Series: Reverb

Crooners sing close to the mic in a soft, intimate style. In this book, Alex Coles explores the crooner in popular music from the 1950s to the present. Each chapter focuses on one song and one singer—Frank Sinatra, Scott Walker, Barry White, David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Tom Waits, Grace Jones, Ian McCulloch, Nick Cave, and Nas—and examines in detail how...

Transatlantic Drift explores the emergence and evolution of nightclubs and electronic dance music from the 1950s onwards. It traces the rhythmic journey of dance music, following the pulse as it bounced between Europe, North America, and the Caribbean. Music, dance styles, and nightclub spaces are not created in isolation; they are shaped by collective influences and shared experiences. This book...

The Monkees represent a vital problem for rock and pop, and perhaps the major question: is it the music that matters or the personality and image of the performers? This book explores the system behind the Monkees, the controversial made-for-tv band that scored some of the biggest hit records of the 1960s. The Monkees represent the cumulative result of a...

Iceland punches well above its weight in the world of music, producing global icons like Björk, Sigur Rós, Of Monsters and Men, and Laufey, while at the same time nurturing a vibrant local scene. Icelandic Pop explores how Iceland's unique social habits, institutions, and everyday practices contribute to its thriving music culture. Tracing the development of Icelandic popular music since...

Peter Gabriel is one of contemporary music's great experimenters. From his work in the progressive group Genesis, through his pioneering solo albums, to his enthusiastic embrace of world music and new technologies, Gabriel has remained steadfastly consistent in his redefinition of music's boundaries and influence: geographical, virtual and thematic. At the heart of Paul Hegarty's astute analysis is the idea...

Song Noir examines the formative first decade of Tom Waits' career, when he lived, wrote, and recorded nine albums in Los Angeles; from his soft, folk-inflected debut, Closing Time (1973), to the abrasive, surreal Swordfishtrombones (1983). Starting his songwriting career in the '70s, Waits absorbed LA's wealth of cultural influences. Combining the spoken idioms of writers like Kerouac and Bukowski...

Sting: From Northern Skies to Fields of Gold is the first book to examine the relationship between Sting's working-class background in Newcastle and the creativity and inspiration behind his music. Born in a mainly working-class area of North Tyneside in 1951, Gordon Sumner would become one of the world's best-selling music artists. Known professionally as Sting, he was the lead...

An illuminating study of the relationship between the Kinks and their city, London. Of all the great British bands to emerge from the 1960s, none had a stronger sense of place than the Kinks. Often described as the archetypal English band, they were above all a quintessentially working-class band with a deep attachment to London. Mark Doyle examines the relationship...