The Grammar Of Rock

Author : Alexander Theroux
Publisher : Fantagraphics Books
ISBN 13 : 1606996169
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Grammar of Rock written by Alexander Theroux and published by Fantagraphics Books. This book was released on 2013-02-16 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Novelist and critic Alexander Theroux analyzes the pop song. National Book Award nominee, critic and one of America’s least compromising satirists, Alexander Theroux takes a comprehensive look at the colorful language of pop lyrics and the realm of rock music in general in The Grammar of Rock: silly song titles; maddening instrumentals; shrieking divas; clunker lines; the worst (and best) songs ever written; geniuses of the art; movie stars who should never have raised their voice in song but who were too shameless to refuse a mic; and the excesses of awful Christmas recordings. Praising (and critiquing) the gems of lyricists both highbrow and low, Theroux does due reverence to classic word-masters like Ira Gershwin, Jimmy Van Heusen, Cole Porter, and Sammy Cahn, lyricists as diverse as Hank Williams, Buck Ram, the Moody Blues, and Randy Newman, Dylan and the Beatles, of course, and more outré ones like the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Patti Smith, the Fall (even Ghostface Killa), but he considers stupid rhymes, as well ― nonsense lyrics, chop logic, the uses and abuses of irony, country music macho, verbal howlers, how voices sound alike and why, and much more. In a way that no one else has ever done, with his usual encyclopedic insights into the state of the modern lyric, Theroux focuses on the state of language ― the power of words and the nature of syntax ― in The Grammar of Rock. He analyzes its assaults on listeners’ impulses by investigating singers’ styles, pondering illogical lunacies in lyrics, and deconstructing the nature of diction and presentation in the language. This is that rare book of discernment and probing wit (and not exclusively one that is a critical defense of quality) that positively evaluates the very nature of a pop song, and why one over another has an effect on the listener.

Author : Alexander Theroux
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.47/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Grammar of Rock written by Alexander Theroux and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Steve Almond
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0679603654
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life written by Steve Almond and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-04-13 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drooling fanatic, n. 1. One who drools in the presence of beloved rock stars. 2. Any of a genus of rock-and-roll wannabes/geeks who walk around with songs constantly ringing in their ears, own more than 3,000 albums, and fall in love with at least one record per week. With a life that’s spanned the phonographic era and the digital age, Steve Almond lives to Rawk. Like you, he’s secretly longed to live the life of a rock star, complete with insane talent, famous friends, and hotel rooms to be trashed. Also like you, he’s content (sort of) to live the life of a rabid fan, one who has converted his unrequited desires into a (sort of) noble obsession. Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life traces Almond’s passion from his earliest (and most wretched) rock criticism to his eventual discovery of a music-crazed soul mate and their subsequent production of two little superfans. Along the way, Almond reflects on the delusional power of songs, the awkward mating habits of drooling fanatics, and why Depression Songs actually make us feel so much better. The book also includes: • sometimes drunken interviews with America’s finest songwriters • a recap of the author’s terrifying visit to Graceland while stoned • a vigorous and credibility-shattering endorsement of Styx’s Paradise Theater • recommendations you will often choose to ignore • a reluctant exegesis of the Toto song “Africa” • obnoxious lists sure to piss off rock critics But wait, there’s more. Readers will also be able to listen to a special free mix designed by the author, available online at www.stevenalmond.com, for the express purpose of eliciting your drool. For those about to rock—we salute you!

Author : David Temperley
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190653779
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Musical Language of Rock written by David Temperley and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In all of the books about rock music, relatively few focus on the purely musical dimensions of the style: dimensions of harmony and melody, tonality and scale, rhythm and meter, phrase structure and form, and emotional expression. The Musical Language of Rock puts forth a new, comprehensive theoretical framework for the study of rock music by addressing each of these aspects. Eastman music theorist and cognition researcher David Temperley brings together a conventional music-analytic approach with statistical corpus analysis to offer an innovative and insightful approach to the genre. With examples from across a broadly defined rock idiom encompassing everything from the Beatles to Deep Purple, Michael Jackson to Bonnie Raitt, The Musical Language of Rock shows how rock musicians exploit musical parameters to achieve aesthetic and expressive goals-for example, the manipulation of expectation and surprise, the communication of such oppositions as continuity/closure and tension/relaxation, and the expression of emotional states. A major innovation of the book is a three-dimensional model of musical expression-representing valence, energy, and tension-which proves to be a powerful tool for characterizing songs and also for tracing expressive shifts within them. The book includes many musical examples, with sound clips available on the book's website. The Musical Language of Rock presents new insights on the powerful musical mechanisms which have made rock a hallmark of our contemporary musical landscape.

Author : Michael J. Zerbe
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1527533263
Total Pages : 217 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Rock-'n'-Roll Guide to Grammar and Style written by Michael J. Zerbe and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2019-04-16 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Believe it or not, you can use your favorite Rock-‘n’-Roll song titles to show you, clearly and concisely, how English grammar and style work—and it’s fun! Inspired by a lifelong love of music and language, this book captures the brilliant bond between music and language, using song titles as an innovative and memorable way to teach grammar and style. The book does not critique grammar and style use in Rock-‘n’-Roll song titles. Instead, it celebrates this use and demonstrates different kinds of sentences, parts of speech, verb tenses, stylistic figures of speech, and more. The book starts with short but complete sentences—song title subject/verb combinations of songs you know such as “Love hurts” and “Voices carry.” The patterns of English grammar and style then become strikingly visible when you see them in the titles of Rock-‘n’-Roll songs you love, all the way from the 1950s to today.

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781480340367
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.67/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Grammar Rocks! written by and published by . This book was released on 2013-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (ExpressiveArts). Learn the rules and you'll go far! Reinforce basic grammar concepts while rockin' to the beat with another winning resource from Hal Leonard's Rock 'n' Learn series. This standards-based study explores nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, contractions, capitalization and more - all put to music for learning that lasts! Perfect for Music class, Language Arts or any other academic area, the Teacher Book includes reproducible songsheets with chord symbols and simple choreography, and worksheets to reinforce learning. For performance options, a script is also included that introduces each of the eight original songs. A variety of whacky characters include the Punctuation Marks, the Apostrophe and the Crazy Contractions, Punk Rock Verbs, the Spellcheckers, and more! Groove along with the singer recordings on the enclosed Listening CD! Also available is an Enhanced P/A CD with performance and accompaniment-only song tracks, and PDFs of the piano/vocal arrangements with choreography, lyrics and worksheets for lots of performance and projection options! For additional value, receive all components in the Classroom Kit. Do your best and you'll feel great, when you learn to punctuate! Available separately: Teacher Book/Listening CD, Enhanced Performance/Accompaniment (with projectable/reproducible PDFs) and Classroom Kit (Teacher Book/Listening CD and Enhanced P/A CD.) Suggested for Grades 3-5.

Author : Mike Roe
Publisher : Abrams
ISBN 13 : 1647001099
Total Pages : 472 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The 30 Rock Book written by Mike Roe and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hilarious true story of the making of the cult classic hit show 30 Rock It’s hard to remember a time when Tina Fey wasn’t a star, but back in the early 2000s, she was an SNL writer who was far from a household name. It’s even harder to remember when Fey’s sitcom 30 Rock was tanking, but it was—it premiered in the fall of 2006, and by November, the New York Times wrote that 30 Rock was “perilously close to a flop.” But despite all expectations (including those of some of the cast and crew), Tina Fey’s eccentric buddy comedy lasted 138 episodes, spanning seven seasons. It resurrected the career of Alec Baldwin, survived an extended absence by Tracy Morgan, and permeated the culture— its breakneck pacing, oddball characters, and extremely rich joke writing are deeply beloved by millions of fans. Through more than fifty original interviews with cast, crew, critics, and more, culture writer Mike Roe brings to life the history of the gloriously goofy show that became an all-time classic. The 30 Rock Book has everything in it, from tales of the amazing music still stuck in our heads, to the iconic bit characters that make the show, to all the love and drama of the backstage crew . . . and the creative failures and successes along the way. So grab your night cheese and muffin tops, cuddle up with your slanket against your Japanese body pillow, and settle in for the story of one of the funniest shows in television history.

Author : William D. Davies
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0470754729
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Grammar of Raising and Control written by William D. Davies and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Grammar of Raising and Control surveys analyses across a range of theoretical frameworks from Rosenbaum's classic Standard Theory analysis (1967) to current proposals within the Minimalist Program, and provides readers with a critical understanding of these, helping them in the process to develop keen insights into the strengths and weaknesses of syntactic arguments in general. Distills a very successful graduate course in syntax from two prominent figures in the field, covering analyses from a range of theoretical frameworks. Provides readers with an understanding of the various perspectives represented in generative syntax, using a particular class of grammatical constructions as a means of examining the evolution of syntactic theory over the last thirty years. Helps students to develop keen insights into the strengths and weaknesses of syntactic arguments. Includes excerpts from six important works that allow students to familiarize themselves with the original literature while also providing discussion of the theoretical context in which they were written.

Author : Lawrence Michael Zbikowski
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190653639
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Foundations of Musical Grammar written by Lawrence Michael Zbikowski and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How is it that humans are able to organize seemingly random sounds into the captivating sonic structures we call music? In this volume, Lawrence M. Zbikowski argues that humans' unique ability to correlate sounds with dynamic processes provides the basis for the construction of meaningful musical utterances - that is, a foundation for musical grammar. Building on a framework for grammar developed by cognitive linguists over the past three decades and the pathbreaking research set out in his earlier book, Conceptualizing Music (OUP 2002), Zbikowski explains how the ability to draw analogies between widely differing domains allowing humans to connect sequences of musical sounds with emotion processes, physical gestures, and the steps of dance. He shows how these connections underpin an evocative movement from a cantata by J.S. Bach, guide our understanding of gestural choreographies by Fred Astaire and Charlie Chaplin, and frame connections between movement and music in French courtly dance and the Viennese waltz. Through thorough surveys of research in cognitive science and careful analyses of works by composers ranging from Bach, Brahms, and Schubert to Jerome Kern, Zbikowski explores the unique resources for communication offered by music and examines how these differ from those of language. Foundations of Musical Grammar is sure to be an instant - and enticingly controversial - classic within the evolving literature addressing the many complex intersections of music and language. -- from dust jacket.

Author : Joseph Glenn Schloss
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780199758364
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.60/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rock written by Joseph Glenn Schloss and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Draws music and culture together to tell the full story of Rock n Roll. Balances the history of the music business and the impact of social and cultural movements on the story of rock.