12 Contemporary Books That Will Have You Rethinking Music History
The best contemporary music books on this list are specific and sweeping, creating new narratives that challenge dominant orthodoxy on music and its histories.
Josh Friedberg
Josh Friedberg is a music historian, teacher, singer-songwriter, and sometime radio DJ based in Chicago. He has a Master's degree in English from Northeastern Illinois University, and his PopMatters article, "'Blue', 'Tapestry', and Oil: Or, Oil Capitalism in Two Key Singer-Songwriter Albums" won first place in the Illinois Woman's Press Association competition for Arts & Entertainment articles from 2019.
Racializing Rock: The ’60s and the White Sounds of ‘Pet Sounds’
The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds is not a racist text, but its impact was racist because it further encoded rock as a white genre, perpetuating the institutionalized prejudice that relegated African Americans to the margins of rock.
Universal Songs? Interpreting Stevie Wonder’s ‘Songs in the Key of Life’
Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life is 45 years old. It’s a towering masterpiece in the histories of soul, pop, American music, and Black music worldwide.
James Baldwin Digs Into the Roots of American Music
James Baldwin’s writing about music illuminates the significance of racial slavery for all American music.
‘Blue’, ‘Tapestry’, and Oil: Or, Oil Capitalism in Two Key Singer-Songwriter Albums
Joni Mitchell’s Blue and Carole King’s Tapestry were fueled by petroculture, which powered the rise of feminism in music. How? Read on.
Is Miles Davis’ ‘Bitches Brew’ a Tradition-Carrier or a Sellout?
Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew does not sound like any mainstream popular music in the US from its time. What made this album different?
‘Live at Carnegie Hall’ Captures Bill Withers at His Grittiest and Most Introspective
Bill Withers' Live at Carnegie Hall manages to feel both exceptionally funky and like a new level of grown-up pop music for its time.
Matchbox Twenty: Aren’t We All a Little “Unwell” in the Time of Coronavirus?
Say what you will about Matchbox Twenty – I know I once did. But during this COVID-19 pandemic, we're all going "crazy" and feeling "a little unwell" in this time of isolation, and I'm turning to their music.
‘Piano Duets’ Asserts Ella Fitzgerald’s Interpretive Greatness
Though called "The First Lady of Song", Ella Fitzgerald is more lauded for her spectacular vocal sound than for her interpretations of lyrics, but a new reissue should help correct that understanding of her art.
Nirvana’s ‘MTV Unplugged in New York’ 25 Years Later
Recorded in late 1993 and achieving notoriety as leader Kurt Cobain's epitaph, Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York is back for a 25th anniversary reissue. Are the new rehearsal tracks enough to justify buying the album again?
Aretha Franklin: Context, Intersectionality, and the Rock Canon
Viewing Aretha Franklin's work through a focus on race, gender, and other categories of analysis can challenge us to do the same with all music, acknowledging how multiple points of oppression and privilege impact the production, consumption, and reception of a wide range of music.
10 Conversation-Shifting Contemporary Books About Music
These are multiple works of genre history and works tackling important issues of race, class, and gender. All challenge dominant narratives of music.
