Jac Holzman started his own record company when he was all of nineteen.  His total assets amounted to a handful of dollars, a brain fizzing with ideas, and a heart pumping with naive late-teenage hope.  He christened his label Elektra.   Twenty years later, Jac had brought five hundred albums into being.  He built the hippest, most advanced studio in the known world, its walls lined with gold and platinum records, and Elektra's reputation was global. And...

Over 150 voices young students venerable alumni movers and shakers average folk novice and seasoned teachers Native Hawaiians kama'aina and fresh faces from abroad share their experiences of the 1990s Bishop Estate controversy in Wayfinding through the Storm. This is the human story of a crisis that erupted at Kamehameha Schools in the 1990s and came close to destroying a historic educational community. Wayfinding through the Storm tells the story of ordinary decent people who look...

The Hawaiian kingdom was tiny, and the big world was huge. The nineteenth century was the high water mark of Western imperialism, worldwide, and the great powers were planting their flags across the Pacific. Hawai'i was in their sights. By late in the century, two strong American currents were running, one east from the islands, one west from the continent.Sugar plantations had become Hawai'i's biggest moneymaker. And many of the biggest names in the business were of American blood...

Decoded is a book like no other: a collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one of the most provocative and successful artists of our time.Praise for Decoded“Compelling . . . provocative, evocative . . . Part autobiography, part lavishly illustrated commentary on the author’s own work, Decoded gives the reader a harrowing portrait of the rough worlds J...

Leona Lewis. Kelly Clarkson. Susan Boyle. JLS. These are some of the biggest names in music today. But they all have a single common denominator of success, and his name is Simon Cowell.Simon's uncanny ability to spot talent - and his way of shooting down those without it - has made him both the most popular and feared reality TV show judge of all time. He's the star of hit shows like Pop idol, American Idol and Britain's Got Talent. And it doesn't end there - he's bringing his biggest suc...

From the great Ethiopian Queen, Makeda (the biblical Queen of Sheba) to the richest man who ever lived, Emperor Mansa Musa of Mali (worth 400 billion dollars today), African kings and queens have exemplified not only excellence in leadership, but have served as extraordinary representatives of a civilization that changed the world. 100 Greatest African Kings and Queens: Volume One explores the journey of the first 10 African monarchs and will inspire readers to celebrate humanity and the s...

"An utterly satisfying examination of the business of popular music." —Nathaniel Rich, The AtlanticThere’s a reason today’s ubiquitous pop hits are so hard to ignore—they’re designed that way. The Song Machine goes behind the scenes to offer an insider’s look at the global hit factories manufacturing the songs that have everyone hooked. Full of vivid, unexpected characters—alongside industry heavy-hitters like Katy Perry, Rihanna, Max Martin, and ...

The Billboard Guide to Writing and Producing Songs that Sell unveils the secrets to climbing the charts and reaching success in today’s ultracompetitive music industry. Eric Beall supplies his firsthand knowledge of today’s record business, as well as interviews with successful writers, producers, and executives from the worlds of pop, hip-hop, country, adult contemporary, and R&B. The result: a proven approach to constructing songs that open doors, create careers, and communicate...

For the first time, Appetite for Self-Destruction recounts the epic story of the precipitous rise and fall of the recording industry over the past three decades, when the incredible success of the CD turned the music business into one of the most glamorous, high-profile industries in the world -- and the advent of file sharing brought it to its knees. In a comprehensive, fast-paced account full of larger-than-life personalities, Rolling Stone contributing editor Steve Kno...

Copiously researched and documented, Hit Men is the highly controversial portrait of the pop music industry in all its wild, ruthless glory: the insatiable greed and ambition; the enormous egos; the fierce struggles for profits and power; the vendettas, rivalries, shakedowns, and payoffs. Chronicling the evolution of America's largest music labels from the Tin Pan Alley days to the present day, Fredric Dannen examines in depth the often venal, sometimes illegal dealings among the ...

John Dewey is considered not only as one of the founders of pragmatism, but also as an educational classic whose approaches to education and learning still exercise great influence on current discourses and practices internationally. In this book, the authors first provide an introduction to Dewey's educational theories that is founded on a broad and comprehensive reading of his philosophy as a whole. They discuss Dewey's path-breaking contributions by focusing on three important paradigm ...

In 1999, when Napster made music available free online, the music industry found itself in a fight for its life. A decade later, the most important and misunderstood story—and the one with the greatest implications for both music lovers and media companies—is how the music industry has failed to remake itself. In Fortune’s Fool, Fred Goodman, the author of The Mansion on the Hill, shows how this happened by presenting the singular history of Edgar M. Bron...