from his first failure, See America First (1916), to the moderately successful Silk Stockings (1955), which ended his Broadway career. Taking a chronological approach, interspersed with chapters on Porter’s ’list songs’ that owe much to such operas as Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville; his love songs, often bittersweet and bleakly poignant; and, above all, his love of figurative language, Dick discusses in detail the various literary sources and cultural reference points that inspired the lyrics to Porter’s numbers.”
Bangkok After Dark: Maurice Rocco, Transnational Nightlife, And The Making Of Cold War Intimacies
By Benjamin Tausig
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “From the 1930s to the 1950s, jazz pianist Maurice Rocco was a mainstay in Hollywood and American nightlife scenes. As rock ’n’ roll surpassed jazz as America’s most popular music in the 1950s, the queer Black pianist’s fortunes faded and he was forced to go abroad for new opportunities. In 1964 Rocco settled in Bangkok, where he thrived and enjoyed a relatively privileged life until he was murdered by two young male sex workers in 1976. In Bangkok after Dark, Benjamin Tausig uses Rocco’s intriguing story to trace the history of transnational nightlife encounters between Thais and Americans during the long American war in Vietnam. Tausig shows how these encounters, which included musical collaborations, romantic and sexual relationships, and new labor, identity, and geopolitical configurations, remade Thailand in crucial and enduring ways. As Tausig demonstrates, Rocco’s Blackness, queerness, and musical life in Thailand illuminate how Thai-American relationships complicated neat distinctions between the two countries. In teasing out these complexities through the figure of Rocco, Tausig challenges conventional understandings of the global Cold War on individual and transnational scales.”
My Altercation: The Bandung Melodic Punk Scene 1995-2008
By Prabu Pramayougha
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “My Altercation weaves together notes and memories to capture the essence of Bandung’s music scene with a particular focus on the melodic punk genre. The book serves not only as a tribute to the region’s punk culture but also an insightful exploration of its broader musical landscape. This work is designed to celebrate the energy and significance of punk whilst also shedding light on the cultural roots that shaped Bandung’s underground music scene. The author is a recognised music journalist and musician. His extensive knowledge and first-hand experience offers a unique perspective, opening a window into the key events influential figures and cultural shifts that defined the youth scene in that era. This book is essential reading for anyone looking to understand the development of Indonesia’s melodic punk underground music scene.”
Legends of Jazz
By Bill Milkowski
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “This elegant volume is a portrait gallery of 50 eminent legends spanning jazz history, from Jelly Roll Morton (perhaps the inventor of the art form) to contemporary axman Joe Lovano (who contributes a foreword). Arguably America’s most profound cultural contribution, jazz has evolved for over a century since its birth in the ethnic gumbo of New Orleans at the dawn of the 20th century. Like a mighty river, it has wended its way over time through geography, style, and mood, forming numerous tributaries along the way. In this reissue, each figure is featured in handsome vintage photographs and a pithy, revealing biography.”
Punk Rock in Comics!
By Thierry Lamy & Nicolas Finet
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Here is the can’t-miss overview of the punk rock scene from its early inception in the ’70s in New York and the U.K. Includes chapters on The Ramones, The Sex Pistols and more. Punk was also the flex point for women in rock that paved the way for the Riot Grrrl movement like Siouxsie And The Banshees, Blondie, The Runaways, Patti Smith and The Slits. Flashing the finger against the slick corporate rock of the ’70s, punk was faster, messier, and louder than anything before it. Covered here with the same raw energy, look, and attitude as the music itself!”
