What Goes On

The Beatles, Their Music, and Their Time

Tim Riley author Walter Everett author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc

Published:12th Aug '19

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What Goes On cover

In a stretch of just seven years, the Beatles recorded hundreds of songs which tower above those of their worthy peers as both the product of cultural leadership and an artistic reflection of their turbulent age, the1960s. Walter Everett and Tim Riley's What Goes On: The Beatles, Their Music, and Their Time blends historical narrative, musicology, and music analysis to tell the full story of the Beatles and how they redefined pop music. The book traces the Beatles' development chronologically, marking the band's involvement with world events such as the Vietnam War, strides in overcoming racial segregation, gender stereotyping, student demonstrations, and the generation gap. It delves deeply into their body of work, introducing the concepts of musical form, instrumentation, harmonic structure, melodic patterns, and rhythmic devices in a way that is accessible to musicians and non-musicians alike. Close readings of specific songs highlight the tensions between imagination and mechanics, songwriting and technology, and through the book's musical examples, listeners will learn how to develop strategies for creating their own rich interpretations of the potential meanings behind their favorite songs. Videos hosted on the book's companion website offer full definitions and performance demonstrations of all musical concepts discussed in the text, and interactive listening guides illustrate track details in real-time listening. The unique multimedia approach of What Goes On reveals just how great this music was in its own time, and why it remains important today as a body of singular achievement.

The value and use of these artifacts in the traditional or virtual classroom cannot be overstated; they help contemporary students understand the lasting importance of the Beatles, their history, their music, and their historical value moving into the 21st century. * T. Emery, Austin Peay State University, CHOICE *
...this book would be a good addition to the music literature section of a university library or the personal collection of a musically-inclined Beatles fan. It may also be of interest to college professors in search of supplementary materials for a general popular music course or the primary text for a Beatles-specific course * Anna Wodny, University of North Texas, Music Reference Services Quarterly *
I do feel heartened by the idea of a new generation of young people discovering their music and the pleasures of delving deep into it in the kind of class that might employ this book as its main text. * psychobabble *

ISBN: 9780190213176

Dimensions: 175mm x 251mm x 20mm

Weight: 590g

320 pages