Tempo: A Rowman & Littlefield Music on Rock, Pop, and Culture

During the 1980s, when pop icons like Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, and U2 reigned supreme, many regarded The Police as the biggest band in the world. Yet after only five albums-and at the peak of their popularity-The Police disbanded and Sting began a solo career that made him a global pop star. Today, artists from Puff Daddy to Gwen Stefani credit The Police and Sting as major influences on their own work, reflecting that The Police were not only a popular, polished rock act, but a powerfully influential one as well. In Sting and The Police: Walking in Their Footsteps, Aaron J. West explores the cultural and musical impact of Stewart Copeland, Andy Summers, and Sting. West details the distinctive hybrid character of The Police's musical output, which would also characterize Sting's post-Police career. Sting's long-lived solo career embodies the power of the artful appropriation of musical styles, while capitalizing on the modern realities of pop music consumption. The Police-and Sting in p

With Bob Dylan's receipt of the Nobel Prize in Literature, his iconic status as an American musical, cultural, and poetic giant has never been more apparent. Bob Dylan: American Troubadour is the first book to look at Dylan's career, from his first album to his late masterpiece Tempest. Donald Brown provides insightful critical commentary on Dylan's prolific body of work, placing Dylan's career in the context of its time in order to assess the relationship of Dylan's music to contemporary American culture. Each chapter follows the shifting versions of Dylan, from his songs of conscientious social involvement to more personal exploratory songs; from his influential rock albums of the mid-1960s to his adaptations of country music; from his three very different tours in the 1970s to his "born again" period as a proselytizer for Christ and his frustrations as a recording and performing artist in the 1980s; from his retrospective importance in the 1990s to the refreshingly vital albums he has been producing in