Rockonomics How Music Explains Everything (about the Economy) by Alan Krueger

$32.99 AUD

Category: Music

Alan Krueger, the former chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, uses the music industry, from rock artists to music executives, from managers to promoters, as a way in to explain the principles of economics, and the forces shaping our economic lives. As economists recognize, the musi c industry is often a leading indicator of today's economy; it is among the first to be disrupted by the latest wave of technology, and examining the ins and outs of how musicians create and sell new songs and plan concert tours offers valuable lessons for what is in store for businesses and employees in other industries that are struggling to adapt. Drawing on interviews with leading band members, music executives, managers, promoters, and using the latest data on revenues, royalties, tour dates, and merchandise, ROCKONOMICS takes readers backstage to show how the music industry really works--who makes money and how much, and how the economics of the music industry has undergone a radical transformation during the last twenty years. Before digitalization and the ability to stream music over the Internet, rock musicians made the bulk of their income from record sales. Today, income from selling songs has plummeted, even for superstars like Taylor Swift; the real money nowadays is derived from concert sales. In 2016, for example, Billy Joel earned $212.4 million from his live performances, and less than $1 million from record sales and streaming. Even Paul McCartney, who has written and recorded more number one songs than anyone in music history, today, earns 93 percent of his income from live concerts. Krueger tackles common questions: How does a song become popular? And how does a new artist break out in today's winner-take-all economy? ...Show more

A Masters Apprentice living in the sixties by Peter Tilbrook

$39.95 AUD

Category: Music

CSNY - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young by Peter Doggett

$39.99 AUD

Category: Music

"A must for CSNY fans." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review The first ever biography focused on the formative and highly influential early years of "rock's first supergroup" (Rolling Stone) Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young--when they were the most successful, influential, and politically potent band in Amer ica--in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Woodstock and the formation of the band itself. 1969 to 1974 were true golden years of rock n' roll, bookmarking an era of arguably unparalleled musical power and innovation. But even more than any of their eminent peers, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young channeled and broadcast all the radical anger, romantic idealism, and generational angst of their time. Each of the members had already made their marks in huge bands (The Hollies, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds), but together, their harmonies were transcendent. The vast emotional range of their music, from delicate acoustic confessionals to raucous counter-culture anthems, was mirrored in the turbulence of their personal lives. Their trademark may have been vocal harmony, but few--if any--of their contemporaries could match the recklessness of their hedonistic and often combative lifestyles, when the four tenacious, volatile, and prodigal songwriters pursued chemical and sexual pleasure to life-threatening extremes. Including full color photographs, CSNY chronicles these four iconic musicians and the movement they came to represent, concentrating on their prime as a collective unit and a cultural force: the years between 1969, when Woodstock telegraphed their arrival to the world, and 1974, when their arch-enemy Richard Nixon was driven from office, and the band (to quote Graham Nash himself) "lost it on the highway." Even fifty years later, there are plenty of stories left to be told about Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young--and music historian Peter Doggett is here to bring them to light in the meticulously researched CSNY, a quintessential and illuminative account of rock's first supergroup in their golden hour for die-hard fans, nostalgic flower-children, and music history aficionados alike. ...Show more

Backstage Pass: The Starchild's All-Access Guide to the Good Life by Paul Stanley

$39.99 AUD

Category: Music

The New York Times bestselling author and front man and rhythm guitarist of KISS grants fans an all-access backstage pass to his personal life and shows them how to pursue a rock 'n' roll lifestyle of their own, offering hard-won advice from a music legend. In this follow-up to his pop ular bestseller Face the Music, the Starchild takes us behind the scenes, revealing what he's learned from a lifetime as the driving force of KISS, and how he brings his unique sensibility not only to his music career but to every area of his life--from business to parenting to health and happiness. Backstage Pass takes you beyond the makeup as Paul shares fascinating details about his life--his fitness routine, philosophy, business principles, how he maintains his inspiration, passion, and joy after nearly 50 years of mega success including selling out tours, 100 million albums sold and an art career that has amassed over 10 million dollars in sales. Divulging more true stories of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer's relationships, hardships, and pivotal moments, it also contains intimate four-color, never-before-seen photos from Paul's personal collection, and offers surprising lessons on the discipline and hard work that have made him one of the healthiest and most successful rock 'n' roll icons in history. This is the book for fans who love living large, but also want to take control and move ahead in everyday life. Paul shows you how you can rock 'n' roll all night and party every day--without missing a beat.   ...Show more

Elton John: The Biography by David Buckley

$24.99 AUD

Category: Music

As Elton John finishes his final tour, this updated, fully revised biography pays tribute to the groundbreaking, socially conscious musician. Meticulously researched and drawing on many new original interviews with friends and associates, Elton John is the first serious, but also page-turningly entert aining, biography of the Queen Mum of Pop. It's now cool to acknowledge John's enormous influence on the music business, his impact on the struggle for LGBTQ rights, and his efforts to fight AIDS. Fully revised and updated, this is the definitive look at a showbiz legend. ...Show more

Joy Ride: Lives of the Theatricals by John Lahr

$19.99 AUD

Category: Music

'John Lahr manages to write better about the theatre than anybody in the English language,' says Richard Eyre. Joy Ride, which includes the best of his New Yorker profiles and reviews, makes his expertise and his exhilaration palpable. From modern greats, like Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter, David Mamet, Tony Kushner and August Wilson, through the work of directors like Nicholas Hytner and Ingmar Bergman, to Shakespeare himself, the depth of Lahr's understanding is plain to see and extraordinary to read. He brings the reader up close and personal to the artists and their art. Whether you are a regular theatre-goer, or just starting out, Lahr's book delights as both a celebration and a guide. ...Show more

Outback Songman - My Life by Ted Egan

$32.99 AUD

Category: Music

The life of one of Australia's great raconteurs and bush musicians, told in his own words.

Then It Fell Apart by Moby

$29.99 AUD

Category: Music

What do you do when you realise you have everything you think you've ever wanted but still feel completely empty? What do you do when it all starts to fall apart? The second volume of Moby's extraordinary life story is a journey into the dark heart of fame and the demons that lurk just beneath the bling and bluster of the celebrity lifestyle. In summer 1999, Moby released the album that defined the millennium, PLAY. Like generation-defining albums before it, PLAY was ubiquitous, and catapulted Moby to superstardom. Suddenly he was hanging out with David Bowie and Lou Reed, Christina Ricci and Madonna, taking esctasy for breakfast (most days), drinking litres of vodka (every day), and sleeping with super models (infrequently). It was a diet that couldn't last. And then it fell apart. The second volume of Moby's memoir is a classic about the banality of fame. It is shocking, riotously entertaining, extreme, and unforgiving. It is unedifying, but you can never tear your eyes away from the page. ...Show more

Bob Dylan's New York Revisited by Herb Lester

$29.95 AUD

Category: Music

On a cold night in January 1961, Bob Dylan arrived in New York. Within hours, he made his first New York performance at the Greenwich Village coffeehouse Cafe Wha? This guide charts Dylan's journey through the city from that first day through the 1960s, as he transitioned from unscrubbed folkie to world -conquering rocker, before a July 1966 motorcycle crash forced him into exile upstate. This annotated map includes more than 40 entries, including the locations of friends' apartments where he'd crash for a few nights, the many small clubs and bars at which he strummed and sang for change, the scenes of first successes and later controversies, locations of LP cover shoots, and much more. Born and raised in Minnesota as Robert Zimmerman, it was only in New York that he completed his transformation into Bob Dylan, during the frenetic period this guide documents. ...Show more

Maestros and Their Music - The Art and Alchemy of Conducting by John Mauceri

$29.99 AUD

Category: Music

John Mauceri brings a lifetime of experience to bear in this hugely informative, consistently entertaining exploration of his profession, rich with anecdotes from decades of working alongside some of the greatest names in the music world. With candor and humor, Mauceri makes clear that conducting is it self a composition- of legacy and tradition, techniques handed down from master to apprentice-and more than a trace of ineffable magic. He reveals how conductors approach a piece of music (a calculated combination of personal interpretation, imagination, and insight into the composer's intent); what it takes to communicate solely through gesture, with sometimes hundreds of performers at once; and the occasionally glamorous, often challenging life of the itinerant maestro. Mauceri, who worked closely with Leonard Bernstein for eighteen years, studied with Leopold Stokowski, and was on the faculty of Yale University for fifteen years, is the perfect guide to the allure and theater, passion and drudgery, rivalries and relationships of the conducting life. ...Show more

No Walls and the Recurring Dream: A Memoir by Ani DiFranco

$44.99 AUD

Category: Music

In her new memoir, No Walls and the Recurring Dream, Ani DiFranco recounts her early life from a place of hard-won wisdom, combining personal expression, the power of music, feminism, political activism, storytelling, philanthropy, entrepreneurship, and much more into an inspiring whole. In these frank, honest, passionate, and often funny pages is the tale of one woman's eventful and radical journey to the age of thirty. Ani's coming of age story is defined by her ethos of fierce independence--from being an emancipated minor sleeping in a Buffalo bus station, to unwaveringly building a career through appearances at small clubs and festivals, to releasing her first album at the age of 18, to consciously rejecting the mainstream recording industry and creating her own label, Righteous Babe Records. In these pages, as in life, she never hesitates to challenge established rules and expectations, maintaining a level of artistic integrity that has impressed many and antagonized more than a few. Ani continues to be a major touring and recording artist as well as a celebrated activist and feminist, standing as living proof that you can overcome all personal and societal obstacles to be who you are and to follow your dreams. ...Show more

Schumann - The Faces and the Masks by Judith Chernaik

$39.99 AUD

Category: Music

Schumann: The Faces and the Masks is a groundbreaking account of a major composer whose life and works have been the subject of intense controversy ever since his attempted suicide and early death in an insane asylum. Schumann was a key figure in the Romanticism which swept Europe and America in the 19t h century, inspiring writers, musicians and painters, delighting their enthralled audiences, and reaching to the furthest corners of the world. All the contradictions of his age enter Schumann's works, from the fantastic disguises of his carnival masquerades and his passionate love songs to his great 'Spring' and 'Rhenish' Symphonies. He was intensely original and imaginative, but he also worshipped the past-especially Shakespeare and Byron, Raphael and Michelangelo, Beethoven and Bach. He believed in political, personal and artistic freedom but struggled with the constraints of artistic form. He turned his tumultuous life into music that speaks directly to the heart, losing none of its power with the passage of time. Drawing on hitherto unpublished archive material, Chernaik sheds new light on Schumann's life and music, his sexual escapades, his fathering of an illegitimate child, the true facts behind his courtship of his wife Clara and the opposition of her monstrous father, and the ways in which the crises of his life, his dreams and fantasies, entered his music. Schumann's troubled relations with his fellow-Romantic composers Mendelssohn and Chopin are freshly explored, and the full medical diary kept at Endenich Asylum, long withheld, enables Chernaik to look again at the mystery of Schumann's final illness. Using her wide experience as a scholar of Romanticism and a novelist, Chernaik vividly brings Schumann's world and his extraordinary artistic achievement to life in all its rich complexity. ...Show more