You’re in for some great reading, whether you want to explore the history of hip-hop and EDM, learn about how music piracy exploded in the ’00s, or read memoirs by female rock legends.
How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt
Stephen Witt’s masterfully reported book tells the story of exactly how music piracy worked in the ‘00s, tracing the rise and fall of the people who created peer-to-peer communities, the competition between gangs of rival pirate groups to leak hot records before anyone else, and a CD manufacturing plant employee who was the source of a staggering number of high-profile album leaks.
Viking/Penguin Random House
Real Life Rock by Greil Marcus
This book collects all of music critic legend Greil Marcus's "Real Life Rock Top Ten" columns published between 1986 and 2014 in the Village Voice, Artforum, Salon, City Pages, Interview, and The Believer. This is a truly amazing body of work, with Marcus delivering insightful thoughts on a wide range of topics, including books, movies, art shows, concerts, spam emails, and, more than anything else, music. This is essential reading for anyone interested in critical writing.
Yale University Press
The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic by Jessica Hopper
The title is not a lie, which is pretty depressing. This book collects Jessica Hopper's work over the past decade or so, including essential pieces about the misogyny of the emo scene in the early 2000s, the way the public mostly ignored R. Kelly's alleged sex abuse scandals, and how indie musicians have survived by teaming up with the ad world.
Featherproof Books
Schubert's Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession by Ian Bostridge
Ian Bostridge’s book is a comprehensive interpretation of Franz Schubert’s Winterreise, delving into the song cycle’s literary, historical, and psychological themes. Bostridge is a scholar, but also an accomplished singer with an intimate knowledge of the work in question, having performed the piece over 100 times.
Knopf
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21 Great Books About Music From 2015