The initial volume in the Billboard Hitmakers Series focuses on the 100 most influential rock artists of all time, including the early singers, players, and bands that shaped the evolution of rock styles. Arranged alphabetically, these profiles offer an instructive overview of the artists who charted the course of modern pop culture.

The rock icon and co-founder of KISS recounts his turbulent life behind the face paint in this New York Times bestselling memoir. With his onstage persona, the “Starchild”, Paul Stanley made rock & roll history—thrilling countless fans with hard rock anthems and elaborate stage shows. But his famous makeup hid a difficult life. In Face the Music, Stanley shares a gripping blend of personal revelations and gritty war stories about the highs and lows both inside and outside of KISS. Born with a condition called microtia (an ear deformity rendering him deaf on the right side), Stanley's traumatic childhood experiences produced an inner drive to succeed in the most unlikely of places: music. Taking readers through the series of events that led to the founding of KISS, the personal relationships that helped shape his life, and the dynamics among his bandmates, this book leaves no one unscathed—including Stanley himself. With never-before-seen photos and images throughout, Face the Music is a colorful portrait of a man and the band he helped create, define, and sustain—made larger than life in artfully told stories that are shocking, funny, inspirational, and honest.

The legendary critic and author of Mystery Train “ingeniously retells the tale of rock and roll” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Unlike previous versions of rock ’n’ roll history, this book omits almost every iconic performer and ignores the storied events and turning points everyone knows. Instead, in a daring stroke, Greil Marcus selects ten songs and dramatizes how each embodies rock ’n’ roll as a thing in itself, in the story it tells, inhabits, and acts out—a new language, something new under the sun. “Transmission” by Joy Division. “All I Could Do Was Cry” by Etta James and then Beyoncé. “To Know Him Is to Love Him,” first by the Teddy Bears and almost half a century later by Amy Winehouse. In Marcus’s hands these and other songs tell the story of the music, which is, at bottom, the story of the desire for freedom in all its unruly and liberating glory. Slipping the constraints of chronology, Marcus braids together past and present, holding up to the light the ways that these striking songs fall through time and circumstance, gaining momentum and meaning, astonishing us by upending our presumptions and prejudices. This book, by a founder of contemporary rock criticism—and its most gifted and incisive practitioner—is destined to become an enduring classic. “One of the epic figures in rock writing.”—The New York Times Book Review “Marcus is our greatest cultural critic, not only because of what he says but also, as with rock-and-roll itself, how he says it.”—The Washington Post Winner of the Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award in Music Criticism, given by the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers

A narrative history of the birth of rock 'n' roll in Detroit

Change happens. Either intentionally or unintentionally, we find ourselves entangled with change on a daily basis. Depending on the day and our mood, our ability to successfully "rock" change or "roll" with the punches can come and go faster than a one-hit wonder. True rock stars understand that change is a journey. They then find the will to grind it out in the face of adversity to achieve the kind of lasting change they seek. Rock 'n' Roll with It offers a unique approach to creating and accepting powerful and lasting change in your life. Presented through the lens of our beloved Rock 'N' Roll, this book will help you create and perform a personal "set list" designed to keep you engaged while developing the characteristics needed to become a true Rock Star of Change. Thought-provoking interviews with legendary change makers will inspire you to put on your leather pants and shake what your Mama gave you. Brant Menswar and Jim Trick, both real-life rock stars and passionate change agents, skillfully guide your journey through change soundly explaining how change works and equipping you with specific strategies to accomplishing the kind of transformational change that leads to the type of life you really want...one that bears fruit and enriches those around you.