Music City's Defining Decade


Book Description

With an eye for the events, an ear for the music, and a background in journalism which had included owning and operating a group of Illinois newspapers, Glaser kept pen in hand to record this unique history of the way it was and some of the people who made it that way in Nashville during the defining decade of the 1970s which ended with the industrys first platinum record: Wanted: The Outlaws.




How Nashville Became Music City, U.S.A.


Book Description

How Nashville Became Music City, U.S.A. was first published in 2006 and quickly became the go-to reference for those seeking to understand the Nashville music industry, or write about it. Now, Michael Kosser, prolific songwriter and author, returns with an updated and expanded edition, bringing the history of Music Row up to the present, since so much has changed over the last fifteen years. This new edition of How Nashville Became Music City, U.S.A. details the history of the Nashville song and recording industry from the founding of its first serious commercial music publishing company in 1942 to the present. Kosser tells the history of Music Row primarily through the voices of those who made and continue to make that history, including record executives, producers, singers, publishers, songwriters, studio musicians, studio engineers, record promoters, and others responsible for the music and the business, including the ambitious music executives who struggle to find an audience who will buy country records instead of just listening to them on the radio. The result is a book with insight far beyond the usual media stories, with plenty of emotion, humor, and historical accuracy. Kosser traces the growth and cultural changes of Nashville and the adventurous souls who fly to it to be a part of the music. He follows the changes from its hillbilly roots through its “Nashville Sound” quasi-pop days, from the outlaws, the new traditionalists, and the mega-sellers to the recent bro country and the rise of mini-trends. This edition also bears witness to the huge influence of Music Row on pop, folk, rock, and other American music genres.




Music/City


Book Description

Austin’s famed South by Southwest is far more than a festival celebrating indie music. It’s also a big networking party that sparks the imagination of hip, creative types and galvanizes countless pilgrimages to the city. Festivals like SXSW are a lot of fun, but for city halls, media corporations, cultural institutions, and community groups, they’re also a vital part of a complex growth strategy. In Music/City, Jonathan R. Wynn immerses us in the world of festivals, giving readers a unique perspective on contemporary urban and cultural life. Wynn tracks the history of festivals in Newport, Nashville, and Austin, taking readers on-site to consider different festival agendas and styles of organization. It’s all here: from the musician looking to build her career to the mayor who wants to exploit a local cultural scene, from a resident’s frustration over corporate branding of his city to the music executive hoping to sell records. Music/City offers a sharp perspective on cities and cultural institutions in action and analyzes how governments mobilize massive organizational resources to become promotional machines. Wynn’s analysis culminates with an impassioned argument for temporary events, claiming that when done right, temporary occasions like festivals can serve as responsive, flexible, and adaptable products attuned to local places and communities.







From Movie City to Music City, USA


Book Description

If you're interested in working in movies or making music and you were not privileged to be born the son or daughter of an already established named actor, writer, or musician that can open the door for you, then this book is your guide. Should you decide to take that leap from the normal to what everyone else considers the abnormal career choice the advice in this book can not only save you months and years of getting that first background artist job, but can also save you hundreds and thousands of dollars that you do not need to spend in pursuit of the entertainment industry as a career. Consider this book a basic training manual, a no punches pulled guide to the obstacles that you are guaranteed to face while pursuing entertainment as the industry of your choice. The main focus of this book is to educate those that wish to pursue show business regardless of one's area of interest within the performing arts, whether one wants to be an actor, or writer, producer or director, songwriter or recording artist. They all have one ugly thing in common and that is the con-artist. They will promise you the world just to empty the contents of your wallet and bank account. They will prey upon your dreams so that their gain is your nightmare. Let this book be your shield for those that will use unscrupulous and unethical tactics against you. While pursuing the entertainment industry as a career, you will also be confronted with more obstacles, walls, and closed doors, that will be just as disappointing as getting ripped off. One thing you will find is that if you can't handle rejection and do not have thick skin then the entertainment industry definitely isn't for you. However if you can keepgetting back on that horse no matter how many times it throws you then this book will help you keep dusting yourself off and staying in the saddle. Consider me as your wagon master guiding you through dangerous territory, with all of its unpleasantness and uncertainties, although I can't guarantee the success of your journey through show business, as can no one, I can at least point you in the right direction so you won't be lured off the beaten path by the bandits that hide and wait for you. There will be those that will tell you that you will not succeed, but in my opinion if your only goal is to work in movies and you only work as a movie extra then you have succeeded, as success itself has many levels and one has to start somewhere. Trust me some of today's big names were also once told, go home you'll never make it and now they have a net worth of over $600,000,000.00. You may never become the $600,000,000.00 man or woman but no matter, follow your heart do what you love and love what you do.




Landscapes of the Song of Songs


Book Description

In this masterful new study of the ancient poetry of the Song of Songs, Elaine T. James explores the Song's underlying interest in the natural world. Engaging with the fields of geography, landscape architecture, and literature, James critiques the tendency of scholars to reify a perceived dichotomy between "nature" and "culture" and instead argues that the poetic attention to landscape indicates an awareness of a viewer. Nature is here a poetic device that informs James's close-readings of agrarianism, gardens, cities, social control, and feminism and the gaze in the Song. With this two-fold emphasis on landscape and lyric, Landscape of the Song of Songs shows how the Song persistently envisions a world in which human lovers are embedded in the natural world, complexly enfolded in relationships of fragility and care.




The City in the Hebrew Bible


Book Description

These essays explore the idea of the city in the Hebrew Bible by means of thematic and textual studies. The essays are united by their portrayal of how the city is envisaged in the Hebrew Bible and how the city shapes the writing of the literature considered. In its conceptual framework the volume draws upon a number of other disciplines, including literary studies, urban geography and psycho-linguistics, to present chapters that stimulate further discussion on the role of urbanism in the biblical text. The introduction examines how cities can be conceived and portrayed, before surveying recent studies on the city and the Hebrew Bible. Chapters then address such issues as the use of the Hebrew term for 'city', the rhythm of the city throughout the biblical text, as well as reflections on textual geography and the work of urban theorists in relation to the Song of Songs. Issues both ancient and modern, historical and literary, are addressed in this fascinating collection, which provides readers with a multi-faceted and interdisciplinary view of the city in the Hebrew Bible.




Music City Melbourne


Book Description

How did Melbourne earn its place as one of the world's 'music cities'? Beginning with the arrival of rock 'n' roll in the 1950s, this book explores the development of different sectors of Melbourne's popular music ecosystem in parallel with broader population, urban planning and media industry changes in the city. The authors draw on interviews with Melbourne musicians, venue owners and policy-makers, documenting their ambitions and experiences across different periods, with accompanying spotlights on the gendered, multicultural and indigenous contexts of playing and recording in Melbourne. Focusing on pop and rock, this is the first book to provide an extensive historical lens of popular music within an urban cultural economy that in turn investigates the contemporary nature and challenges of urban music activities and policy.







Music, City and the Roma under Communism


Book Description

This book highlights the role of Romani musical presence in Central and Eastern Europe, especially from Krakow in the Communist period, and argues that music can and should be treated as one of the main points of relation between Roma and non-Roma. It discusses Romani performers and the complexity of their situation as conditioned by the political situations starkly affected by the Communist regime, and then by its fall. Against this backdrop, the book engages with musician Stefan Dymiter (known as Corroro) as the leader of his own street band: unwelcome in the public space by the authorities, merely tolerated by others, but admired by many passers-by and respected by his peer Romain musicians and international music stars. It emphasizes the role of Romani musicians in Krakow in shaping the soundscape of the city while also demonstrating their collective and individual strategies to adapt to the new circumstances in terms of the preferred performative techniques, repertoire, and overall lifestyle.