"Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers a master class on the art and craft of songwriting. He writes over sixty essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal....

"Everybody knows the hits of 1984 - pop music's greatest year. From 'Thriller' to 'Purple Rain,' 'Hello' to 'Against All Odds,' 'What's Love Got to Do with It' to 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,' these iconic songs continue to dominate advertising, karaoke nights, and the soundtracks for film classics (Boogie Nights) and TV hits (Stranger Things). But the story of that thrilling, turbulent time, an era when Top 40 radio was both the leading edge of...

"Chris Blackwell, like the paradigm-shifting artists he came to support over his sixty-plus years in the music business, never took the conventional route. He grew up between Jamaica and London, crossing paths with Ian Fleming, Noel Coward, and Errol Flynn. After being expelled from an elite British school for rebellious behavior in 1954 at age seventeen, he moved back to Jamaica, and within five years, founded Island Records—the company that would...

"Lucy McGee and Phillip Lee are invited to perform a song on their school's morning show—this is their big break! First, they agree to keep it a secret from spotlight-stealing classmate Scarlett Tandy. But what about the other members of the Songwriting Club? Lucy forgets to tell them, setting off a chain of hurt feelings, a disastrous secret party, a runaway brother, and much more. The loveable but impulsive Lucy will have to write a lot of apology...

"Candace Park knows a lot about playing a role. For most of her life, she’s been playing the role of the 'quiet Korean girl who takes all AP classes and plays a classical instrument'— and keeping her love of K-pop and obsession with SLK to herself. But she also has a secret that she’s been keeping from the world: She can sing. Like, really sing. When Candace enters a global audition held by the biggest K-pop label in the world, the last thing...

"A weave of biography, criticism, and memoir, Shine Bright is Danyel Smith’s intimate history of Black women’s music as the foundational story of American pop. Smith has been writing this history for more than five years. But as a music fan, and then as an essayist, editor (Vibe, Billboard), and podcast host (Black Girl Songbook), she has been living this history since she was a latchkey kid listening to “Midnight Train to Georgia” on the...