Comprehenseive guide to the music of the 1960s.

The role of popular music is widely recognized in giving voice to radical political views, the plight of the oppressed, and the desire for social change. Avant-garde music, by contrast, is often thought to prioritize the pursuit of new technical or conceptual territory over issues of human and social concern. Yet throughout the activist 1960s, many avant-garde musicians were convinced that aesthetic experiment and social progressiveness made natural bedfellows. Intensely involved in the era's social and political upheavals, they often sought to reflect this engagement in their music. Yet how could avant-garde musicians make a meaningful contribution to social change if their music remained the preserve of a tiny, initiated clique? In answer, Sound Commitments, examines the encounter of avant-garde music and "the Sixties" across a range of genres, aesthetic positions and geographical locations. Through music for the concert hall, tape and electronic music, jazz and improvisation, participatory "events," performance art, and experimental popular music, the essays in this volume explore developments in the United States, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, Japan and parts of the "Third World," delving into the deep richness of avant-garde musicians' response to the decade's defining cultural shifts. Featuring new archival research and/or interviews with significant figures of the period in each chapter, Sound Commitments will appeal to researchers and advanced students in the fields of post-war music, cultures of the 1960s, and the avant-garde, as well as to an informed general readership.

(Harp). Feelin' groovy? Sylvia Woods' spiffy collection of 40 songs from the 1960s will inspire you to put on your embroidered bell-bottoms and wear some flowers in your hair. Some of the pieces can be played by beginning harp players, but most are at advanced beginner to intermediate levels. Fingerings, lyrics and chord symbols are included. Pieces are in C or sharp keys, and can be played on either lever or pedal harp. About half of the songs do not have any lever changes within the pieces. 96 pages, spiral-bound. Includes TV and movie themes, and music by: Burt Bacharach and Hal David; Bob Dylan; Tony Hatch; Justin Hayward; Mick Jagger and Keith Richards; Gerard Marsden; John Phillips; Nino Rota; John Sebastian; Paul Simon; Jerry Jeff Walker; Brian Wilson; and more. Includes songs made popular by: The Animals; The Association; The Beach Boys; Jimmy Clanton; Petula Clark; Judy Collins; Donovan; Bob Dylan; The Fifth Dimension; Jerry and the Pacemakers; The Lovin' Spoonful; Joni Mitchell; The Moody Blues; The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band; Peter, Paul and Mary; Elvis Presley; The Rolling Stones; Simon and Garfunkel; The Turtles; Dionn Warwick; The Youngbloods; and others. Playable on lever harps and pedal harps.

John Cage's disdain for records was legendary. He repeatedly spoke of the ways in which recorded music was antithetical to his work. In Records Ruin the Landscape, David Grubbs argues that, following Cage, new genres in experimental and avant-garde music in the 1960s were particularly ill suited to be represented in the form of a recording. These activities include indeterminate music, long-duration minimalism, text scores, happenings, live electronic music, free jazz, and free improvisation. How could these proudly evanescent performance practices have been adequately represented on an LP? In their day, few of these works circulated in recorded form. By contrast, contemporary listeners can encounter this music not only through a flood of LP and CD releases of archival recordings but also in even greater volume through Internet file sharing and online resources. Present-day listeners are coming to know that era's experimental music through the recorded artifacts of composers and musicians who largely disavowed recordings. In Records Ruin the Landscape, Grubbs surveys a musical landscape marked by altered listening practices.

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.

A detailed historical analysis of popular music in American film, from the era of sheet music sales, to that of orchestrated pop records by Henry Mancini and Ennio Morricone in the 1960s, to the MTV-ready pop songs that occupy soundtrack CDs of today..