The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music Volume 1 provides an overview of media, industry, and technology and its relationship to popular music. In 500 entries by 130 contributors from around the world, the volume explores the topic in two parts: Part I: Social and Cultural Dimensions, covers the social phenomena of relevance to the practice of popular music and Part II: The Industry, covers all aspects of the popular music industry, such as copyright, instrumental manufacture, management and marketing, record corporations, studios, companies, and labels. Entries include bibliographies, discographies and filmographies, and an extensive index is provided.

The Road Crew: Live Music and Touring is an in-depth study of the road crew – the group of workers who handle the logistical and technical requirements of popular music concert tours – that provides an extensive look at the activities and personnel involved in the daily operation of these events. Using interviews with road crew members, participant observation at concert venues and archival research, this book covers a range of topics, including how they learn their roles and maintain work through networks and informal practices, the experience of being on tour and the workplace culture of road crews, the daily tasks and necessary documents that contribute to the realisation of concert events, and the integral role that tour managers play in the working lives of musicians. The book also provides important insights into the experience of women working in a male-dominated field, the ways in which hierarchy shapes the working lives of “support” workers and the effects of touring on road crew members. The Road Crew will be of interest to scholars and students of popular music, live music and the creative industries, as well as music fans, journalists, and professionals and practitioners in the music industries.

This book fills the gap in existing literature by exploring other forms of political discourses in non-Western rap music. Theoretically, it challenges and explores resistance, arguing towards the need for different epistemological frameworks in which to look at narratives of cultural resistance in the Arabic-speaking world. Empirically, it provides an in-depth look at the politics of rap culture in Morocco. Rap Beyond Resistance bridges the humanities and social sciences in order to de-Westernize cultural studies, presenting the political narratives of the Moroccan rap scene beyond secular liberal meanings of resistance. By exploring what is political, this book brings light to a vibrant and varied rap scene diverse in its political discourses–with an emphasis on patriotism and postcolonial national identity–and uncovers different ways in which young artists are being political beyond ‘radical lyrics’.

The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music Volume 1 provides an overview of media, industry, and technology and its relationship to popular music. In 500 entries by 130 contributors from around the world, the volume explores the topic in two parts: Part I: Social and Cultural Dimensions, covers the social phenomena of relevance to the practice of popular music and Part II: The Industry, covers all aspects of the popular music industry, such as copyright, instrumental manufacture, management and marketing, record corporations, studios, companies, and labels. Entries include bibliographies, discographies and filmographies, and an extensive index is provided.

Phil Spector is a musician, songwriter and producer whose musical ability and visionary foresight as a producer charted the future of popular music and culture of the late 20th century. He revolutionized recording processes and re-shaped the business and marketing approach of the music industry. While he raised the bar for other musicians and producers to follow and gave a voice to groups struggling to achieve equality during the 60s, Spector was, however, a complex character whose need for control brought much damage and confusion into the lives of those around him as well as into his own career and life. Phil Spector: Sound of the Sixties follows the ups and downs of Spector’s career as an entrepreneur and businessman, technical wizard and musical visionary, record label master and collaborator with the biggest bands of the age. Spector left an indelible mark on American pop music, creating an iconic soundtrack that still attracts new listeners today.

Global Popular Music: A Research and Information Guide offers an essential annotated bibliography of scholarship on popular music around the world in a two-volume set. Featuring a broad range of subjects, people, cultures, and geographic areas, and spanning musical genres such as traditional, folk, jazz, rock, reggae, samba, rai, punk, hip-hop, and many more, this guide highlights different approaches and discussions within global popular music research. This research guide is comprehensive in scope, providing a vital resource for scholars and students approaching the vast amount of publications on popular music studies and popular music traditions around the world. Thorough cross-referencing and robust indexes of genres, places, names, and subjects make the guide easy to use. Volume 1, Global Perspectives in Popular Music Studies, situates popular music studies within global perspectives and geocultural settings at large. It offers over nine hundred in-depth annotated bibliographic entries of interdisciplinary research and several topical categories that include analytical, critical, and historical studies; theory, methodology, and musicianship studies; annotations of in-depth special issues published in scholarly journals on different topics, issues, trends, and music genres in popular music studies that relate to the contributions of numerous musicians, artists, bands, and music groups; and annotations of selected reference works.

The Beatles brought colour, joy, freedom and love to a grey, post-war world. But the most successful group in popular music history also harboured hidden, sometimes darker worlds and influences that are often downplayed by their biographers. In their career, the Fab Four were to cross paths with many spiritual movements, religious groups, esoteric philosophies and mystical teachings. Inevitably, their thinking was affected by the ideas they encountered. These ideas in turn helped shape their music and – given their vast popularity – the public consciousness. Behind the Wall of Illusion examines the spiritual inspirations that the Beatles brought to the changing cultural landscape of the 1960s. From the popularization of the new religion of rock ‘n’ roll, Beatlemania (the ‘new Cult of Dionysus’) and John Lennon’s explosive statement that the Beatles were ‘bigger than Jesus’, Sean MacLeod takes us on a tour of Indian ashrams, questionable gurus and hallucinatory drugs. He also studies the secreted ‘clues’ in the Beatles’ album covers and films; the growing rumours that Paul had been killed in a car crash and covertly replaced; and the tragic assassination of John Lennon and the unknown perpetrators behind the crime. This is an indispensable book for any lover of the Beatles.