Random House New Releases - Music - Ethnomusicology

How to Wreck a Nice Beach by Dave Tompkins

2010-04-06T00:30:00-05:00

How to Wreck a Nice Beach The Vocoder from World War II to Hip-Hop, The Machine Speaks
Written by Dave Tompkins

Hardcover, 336 pages | Stop Smiling Books | Music - History & Criticism; Music - Rap; Music - Ethnomusicology | $35.00 | 978-1-933633-88-6 (1-933633-88-3)

The history of the vocoder: how popular music hijacked the Pentagon's speech scrambling weapon

The vocoder, invented by Bell Labs in 1928, once guarded phones from eavesdroppers during World War II; by the Vietnam War, it was repurposed as a voice-altering tool for musicians, and is now the ubiquitous voice of popular music.

In How to Wreck a Nice Beach—from a mis-hearing of the vocoder-rendered phrase “how to recognize speech”—music journalist Dave Tompkins traces the history of electronic voices from Nazi research labs to Stalin’s gulags, from the 1939 World’s Fair to Hiroshima, from artificial larynges to Auto-Tune.

We see the vocoder brush up against FDR, JFK, Stanley Kubrick, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Kraftwerk, the Cylons, Henry Kissinger, and Winston Churchill, who boomed, when vocoderized on V-E Day, “We must go off!” And now vocoder technology is a cell phone standard, allowing a digital replica of your voice to sound human.

From T-Mobile to T-Pain, How to Wreck a Nice Beach is a riveting saga of technology and culture, illuminating the work of some of music’s most provocative innovators.

Check the Technique by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

2009-03-12T00:30:00-05:00

Check the Technique Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies
Written by Brian Coleman
Introduction by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

eBook, 528 pages | Villard | Music - Rap; Music - Ethnomusicology; Biography & Autobiography - Composers & Musicians | $14.99 | 978-0-307-49442-9 (0-307-49442-X)

A Tribe Called Quest • Beastie Boys • De La Soul • Eric B. & Rakim • The Fugees • KRS-One • Pete Rock & CL Smooth • Public Enemy • The Roots • Run-DMC • Wu-Tang Clan • and twenty-five more hip-hop immortals

It’s a sad fact: hip-hop album liners have always been reduced to a list of producer and sample credits, a publicity photo or two, and some hastily composed shout-outs. That’s a damn shame, because few outside the game know about the true creative forces behind influential masterpieces like PE’s It Takes a Nation of Millions. . ., De La’s 3 Feet High and Rising, and Wu-Tang’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). A longtime scribe for the hip-hop nation, Brian Coleman fills this void, and delivers a thrilling, knockout oral history of the albums that define this dynamic and iconoclastic art form.

The format: One chapter, one artist, one album, blow-by-blow and track-by-track, delivered straight from the original sources. Performers, producers, DJs, and b-boys–including Big Daddy Kane, Muggs and B-Real, Biz Markie, RZA, Ice-T, and Wyclef–step to the mic to talk about the influences, environment, equipment, samples, beats, beefs, and surprises that went into making each classic record. Studio craft and street smarts, sonic inspiration and skate ramps, triumph, tragedy, and take-out food–all played their part in creating these essential albums of the hip-hop canon.

Insightful, raucous, and addictive, Check the Technique transports you back to hip-hop’s golden age with the greatest artists of the ’80s and ’90s. This is the book that belongs on the stacks next to your wax.

“Brian Coleman’s writing is a lot like the albums he covers: direct, uproarious, and more than six-fifths genius.”
–Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

“All producers and hip-hop fans must read this book. It really shows how these albums were made and touches the music fiend in everyone.”
–DJ Evil Dee of Black Moon and Da Beatminerz

“A rarity in mainstream publishing: a truly essential rap history.”
–Ronin Ro, author of Have Gun Will Travel

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Check the Technique by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

2007-06-12T00:30:00-05:00

Check the Technique Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies
Written by Brian Coleman
Introduction by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Trade Paperback, 528 pages | Villard | Music - Rap; Music - Ethnomusicology; Biography & Autobiography - Composers & Musicians | $20.00 | 978-0-8129-7775-2 (0-8129-7775-0)

Music in the Mind by Hiromi Lorraine Sakata

2002-12-17T00:30:00-05:00

Music in the Mind The Concepts of Music and Musician in Afghanistan
Written by Hiromi Lorraine Sakata

Hardcover, 246 pages | Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press | Music - Ethnomusicology; Music - Religious - Muslim; Social Science - Anth/Cultural | $34.95 | 978-1-58834-090-0 (1-58834-090-2)

Music is central to many important events in the Islamic world. Yet many members of Islamic society who follow the teachings of the Qur'an hold music and musicians in very little regard. Hiromi Lorraine Sakata examined this paradox during her research in Afghanistan in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and produced this insightful book.

Through case studies in the city of Herat (western Afghanistan), the remote provincial capital Faizabad (northeastern Afghanistan), and the village of Khadir (central Afghanistan), Sakata discusses traditional Islamic concepts of music and musician and interprets modern attitudes towards them both. She pays particular attention to the term musiqi (which can be generally translated as "secular music") and how misinterpretations of this construct may be the root of Western misunderstandings about music and musicians in Muslim societies.

Sakata collaborated with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings to produce a CD of Afghan music, which is included with the book.

Fight the Power by Spike Lee

1998-09-08T00:30:00-05:00

Fight the Power Rap, Race, and Reality
Written by Chuck D, Yusuf Jah and Spike Lee

Trade Paperback, 288 pages | Delta | Music - Rap; Biography & Autobiography - Composers & Musicians; Music - Ethnomusicology | $19.00 | 978-0-385-31873-0 (0-385-31873-1)

Like the hard-hitting sounds of a Public Enemy jam, the words of the band's lead singer, Chuck D, excite the mind and senses. In his first book, Chuck D pours out commentary that takes on Hollywood, race, the music industry, the murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G., drugs, and the three E's--education, economics and enforcement. Likening the challenge to "scaling a slick mountain on roller skates," Chuck D lets no one off the hook, putting celebrities and street kids alike on notice that the future is up for grabs...and the only way to be part of it, to be players not victims, is to work together.

As an insider's view on Hip-Hop culture slides into intimate revelations about his own life, as lyrics from his songs bump shoulders with top ten lists like "The Greatest Rappers of All Time," Chuck D has his say with verve and electrifying energy, with anger, love and truth. A book that brings light into darkness, Fight the Power speaks for a generation. It is a powerful and prophetic message that America, both Black and White, urgently needs to hear.

Nightline with Chuck as the featured guest.

His rejection of celebrity and his constant community activism have made him a hero. For the past five years he's been touring colleges and universities, delivering three hour lectures on everything from the music industry's corruption of young talent, the history of black music from Blues to Rap, his own controversial lyrics, problems in the black community, self-empowerment, contemporary culture and current political leaders to Public Enemy's rise to international stardom. All while maintaining his solo and Public Enemy's recording careers.

Fight the Power examines a multitude of complex social, racial and artistic issues. In his unmistakable voice, Chuck discusses the role of heroes and role models in the black community, Hollywood's negative images of blacks, the effect of gangsta rap, its images on the country's youth and the war between east and west coast rappers that may have spawned the murder of Tupac Shakur, the role of athletes and entertainers in eroding and strengthening values, and other vital contemporary concerns. Candid, thoughtful, and in your face, Fight the Power, the first substantial book by a rapper, offers readers a look into the culture of hip hop and the future of Black culture. -->

We'll Understand It Better By and By by Bernice Johnson Reagon

1992-12-17T00:30:00-05:00

We'll Understand It Better By and By Pioneering African American Gospel Composers
Edited by Bernice Johnson Reagon

Trade Paperback, 384 pages | Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press | Music - Ethnomusicology; Music - Gospel; Social Science - African-American Studies | $27.95 | 978-1-56098-167-1 (1-56098-167-9)

From the congregations of small African churches in Memphis, Philadelphia, and Chicago to the nationwide fans of the Golden Gate Quartet, Mahalia Jackson, Sam Cooke, Edwin Hawkins and others, gospel music has profoundly influenced Americans. This book brings together some of the best pioneering composers and shows the impact of their work on music and culture in America and abroad.

Random House New Releases - Music - Ethnomusicology

How to Wreck a Nice Beach by Dave Tompkins

How to Wreck a Nice Beach The Vocoder from World War II to Hip-Hop, The Machine SpeaksWritten by Dave Tompkins

Check the Technique by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Check the Technique Liner Notes for Hip-Hop JunkiesWritten by Brian Coleman Introduction by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Check the Technique by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Check the Technique Liner Notes for Hip-Hop JunkiesWritten by Brian Coleman Introduction by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Music in the Mind by Hiromi Lorraine Sakata

Music in the Mind The Concepts of Music and Musician in AfghanistanWritten by Hiromi Lorraine Sakata

Fight the Power by Spike Lee

Fight the Power Rap, Race, and RealityWritten by Chuck D, Yusuf Jah and Spike Lee

We'll Understand It Better By and By by Bernice Johnson Reagon

We'll Understand It Better By and By Pioneering African American Gospel ComposersEdited by Bernice Johnson Reagon

How to Wreck a Nice Beach The Vocoder from World War II to Hip-Hop, The Machine Speaks
Written by Dave Tompkins

Check the Technique Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies
Written by Brian Coleman
Introduction by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Check the Technique Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies
Written by Brian Coleman
Introduction by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Music in the Mind The Concepts of Music and Musician in Afghanistan
Written by Hiromi Lorraine Sakata

Fight the Power Rap, Race, and Reality
Written by Chuck D, Yusuf Jah and Spike Lee

We'll Understand It Better By and By Pioneering African American Gospel Composers
Edited by Bernice Johnson Reagon