Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volume 1 and 2) Hardcover – October 4, 2013
Beginning the journey in the era of Victorian parlor balladry, brass bands, and ragtime with the advent of the record industry, readers witness the birth of the blues and the dawn of jazz in the 1910s and the emergence of country music on record and the shift from acoustic to electrical recording in the 1920s. The odyssey continues through the Swing Era of the 1930s; rhythm & blues, bluegrass, and bebop in the 1940s; the rock & roll revolution of the 1950s; modern soul, the British invasion, and the folk-rock movement of the 1960s; and finally into the modern era through the musical streams of disco, punk, grunge, hip-hop, and contemporary dance-pop. Sullivan, however, also takes critical detours by extending the coverage to genres neglected in pop music histories, from ethnic and world music, the gospel recording of both black and white artists, and lesser-known traditional folk tunes that reach back hundreds of years.
This book is ideal for anyone who truly loves popular music in all of its glorious variety, and anyone wishing to learn more about the roots of virtually all the music we hear today. Popular music fans, as well as scholars of recording history and technology and students of the intersections between music and cultural history will all find this book to be informative and interesting.
- Print length1030 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherScarecrow Press
- Publication dateOctober 4, 2013
- Dimensions8.9 x 2.79 x 11.33 inches
- ISBN-100810882957
- ISBN-13978-0810882959
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Review
Sullivan explores the diversity of popular music in one- to three-page entries covering some 1,000 recordings from 1889 to 2012. Selections are chosen from well-known lists such as those of the Grammy Hall of Fame, National Recording Registry, Rolling Stone, and the top 100 hits from Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories, 1890-1954 (1986)–the final example a sometimes maligned (for misinformation) publication ghostwritten by Sullivan. This well-documented encyclopedia draws on many respected sources, including Music Trades, which is particularly pertinent for earlier works. Popular music herein includes rock, soul, country, jazz, blues, gospel, and ethnic music. Entries are chronological within ten 'playlists,' providing charting/list information, performer, writer, recording specifics, and documented history and commentary covering the song and the creators and performers. . . . The indexes are superb. For breadth of coverage and currency, this set (also available electronically through ProQuest and EBSCO) is a useful, superior complement to David Ewen's American Popular Songs. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty; general readers. , CHOICE
Lists of popular song recordings and hit books abound, covering various genres and time periods. Rarer are sources that bring these recordings together into one 'great list,' and which also treat readers to a musical journey with an in-depth examination of each song—from little-known root influences to interesting claims to fame, alternate recordings, and other trivia. Sullivan’s new two-volume set covers all popular genres, from blues and jazz to country and hip-hop—even world music—and spans all recorded time periods, from 1889 to the present. Interestingly, it presents songs based not only on their established greatness in various compiled lists, but also on the quality of the recordings themselves. . . . Heavily footnoted, Sullivan’s enjoyable, worthwhile reference work includes an extensive bibliography including biographical sources and discographies. Separate title and subject/name indexes are included., American Reference Books Annual
What Sullivan has given us here is not a best-of list, but rather 10 separate road maps to genres and times—an experience to be had through listening, not a purely introspective reflection of taste geared toward shaping the listener’s preferences. With the detailed history of each song, he has documented histories and experiences from disparate sources and provided a new reference work to guide us in answering detailed questions about over 1,000 significant recordings across a wide variety of genres. The Encyclopedia of Popular Song Recordings will serve both as a destination and as a launching pad for further research, and should be a welcome addition to any library whose patrons are interested in popular music., Music Reference Services Quarterly
Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings is a good supplementary title for any academic or public library that serves interests in popular music., Reference and User Services Quarterly
There is a generous bibliography, ideal for the nerd, the cultural historian (especially of American popular songs), the resources librarian, anyone connected with the popular music industry and the general reader. The bibliography is divided up into sections like all-time great records, American pop charts, popular music 1800s 1940s, country music, ethnic and world music (this includes calypso and Cuban, klezmer/traditional Jewish music and Latin American and reggae), gospel/spirituals, jazz and ragtime, movie music, rhythm & blues, Tin Pan Alley and Broadway and rock. Summing up: at the price good value from Scarecrow (who publish a lot on popular and classical music, check out their website); likely purchasers are reference libraries, specialist libraries and specialists. Looking back will remain strong: any good researcher will try to keep up with change., Reference Reviews
The Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recording really is encyclopedic and covers more genre territory than any work I ever thought I'd see. Few, if any, other writers could treat Atilla the Hun, Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, the Stanley Brothers, Ada Jones and the Dixie Hummingbirds in equal measure. What makes the book most interesting to browse is how less familiar material is chronicled next to a sought-for entry and seeing less familiar styles given comparable weight to best sellers, which will have an effect on the way our heirs will understand and evaluate our music. -- Dick Spottswood
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Scarecrow Press (October 4, 2013)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 1030 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0810882957
- ISBN-13 : 978-0810882959
- Item Weight : 7.36 pounds
- Dimensions : 8.9 x 2.79 x 11.33 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,388,635 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #749 in R&B & Soul
- #2,082 in Country Music (Books)
- #4,238 in Music Encyclopedias
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
If that's all these books did, they would dwarf most of the competition. However, Sullivan also has done phenomenal research to give roughly one-page histories of each song, offering detailed accounts of a song's back story and importance. An absolute must-have for any fans of music history - of ANY era or ANY genre.