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"Focusing on the years 1971 to the present, Questlove finds the hidden connections in the American tapestry, whether investigating how the blaxploitation era reshaped Black identity or considering the way disco took an assembly-line approach to Black genius. And these critical inquiries are complemented by his own memories as a music fan, and the way his appetite for pop culture taught him about America. A history of the last half-century and an intimate...

The rich and colorful story of America's most popular music and the singers and songwriters who captivated, entertained, and consoled listeners throughout the 20th century--based on the upcoming eight-part film series to air on PBS in September 2019. Country music emerged from the American South, where people sang to themselves and to their families at home and in church, and where they danced to fiddle tunes on Saturday nights. With the birth of...

Surveys the history and components of music, concentrating on Western musical traditions.

This collection of five dozen pieces of literary criticism was published in the Washington Post between March 2003 and January 2010. It is a collection of Yardley's opinions of books that he believes are worthy of a second look. They scan the realms of fiction, biography and autobiography, memoirs, and history.

Presents a history of humor, from fart jokes on clay Sumerian tablets all the way up to the latest Twitter memes, that tells the story of how comedy came to rule the modern world. "For millennia of human history, the future belonged to the strong. To the parent who could kill the most animals with sticks and to the child who could survive the winter or the epidemic. When the Industrial Revolution came, masters of business efficiency prospered instead,...

Presents a history of country music in the United States, profiles the genre's most notable past and present stars, and features must-have song and album suggestions.