Music Vs The Man

For centuries, a war has raged between singers, musicians, bands--and the authorities. The conflict comes to life in Music vs The Man. What is it about musicians like John Lennon, Billie Holiday, Paul Robeson, Michael Jackson and Pussy Riot that has put them so frequently in the cross-hairs of the police, immigration officials, city councils, the FBI, and the Kremlin? Music vs The Man explores the question in chapters featuring artists from Strauss and Shostakovich to Sinatra and the Stones. Music wields the type of revolutionary power that politicians and authorities only dream of. Music has the power to open hearts, change minds, and motivate people to stand up for what they believe in. That's why, through the centuries, authorities have been trying to censor it, by throwing musicians in prison, raiding their homes and sometimes even killing them. In Music vs The Man acclaimed filmmaker and author Peter Rowe tells the wild stories of the efforts of a wide group of musical artists to make their voices heard, and the bold and forceful efforts of the authorities to shut them up.

1llustrated with 16 pages of black and white photos, this is the first full-length biography of Ray Charles and the definitive portrait of the man called The Genius of Soul'. Colourful, commanding, ruthless, opinionated and dogmatic, Charles stands among the most influential pop musicians of the last half century and his musical innovations have touched everyone from Elvis to Prince, from Aretha Franklin to Billy Joel. A fascinating analytical look at both the man and his art.'

Political campaigning affects numerous realms under the communication umbrella with each channel seeking to influence as many individuals as possible. In higher education, there is a growing scholarly interest in communication issues and subjects, especially on the role of music, in the political arena. Music and Messaging in the African Political Arena provides innovative insights into providing music and songs as an integral part of sending political messages to a broader spectrum of audiences, especially during political campaigns. The content within this publication covers such topics as framing theory, national identity, and ethnic politics, and is designed for politicians, campaign managers, political communication scholars, researchers, and students.

This book brings together research at the intersection of music, cultural industries, management, antiracist politics and gender studies to analyse music as labour, in particular highlighting social inequalities and activism. Providing insights into labour processes and practices, the authors investigate the changing role of manifold actors, institutions and technologies and the corresponding shifts in the valuation and evaluation of music achievements that have shaped the relationship between music, labour, the economy and politics. With research into a variety of geographic regions, chapters shed light on the various ways by which musicians’ work is performed, constructed and managed at different times and show that musicians’ working practices have been marked by precarity, insecurity and short-term contracts long before capitalism invited everybody to ‘be creative’. In doing so, they specifically examine the dynamics in music professions and educational institutions, as well as gatekeepers and mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. With a specific emphasis on inequalities in the music industries, this book will be essential reading for scholars seeking to understand the collective actions and initiatives that foster participation, inclusion, diversity and fair pay amongst musicians and other workers. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution- Non Commercial- No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This book is a work of historical military fiction that describes the impact of ski troopers and their Mules on accelerating the end of World War II in Italy. That Great War was winding down in Europe but, in the Apennine Mountains of Italy, large quantities of Italian and Nazi soldiers were still well-entrenched. They were some of the best troops that either Benito Mussolini or Adolf Hitler could place in action against any Yankee advance. Each of them were very capable of doing considerable harm to a typical infantry division which had not been trained to fight under these harsh environmental conditions of thick snow banks, extremely low temperatures, severe freezing winds and rigorous ecological demands. This is to say that a typical infantry division and their artillery would have been seriously stalled by the deep snow drifts. As one advisor said, For the entrenched enemies, it would have been like shooting ducks in a pond. Fortunately, the US Army listened to the sage advice of their various consultants. The US Army formed their own Ski Trooper outfit to rid the mountain tops from their unwanted occupants, the soldiers of Italy and Germany. That outfit was named the Tenth Mountain Division but, as time passed on, the newsreels began to call them by a better name, they were known as Ruffners Raiders. Brigadier General David L. Ruffner was the Commanding General of the Tenth Mountain Division Artillery. Although The Tenth Division entered the combat zones rather late in the day, they still had one of the highest casualty rates for that War of all Wars. For the Mules that were involved, their loss of life was 94% since they provided such an easy target for the Snipers to kill.

Whilst there are enough celebrity connections and anecdotes not to be out of place in an ‘A list’ autobiography, the real hook of this book is that the author isn’t remotely famous. The endearing appeal is that it is the viewpoint of the everyman, but one who has had enough light brushes with celebrity that he has some great tales to tell. These stories, anecdotes and musings are seamlessly woven into what for many of us will be a memory jogging, laughter inducing remembrance of some of the major, as well as quainter, stranger and more trivial moments of pop culture over the last few decades. If you love pop music and pop culture, feared the Daleks, the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and mourn the demise of Pez, Cresta, conkers as a rite of passage, jokes on lolly sticks, Top of the Pops and pink vinyl limited edition LP’s, then you will surely enjoy this. Please beware! This book may waste days (if not weeks) of your life as almost every paragraph will have you frantically typing into your search engine and getting lost, on what may turn out to be an endless Internet Safari. This book contains some adult humour. ‘Best Wishes and Good Luck with your writing’ Ben Elton

"Calypsonians have long been the 'voice of the people', delivering the complaints, criticisms and even the solutions to political leaders. In its earliest manifestations, calypso music emerged in response to a cultural climate that demanded creative modes of expression that could both resist and record political and historical changes taking place in Trinidad and Tobago. Since the 1920s and 1930s, calypsonians typically have composed songs that chronicle their observations and opinions on current events focusing on specific occurrences, from local scandals to current affairs while also examining broader trends. Not only has calypso served as an unofficial record of historical events, it emerged as a cultural weapon that yielded tremendous sway within the general audiences of the Caribbean region. This collection includes contributions from calypsonians, critics, novelists and poets alike, all engaged in representing Caribbean culture in its myriad forms. It represents an array of convergences across critical perspectives, political and social agendas, generations and national boundaries. The work of numerous calypsonians and other singers are explored, including Sparrow; Kitchener; Chalkdust; Denise Belfon; and writers such as Samuel Selvon, V.S. Naipaul, Jean Rhys, Errol John, Paul Marshall, Earl Lovelace and Lashkmi Persaud. The comparative analyses provide an interdisciplinary approach to Cultural Studies making the volume essential reading for students, scholars and calypso enthusiasts. "