Books like The sound of the city by Charlie Gillett

A definitive oral history of punk rock, featuring interviews with Iggy Pop, Richard Hell, the Ramones, and other influential musicians.

Profiles of American indie rock bands from 1981-1991, chronologically organized to explore the decade's musical landscape.

Invisible Republic traces the recordings Bob Dylan and the Band made in 1967 at Big Pink, exploring how these secret basement sessions reflected Dylan’s musical evolution and the cultural tensions of the 1960s.

Simon Reynolds charts the explosive era after punk, tracing the innovations of bands like Joy Division, Talking Heads, and the synth‑pop pioneers of the early 80s.

“Punk rock and hip-hop. Disco and salsa. The loft jazz scene and the downtown composers known as Minimalists. In the mid-1970s, New York City was a laboratory where all the major styles of modern music were reinvented—all at once, from one block to the next, by musicians who knew, admired, and borrowed from one another. Crime was everywhere, the government was broke, and the city’s infrastructure was collapsing. But rent was cheap, and the possibilities for musical exploration were limitless. Love Goes to Buildings on Fire is the first book to tell the full story of the era’s music scenes and the phenomenal and surprising ways they intersected. From New Year’s Day 1973 to New Year’s Eve 1977, the book moves panoramically from post-Dylan Greenwich Village, to the arson-scarred South Bronx barrios where salsa and hip-hop were created, to the Lower Manhattan lofts where jazz and classical music were reimagined, to ramshackle clubs like CBGBs and The Gallery, where rock and dance music were hot-wired for a new generation. As they remade the music, the musicians at the center of the book invented themselves: Willie Colón and the Fania All-Stars renting Yankee Stadium to take salsa to the masses, New Jersey locals Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith claiming the jungleland of Manhattan as their own, Grandmaster Flash transforming the turntable into a musical instrument, David Byrne and Talking Heads proving that rock music “ain’t no foolin’ around.” Will Hermes was there—venturing from his native Queens to rooms where the revolutions were taking place—and in Love Goes to Buildings on Fire he captures the creativity, drive, and full-out lust for life of the great New York musicians of those years, whose sounds would change the world.” BOOK JACKET

Alex Ross’s 2007 nonfiction work surveys twentieth‑century music, blending history, criticism and rich listening narratives to reveal how composers shaped and were shaped by the era’s cultural shifts.

A comprehensive guide to rock music, offering expert advice and insightful information on its evolution and diverse genres.

xiii,356,[14]p. : 25cm

Cat Marnell’s memoir chronicles her rise as a beauty editor at Lucky and other fashion magazines while battling prescription drug addiction, doctor shopping, and self‑destructive habits in New York’s nightlife and media world.

The fabled city of Memphis has been essential to American music--home of the blues, the birthplace of rock and roll, a soul music capital. We know the greatest hits, but celebrated author Robert Gordon takes us to the people and places history has yet to record. A Memphis native, he whiles away time in a crumbling duplex with blues legend Furry Lewis, stays up late with barrelhouse piano player Mose Vinson, and sips homemade whiskey at Junior Kimbrough's churning house parties. A passionate listener, he hears modern times deep in the grooves of old records by Lead Belly and Robert Johnson. The interconnected profiles and stories in Memphis Rent Party convey more than a region. Like mint seeping into bourbon, Gordon gets into the wider world. He beholds the beauty of mistakes with producer Jim Dickinson (Replacements, Rolling Stones), charts the stars with Alex Chilton (Box Tops, Big Star), and mulls the tragedy of Jeff Buckley's fatal swim. Gordon's Memphis inspires Cat Power, attracts Townes Van Zandt, and finds James Carr always singing at the dark end of the street. A rent party is when friends come together to hear music, dance, and help a pal through hard times; it's a celebration in the face of looming tragedy, an optimism when the wolf is at the door. Robert Gordon finds mystery in the mundane, inspiration in the bleakness, and revels in the individualism that connects these diverse encounters.