Celebrity Culture

Drawing on new research and enlivened by Touré's unique pop-cultural fluency, I Would Die 4 U relies on surprising and in-depth interviews with Prince's band members, former girlfriends, musicologists, and even Bible scholars to deconstruct the artist's life and work. Prince's baby boomer status allowed him to play a wise older brother to the latchkey kids of Generation X. Defying traditional categories of race, gender, and sexuality, he nonetheless presented a very traditional conception of religion and God in his music.

Superman was a hero. Clark Kent was a geek. Spiderman saved lives. Peter Parker sold photographs to his local paper. Chris Moyles entertains eight million people each week on BBC Radio 1. Then he goes home and plays with an Xbox on his sofa, wearing only his underpants. Welcome to the real world of Chris Moyles.

This is the first study to explore fully the myth of America as reflected in the nation's popular music. Beginning with the songs of the Pilgrims and continuing through more than two centuries of history and music, Born in the U.S.A. shows the emerging American myth and gives a close reading of the compositions of songwriters as diverse as William Billings, Henry Clay Work, Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen.

Accidental Playboy is the hilarious, erotic, and provocative memoir of a sensitive post-modern man who stumbles into the dream job of a lifetime. When Playboy magazine tapped Leif Ueland to report on its nationwide search for the Playmate of the Millennium, he was the ultimate confused American male. A self-professed nice guy, he was the last man to be on Playboy's roving audition bus, never mind its official reporter. And yet, something deep within his psyche leapt at the opportunity.

In Going Back to T-Town, Ernie’s daughter, Carmen Fields, tells a story of success, disappointment, and perseverance, extending from the early jazz era to the 1960s. This is an enlightening account of how this talented musician and businessman navigated the hurdles of racial segregation during the Jim Crow era.

You may know that the UK pop group One Direction broke records when they hit the US music scene. The singers' album Up All Night debuted at number one on the US Billboard charts. Want to know more about the group's singers - Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson? Listen to this audiobook to learn all about 1D's amazing rise to fame!

Warren Beatty guarded his privacy even before he became a movie star, when he burst onto the screen in 1961 as the earnestly handsome all-American boy in Splendor in the Grass. When he started acting, Beatty kept secret the fact that actress Shirley MacLaine, already a star, was his older sister. Over time, he has cultivated a mystique, giving few interviews and instructing others not to talk about him. Until now.

In this new audiobook, broadcaster and music writer Alan Cross narrates the definitive history of Jonathan Richman. Cross succeeds once again in revealing the fascinating history behind the music in the same compelling way we've come to expect from his long broadcasting career.

In this new audiobook, broadcaster and music writer Alan Cross narrates the definitive history of The Killers. Cross succeeds once again in revealing the fascinating history behind the music in the same compelling way we've come to expect from his long broadcasting career.

In this new audiobook, broadcaster and music writer Alan Cross narrates the definitive history of The White Stripes. Cross succeeds once again in revealing the fascinating history behind the music in the same compelling way we've come to expect from his long broadcasting career.

In this new audiobook, broadcaster and music writer Alan Cross narrates the definitive history of Patti Smith. Cross succeeds once again in revealing the fascinating history behind the music in the same compelling way we've come to expect from his long broadcasting career.

In this new audiobook, broadcaster and music writer Alan Cross narrates the definitive history of The Velvet Underground. Cross succeeds once again in revealing the fascinating history behind the music in the same compelling way we've come to expect from his long broadcasting career.

Family lore had it that Bonnie Siegler’s grandfather crossed paths in Midtown Manhattan late one night in 1954 with Marilyn Monroe, her white dress flying up around her as she filmed a scene for The Seven Year Itch. Jules Schulback had his home movie camera with him, capturing what would become the only surviving footage of that legendary night. Bonnie wasn’t sure she quite believed her grandfather’s story…until, cleaning out his apartment, she found the film reel.

Es war Anfang der Sechziger, als plötzlich vier junge Männer aus dem Nichts erschienen und die Welt radikal veränderten. Sie begeisterten die Jugend nicht nur mit einer völlig neuen Musik, nein, sie stellten mit ihrer frischen Unbekümmertheit auch erstmals die Arroganz der Obrigkeit total infrage. Daraufhin begannen existenzielle und schmerzhafteste Kämpfe zwischen der Jugend und der Erwachsenenwelt. Rainer Lange, Jahrgang 1949, zählte zu den dennoch Glücklichen, die diese Epoche hautnah miterleben durften.

Since 2014, The Hard Times has been at the forefront of music journalism, delivering hard-hitting reports and in-depth investigations into the punk and hardcore scene. From their scathing takedown of Kim Jong-un after he appointed himself the new singer of Black Flag to their incisive coverage of a healthy Lars Ulrich being replaced by a hologram, the site has become a trusted source for all things counterculture. Now the writers behind the site reveal their humble roots, documenting The Hard Times’ ascension alongside the rise of punk.

When the Nicholas Brothers danced, uptown at the Cotton Club, downtown at the Roxy, in segregated movie theatres in the South, and dance halls across the country, audiences cheered, clapped, stomped their feet, and shouted out uncontrollably. In Brotherhood in Rhythm, Constance Valis Hill interweaves an intimate portrait of these great performers with a rich, detailed history of jazz music and dance, both bringing their act to life and explaining their significance through a colorful analysis of their eloquent footwork, their full-bodied expressiveness, and their changing style.

"Document sonore brut, nous avons choisi de ne pas remonter en studio cette conversation d'Arletty avec Marc Laudelout, afin de restituer le plus fidèlement possible la fraîcheur et l'authenticité de la rencontre entre le journaliste et la grande actrice - mythique s'il en est - de l'âge d'or du cinéma français. Marc Laudelout réussit avec perfection à nous faire partager une Arletty intime, généreuse, pleine d'esprit."

A hilarious look at the eating habits of the fit and famous - from Gwyneth's goji berry and quail egg concoctions to Jackie Kennedy's baked potato and Beluga caviar regimen - Rebecca Harrington leaves no cabbage soup unstirred in her wickedly funny, wildly absurd quest to diet like the stars. Elizabeth Taylor mixed cottage cheese and sour cream; Madonna subsisted on "sea vegetables;" and Marilyn Monroe drank raw eggs whipped with warm milk.

A top-10 list is nobody’s perfect tool, especially when trying to measure up 10 of the most significant and influential bands of the British Invasion. Nevertheless, this book presents 10 biographies of classic bands of the era widely regarded as the best of the best, putting their contributions to music in sharp focus. And what contributions they have made! Over half a century later, their songs still ring out on radios, their names are well-known to many, and songs released today are inspired by the music they produced.

In this truly one-of-a-kind book, the author/narrator - a representative, in extremis, of contemporary American obsession with beauty, celebrity, transmitted image - finds himself suspended, fascinated, in the remoteness of our wall-to-wall mediascape. David Shields reads his own life - reads our life - as if it were an allegory about remoteness and finds persuasive, hilarious, and heartbreaking evidence wherever he goes.