Music
Last updated: July 03, 2024
You can use our reading lists to find the best music books ever written on a variety of subjects.
Our interviews include discussions include the favourite music books of critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Santigold, the best music books for kids, and the best music-writing books picked by distinguished New Yorker music critic Alex Ross.
Santigold on her Favourite Music Books
The critically acclaimed singer-songwriter took an unusual route to becoming a performer. She tells us how she got started, how to get what you want in the music business and how an extraordinary range of influences continue to inspire her
Best Music Books for Kids, recommended by Meurig and Rachel Bowen
Have you heard that music is good for children but don’t know where to begin? Musicians Meurig and Rachel Bowen recommend the best music books for children.
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1
The Infinite Variety of Music
by Leonard Bernstein -
2
The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner
by Friedrich Nietzsche -
3
Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn As Told by a Friend
by Thomas Mann, translated by John E. Woods -
4
Silence
by John Cage -
5
Music in a New Found Land
by Wilfrid Mellers
Alex Ross recommends the best Writing about Music
Alex Ross recommends the best Writing about Music
New Yorker music critic, Alex Ross, explains why writing about music is, really, nothing like “dancing about architecture.”
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1
Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music
by Ann Powers -
2
The New Analog: Listening and Reconnecting in a Digital World
by Damon Krukowski -
3
All in the Downs: Reflections on Life, Landscape, and Song
by Shirley Collins -
4
Night Moves
by Jessica Hopper -
5
My Thoughts Exactly
by Lily Allen
The Best Music Books of 2018, recommended by Laura Snapes
The Best Music Books of 2018, recommended by Laura Snapes
From a social history of the sexual and racial dynamics at play in American pop music to a meditation on how we consume music in the digital age, deputy music editor at The Guardian, Laura Snapes, picks the best music books of 2018.
The best books on Protest Songs, recommended by Dorian Lynskey
The journalist and author tells us what happens when protest meets pop music, which book inspired Springsteen and where hip-hop is most potent today
The best books on The Ethnography of Music, recommended by Phillip Vannini
The Professor of Communication and Culture enlightens us about musical enthnography — what people do with music, and how they interact with music (and with one another)