Beyond the Dance Floor by
The Beyond the Dance Floor book is a path breaking study about the women who DJ electronic dance music. In this study, the main focus is given on the largely neglected relationship between women and the hegemonic conceptions of gender and technology that continue to inform this male dominated music culture. In this study, the author explores several important issues, such as the politics of identity and representation, women-centred DJ communities, and the role female DJs and producers play in dance music culture as well as the larger public sphere.
Radical Ritual by
Radical Ritual recounts, through interviews with fabled Burning Man personages, the festival's evolution from the first scrap wood bonfire on a San Francisco beach to the week-long extravaganza in Black Rock City. Written from Neil Shister's perspective as a five-time participant, journalist, and student of American culture, Radical Ritual presents Burning Man as vitally, historically important, a significant player in the avant-garde, forging new social paradigms as liberal democracy unravels. Burning Man's contribution to this new order is post-post modern, a fusion of sixties humanism with state-of-the-art Silicon Valley wizardry. Shister is not alone in his opinion. Led by conservative activist Grover Norquist, the Cato Institute recently held an event on what libertarians can learn from Burning Man. The festival intertwines conservative and progressive ideas. On one hand it is a celebration of self-reliance, personal accountability, and individual freedom; on the other hand it is based on strong values of inclusion, consensual decision-making, and centered, collaborative endeavor.
Rave On by
Introduction: Let the music use you -- Techno cities #1: Detroit -- Techno cities #2: Berlin -- Fantasy island: Ibiza -- Electric dream machine: Las Vegas -- House nation: South Africa -- Interlude: Pirates of the Black Sea -- Temporary autonomous zone: France -- The party at the end of the road: Israel -- The outer limits: Shanghai -- Aliens in the desert: Dubai -- The promised land: New York.
Techno Rebels by
When it was originally published in 1999, Techno Rebels became the definitive text on a hard-to-define but vital genre of music. Author Dan Sicko demystified techno's characteristics, influences, and origins and argued that although techno enjoyed its most widespread popularity in Europe, its birthplace and most important incubator was Detroit. In this revised and updated edition, Sicko expands on Detroit's role in the birth of techno and takes readers on an insider's tour of techno's past, present, and future in an enjoyable account filled with firsthand anecdotes, interviews, and artist profiles.
Techno Rebels begins by examining the underground 1980s party scene in Detroit, where DJs and producers like the Electrifying Mojo, Ken Collier, The Wizard, and Richard Davis were experimenting with music that was a world apart from anything happening in New York or Los Angeles. He details the early days of the "Belleville Three"-Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson-who created the Detroit techno sound and became famous abroad as the sound spread to the UK and Europe. In this revised edition, Sicko delves deeper into the Detroit story, detailing the evolution of the artists and scene into the mid-1990s, and looks to nearby Ann Arbor to consider topics like the Electrifying Mojo's beginnings, the role of radio station WCBN, and the emergence of record label Ghostly International. Sicko concludes by investigating how Detroit techno functions today after the contrived electronica boom of the late 1990s, through the original artists, new sounds, and Detroit's annual electronic music festival.
Ultimately, Sicko argues that techno is rooted in the "collective dreaming" of the city of Detroit-as if its originators wanted to preserve what was great about the city-its machines and its deep soul roots. Techno Rebels gives a thorough picture of the music itself and the trailblazing musicians behind it and is a must-read for all fans of techno, popular music, and contemporary culture.
The Underground Is Massive by
Rooted in American techno/house and '90s rave culture, electronic dance music has evolved into the biggest moneymaker on the concert circuit. Music journalist Michaelangelo Matos has been covering this beat since its genesis, and in The Underground Is Massive, charts for the first time the birth and rise of this last great outlaw musical subculture. Drawing on a vast array of resources, including hundreds of interviews and a library of rare artifacts, from rave fanzines to online mailing-list archives, Matos reveals how EDM blossomed in tandem with the nascent Internet - message boards and chat lines connected partiers from town to town. In turn, these ravers, many early technology adopters, helped spearhead the information revolution. As tech was the tool, Ecstasy - (Molly, as it's know today) an empathic drug that heightens sensory pleasure - was the narcotic fueling this alternative movement. Full of unique insights, lively details, entertaining stories, dozens of photos, and unforgettable misfits and stars - from early break-in parties to Skrillex and Daft Punk - The Underground Is Massive captures this fascinating trend in American pop culture history, a grassroots movement that would help define the future of music and the modern tech world we live in.
Electronic and Experimental Music by
Electronic music before 1945 -- Early electronic music in Europe -- Early electronic music in the United States and Latin America -- Early electronic music in Asia and Oceania -- Tape composition and fundamental concepts of electronic music -- Early synthesizers and experimenters -- Principles of analog synthesis and voltage control -- The voltage-controlled synthesizer -- Early computer music (1953-85) -- The microprocessor revolution (1975 to the present) -- The principles of computer music -- Contemporary classical and experimental music -- Jazz, live electronic music, and ambient music -- Rock, space age pop, and turntablism -- Contemporary practices in composing electronic music.
Electronic and Computer Music by
In this revised and expanded third edition of the classic text on the history and evolution of electronic and computer music, Peter Manning provides the definitive account of the medium from its birth to the present day.
After explaining the antecedents of electronic music from the turn of the century to the Second World War, Manning discusses the emergence of early "classical" studios of the 1950s. He goes on to chronicle the upsurge of creative activity during the 1960s and 70s in the analog domain, as well as with live electronic music and the early use of electronics in rock and pop music. This edition contains new information about software innovations, digital media and the essential features of digital and audio control, the MIDI synthesizer and its many derivatives, and the evolution of computer workstations and multimedia personal computers.
Manning offers a critical perspective of the medium both in terms of its musical output and the philosophical and technical features that have shaped its growth. Emphasizing the functional characteristics of emerging technologies and their influence on the creative development of the medium, Manning covers key developments in both commercial and the non-commercial sectors to provide readers with the most comprehensive resource available on this ever-evolving subject.
