/
Music: A Subversive History
Ted Gioia (Author), Jamie Renell (Narrator), Basic Books (Publisher) & 0 more★★★★★
★★★★★
4.6|328 ratings
In Stock
What customers say
Customers find the book very informative and a fascinating read. They appreciate the music history content, with one customer highlighting its great sleuthing into the real history of music. The writing quality receives mixed feedback, with some customers finding it well written while another describes it as a poorly written tome without an editor.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.US
"A dauntingly ambitious, obsessively researched" (Los Angeles Times) global history of music that reveals how songs have shifted societies and sparked revolutions.
Histories of music overwhelmingly suppress stories of the outsiders and rebels who created musical revolutions and instead celebrate the mainstream assimilators who borrowed innovations, diluted their impact, and disguised their sources. In Music: A Subversive History, Ted Gioia reclaims the story of music for the riffraff, insurgents, and provocateurs.
Gioia tells a four-thousand-year history of music as a global source of power, change, and upheaval. He shows how outcasts, immigrants, slaves, and others at the margins of society have repeatedly served as trailblazers of musical expression, reinventing our most cherished songs from ancient times all the way to the jazz, reggae, and hip-hop sounds of the current day.
Music: A Subversive History is essential reading for anyone interested in the meaning of music, from Sappho to the Sex Pistols to Spotify. Read more