The History of Rock and Roll

Unlike other histories of rock, it offers a far broader and deeper analysis of the influences on rock music. Dispelling common misconceptions, it examines rock's origins in hokum songs and big-band boogies as well as Delta blues, detailing the embrace by white artists of African-American styles long before rock 'n' roll appeared.

Crossroads tells the myriad stories of the impact and enduring influence of the early-’60s blues revival: stories of the record collectors, folkies, beatniks, and pop culture academics; and of the lucky musicians who learned life-changing lessons.

From chanteuses to blues belters and guitar slingers, Ochs provides fifty female artists and groups. She shows how they not only illustrate the width and breadth of rock music-- they define it. Presented chronologically from the birth of rock today, these women rockers shook up the music scene.

Drugs, Sex, and Rock 'n' Roll: The American Counterculture of the 1960s offers a unique examination of the cultural flowering that enveloped the United States during that early postwar decade.

Glam Rock: Music in Sound and Vision reveals the true story of how glam carved out a place as a diverse musical style and how it related to the artistic, political, economic, emotional, sexual, and commercial scenes of the late twentieth century.

By the time Jimi Hendrix died in 1970 the idea of a Black man playing electric lead guitar was considered literally remarkable in ways it had not been for Chuck Berry only ten years earlier: this book explains how this happened.

Taking us on a tour of the major moments, the events and songs of this remarkable year, he shows how musicians came together to form the perfect storm of rock and roll greatness, starting a musical era that would last longer than anyone predicted.

Dennis Dunaway, the bassist and co-songwriter for the band, tells a story just as over-the-top crazy as their (in)famous shows. As teenagers in Phoenix, Dennis Dunaway and lead singer Vince Furnier, who would later change his name to Alice Cooper, formed a hard-knuckles band that played prisons, cowboy bars and teen clubs.

In Black Diamond Queens, Maureen Mahon draws on recordings, press coverage, archival materials, and interviews to document the history of African American women in rock and roll between the 1950s and the 1980s.

Kim Gordon, founding member of Sonic Youth, fashion icon, and role model for a generation of women, now tells her story -- a memoir of life as an artist, of music, marriage, motherhood, independence, and as one of the first women of rock and roll.

In his three decades of recording, Prince had nearly thirty albums hit the Billboard Top 100. He is the only artist since the Beatles to have a number-one song, movie, and single at the same time.

In the eighties, Eddy was one of the first critics to widely cover indie rock, and he has since brought his signature hyper-caffeinated, hyper-hyphenated style to bear on heavy metal, hip-hop, country—you name it.

This fascinating anthology explores every side of the decade’s wide-ranging music scene, with in-depth articles by Rolling Stone’s best writers; rare and intimate photographs of fans, musicians, concerts and festivals; and flash-backs from some of the most seminal 90’s musicians, like Moby, RZA, Liz Phair, Bob Weir, and even Slash. From Pearl Jam to the Wu-Tang Clan, Rolling Stone tells it all.

The authors unravel the mystical, back-to-the-womb longings of the psychedelic tradition, from Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, and Van Morrison to Brian Eno, My Bloody Valentine, and ambient techno.

With input from those who knew and worked with him, together with his own words, this book recounts the rise of Chris Cornell and his immortal band Soundgarden as they emerged from the 1980s post-punk underground to dominate popular culture in the 90s alongside Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, and Nirvana.

In the 1990s, heavy metal band Dürt Würk was poised for breakout success--but then lead singer Terry Hunt embarked on a solo career and rocketed to stardom as Koffin, leaving his fellow bandmates to rot in obscurity.

A tribute to the Pacific Northwest's grunge genre draws on the observations of individuals at the forefront of the movement from Soundgarden and the Melvins to Nirvana and Pearl Jam, citing such influences as the rise of Seattle's Sub Pop record label and the death of Kurt Cobain.

Selects ten songs recorded between 1956 and 2008 that embody rock and roll as a thing in itself--in the story each song tells, inhabits, and creates in its legacy.

In this energetic survey of current trends in punk rock, journalist and music critic Diehl (Notorious C.O.P.) delivers a knowledgeable and sympathetic overview of the current "neo-punk" bands that achieved success with "the pop music mainstream in the mid-1990s," from big names such as the Offspring and Rancid to lesser-known artists such as Brody Dalle.

In early 1991, music manager Goldberg agreed to take on Nirvana, a critically acclaimed new band from the underground music scene in Seattle. Working with Kurt Cobain from 1990 to 1994-- the last four years of his life-- he witnessed the stratospheric success of Nevermind; Cobain's marriage to the brilliant but mercurial Courtney Love; the birth of their daughter, Frances Bean; and, finally, Cobain's public struggles with addiction, which ended in suicide.