(Part 2) Top products from r/indieheads

These are both UK based, but The People's Songs: The Story of Modern Britain in 50 Records was quite interesting bc it explains what was going on culturally/historically for each song/time period, and explains why things became popular when they did.
The Art of Noise: Conversations with Great Songwriters made me interested in a few artists I previously didn't really care a whole lot about, as well as reinforcing why I care about certain others.

I love the Beatles but also love honest, intelligent criticisms of their work (which are hard to find!). That’s why my favorite book on them is Ian MacDonald’s [Revolution In The Head](Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties https://www.amazon.com/dp/0805042458/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_L3zMAbX693B63), it’s not afraid to say certain (popular) Beatles’ songs are failures in execution or just aren’t that interesting. Elijah Wald’s [How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘n’ Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music](How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music https://www.amazon.com/dp/019975697X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_C6zMAbZJ462H3) advances a different but equally compelling argument against band (it’s not as damning as the title makes it seem)

In addition to researching film feverishly in high school, I took one class in college and felt like I knew everything. I'd highly recommend you check out the book American Cinema / American Culture. Its a textbook, but it's actually fun to read and gives you great examples of theory and practice with good movies.

Piracy will slowly destroy all niche arts.

Mainstream artists can survive the hit of piracy much easier than small niche artists because they have more revenue sources available to them, plus they appeal to a much bigger potential audience.

Hardcore music fans of today are spoiled. For only $5 a month they get access to almost all the music they'd ever want to listen to. When your power users only pay $5 a month, the same as a casual listener, that's a big problem.

Some good, non academic, books about this topic (though they do cite actual data/studies):

http://www.amazon.com/Culture-Crash-Killing-Creative-Class/dp/0300195885

http://www.amazon.com/Free-Ride-Parasites-Destroying-Business/dp/0307739775

I make music myself and know what it approximately takes to craft certain kinds of music. The loss of revenue from music sales forces musicians to tour more than they'd like to.

If some of my favorite musicians of the pre-internet era had to tour as much as Mac DeMarco, they would have never made the albums they've made. The time and energy they invested in songwriting/production to morph a good song into an amazing song would, instead, today get invested in touring a couple of extra months.

Don't let your kids go into any business where the main product can be digitized, unless it's the video game industry. You will save them a lot of frustration.

Mine is a book called [Twee] (http://www.amazon.com/Twee-Gentle-Revolution-Television-Fashion/dp/0062213040) that I think everyone should read. It's about 'hipster' culture in general and twee culture specifically. But it's also a great history of underground music, film, and literature. Talks a lot about The Smiths, The Modern Lovers, Nirvana, and even more modern bands like The Shins and Vampire Weekend. I think it's a really eye opening book about modern culture and made me look at the media I consume more critically as well.

I am a huge fan of the format. a few of my favorites:

Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests

The Daily Show (The Book): An Oral History as Told by Jon Stewart, the Correspondents, Staff and Guests

Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN

The Union of The State

Slimed!: An Oral History of Nickelodeon’s Golden Age

I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution

Also recommend reading Mark Oliver Everett's auto-bio, Things The Grandchildren Should Know. Will definitely increase your appreciation of his music.

I love the works of Simon Reynolds, particularly Rip It Up and Start Again (on post-punk) and Energy Flash (on rave culture).

I also have a particular fondness for the supremely weird but very interesting Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City

The Conquest of Cool by Thomas Frank

Pretty good so far. I keep reading books like these because I'm at business school and I haven't heard a reference to art or music since I've gotten here. So it's a nice combo of business culture and art/music/creative culture. Even though most of the time I end up hating Capitalism by the end of it

I preach "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" by Bob Stanley to all my friends.

It has been the most informative book about the creation of different music genres over the last 50-60 years. I will cherish it until I die.

Runner-ups:
Dreaming the Beatles: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole World by Rob Sheffield

Dust & Grooves: Adventures in Record Collecting by Eilon Paz

Ordered.

I just finished a book called Pop. 1280 about this sheriff in a small town who tries his hardest to be lazy and incompetent but as the book goes on you realize he is so much more than that. It starts off pretty corny but it's one of those books that after you finish the last sentence put it down and say "fuck..." out loud to yourself.

The past few days I've felt really frustrated, hopeless, and helpless after the Orlando shooting. I feel like we're all going to grieve for a few days, I'm gonna listen to People Who Can Eat People a couple times, and then we'll all continue with nothing changed, waiting for the next one. I still feel helpless, but I have thought of some things, short-term and long-term, that I think might help if you want to do something.

1. Spread love in the face of hate. To anyone who was affected or knew anyone who was affected by the Orlando shootings- my heart goes out to you. We stand with you. To anyone who's ever been affected by terrorist groups, to anyone who's ever been persecuted because their sexuality or gender, to any person of the Islamic faith who's been discriminated because of who you pray to- my heart goes out to you. We need to unite not just as a country but as a world that believes that good can triumph over evil, that compassion, empathy, and genorosity will defeat people with hate in their hearts.
   
   
2. Donate. There's a GoFundMe to help victims of the attack. It has currently raised 1.6 Million dollars. That's a hell of a start on goal #1.
   
   
3. Get educated. Two books with great reviews have bumped up my reading list: No God But God, about Islam as a whole, and Black Flags: The Rise of Isis. If you're not a reader but still want to learn, here's a Crash Course on Islam and here's one on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Even though sometimes it doesn't feel like, we do live in a democracy, and whether you're voting or discussing things with friends/family I believe education over ignorance can create a better world.

Any Bjork fans read Story of the Eye? It's a short story published in the 20's. She mentions the book in her MOMA retrospective package. Really weird book. After reading it, I started noticing subtle references to it in a lot of her work. Lots of the more gross parts of Matthew Barney's River of Fundament are ripped directly from the book.