With ongoing debates on Scottish independence, immigration, Britain's place in the EU, multiculturalism, national identity and the specter of a past Empire complicating ethnically-defined notions of "Britishness," the Kingdom seems far from United. As a cultural force that is often discussed as giving voice to the voiceless and empowering marginalized communities, hip-hop has become a space in which to explore and debate these issues-defining global community while celebrating locality. In Brithop, author Justin A. Williams finds new hope in an often-neglected figure: the British rapper. Through themes of nationalism, history, subculture, politics, humor and identity, Brithop explores multiple forms of politics in rap discourses from Wales, Scotland and England. Featuring rappers and groups such as The Streets, Goldie Lookin Chain, Akala, Lowkey, Stanley Odd, Loki, Speech Debelle, Lady Sovereign, Shadia Mansour, Shay D, Stormzy, Sleaford Mods, Riz MC and Lethal Bizzle, Williams investigates how rappers in the UK respond to the "postcolonial melancholia" of post-Empire Britain. Brithop shows a rich, multifaceted cultural reality reflective of both the postcolonial condition of the UK and the importance of localism within its varying cultures.

'A dense and colourful account of one of the most vibrant musical centres in the world, In the City almost puts you on that train to London' Guardian In this fascinating history of London's music, which was the 2009 Sunday Times 'Music Book of the Year', Paul Du Noyer, critically-acclaimed music writer and founding editor of MOJO, celebrates the people and places that have made London the most exciting and diverse musical city on earth. The West End musicals, Ronnie Scott's jazz club, Abbey Road, mod culture, the Kinks, the Who and the Rolling Stones are just as much a part of London as the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and the Routemaster. Du Noyer's captivating book charts the city's music history and landmarks and will appeal to residents, visitors and exiles alike.

A guide for music: compositions, events, forms, genres, groups, history, industry, instruments, language, live music, musicians, songs, musicology, techniques, terminology , theory, music video. Music is a human activity which involves structured and audible sounds, which is used for artistic or aesthetic, entertainment, or ceremonial purposes. The traditional or classical European aspects of music often listed are those elements given primacy in European-influenced classical music: melody, harmony, rhythm, tone color/timbre, and form. A more comprehensive list is given by stating the aspects of sound: pitch, timbre, loudness, and duration. Common terms used to discuss particular pieces include melody, which is a succession of notes heard as some sort of unit; chord, which is a simultaneity of notes heard as some sort of unit; chord progression, which is a succession of chords (simultaneity succession); harmony, which is the relationship between two or more pitches; counterpoint, which is the simultaneity and organization of different melodies; and rhythm, which is the organization of the durational aspects of music.

HEADZ-zINe is a periodical output of the HEADZ Project. Taking the form of the fanzine with a critical edge, it challenges the convention of academic knowledge production and dissemination. HEADZ-zINe seeks to capture the personal, local, and communal histories of hip hop. HEADZ-zINe is foremost interested in the stories of its participants, and through a series of in-depth interviews and complimentary analysis of the artefacts and archives of hip hop, reveals a set of previously untold stories. HEADZ-zINe is created with much the same immediacy as a zine. It is produced within a period of weeks, is self-published and designed using standard domestic hardware and software. Although the topic addressed is historical, participants’ reflections illustrate the immediacy and closeness of this material to their current lives. True to the aims of the fanzine, HEADZ-zINe illuminates the histories of music culture which have previously been largely un-documented. These histories are told through the personal and collective stories of their participants. HEADZ-zINe is freely distributed, and the inaugural issue has been manufactured with a print-run of only 200 copies, in addition to being available in an expanded edition online. The zine presents a continued engagement with questions of knowledge production and dissemination. HEADZ-zINe has been developed in collaboration with practitioners and seeks to foreground their histories, thoughts, and ideas. We are interested in how hip hop offers practitioners a way of engaging with and knowing the world through music, artistic and dance practices. In this, we take hip hop seriously as a cultural form through which practitioners and fans learn, share and archive knowledge. Hip hop practitioners are both the creators of and thinkers about hip hop, they are local intellectuals. The principal focus of this zine is on the voices of hip hop practitioners themselves as they not only tell but theorise hip hop history. As accumulators of vinyl records, flyers, posters, photographs, and magazines ourselves we are interested in what these artefacts and archives can reveal to us about the creative acts of curating and remembering cultural history. We are interested in exploring how involvement in hip hop culture shaped the lives of practitioners and provided a space for creatively, imaginatively, and intellectually engaging with the world around them.

An introduction to the history of British hip-hop as it finally escapes its reputation as the poor cousin of the American variant with a succession of hugely successful releases by the new stars of 'grime'. Alex Ogg, a notable author in this field having previously written The Hip Hop Years (and been a consultant on the accompanying BAFTA nominated documentary strand), The Men Behind Def Jam and Rap Lyrics: From The Sugarhill Gang to Eminem, is a long-term commentator on the global breakout of hip-hop. His latest book explores the unique factors at play in the development of this subculture, tracing it right back to the first key releases in the early 80s, to the false dawn of the early 90s, and finally the spectacular success of grime in the last two years. Key landmarks are addressed along that timeline, and important recordings and incidents appraised, including many first-hand quotes. The ill-defined and much misunderstood ‘grime' genre is placed in a specific historical context, as well as sections on trip-hop and other contributory/parallel British musics. As well as offering a comprehensive foundation for those who wish to investigate this phenomenon, Ogg provides a recommended listening list as well as snapshots of the new heroes of grime, from Dizzee Rascal and Tinchy Snyder to Tinie Tempah.

Essays examining the impact of hip hop music on pop culture and youth identity in post-Soviet Central and Eastern Europe. Responding to the development of a lively hip hop culture in Central and Eastern European countries, this interdisciplinary study demonstrates how a universal model of hip hop serves as a contextually situated platform of cultural exchange and becomes locally inflected. After the Soviet Union fell, hip hop became popular in urban environments in the region, but it has often been stigmatized as inauthentic, due to an apparent lack of connection to African American historical roots and black identity. Originally strongly influenced by aesthetics from the United States, hip hop in Central and Eastern Europe has gradually developed unique, local trajectories, a number of which are showcased in this volume. On the one hand, hip hop functions as a marker of Western cosmopolitanism and democratic ideology, but as the contributors show, it is also a malleable genre that has been infused with so much local identity that it has lost most of its previous associations with “the West” in the experiences of local musicians, audiences, and producers. Contextualizing hip hop through the prism of local experiences and regional musical expressions, these valuable case studies reveal the broad spectrum of its impact on popular culture and youth identity in the post-Soviet world. “The volume represents a valuable and timely contribution to the study of popular culture in central and eastern Europe. Hip Hop at Europe’s Edge will not only appeal to readers interested in contemporary popular culture in central and eastern Europe, but also inspire future research on post-socialism’s unique local adaptations of global cultural trends.” —The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review “The authors of this edited volume do not romanticize and heroize the genre by automatically equating it with political opposition, a fate often suffered by rock before. Instead, the book has to be given much credit for presenting a very nuanced picture of hip hop’s entanglement—or non-entanglement, for that matter—with politics in this wide stretch of the world, past and present.” —The Russian Review

This book examines language and identity among White American middle and upper-middle class youth who affiliate with Hip Hop culture. Hip Hop youth engage in practices that range from the consumption of rap music and fashion to practices like MC-ing (writing and performing raps or "rhymes"), DJ-ing (mixing records to produce a beat for the MC), graffiti tagging, and break-dancing. Cutler explores the way in which these young people stylize their speech using linguistic resources drawn from African American English and Hip Hop slang terms. She also looks at the way they construct their identities in discussions with their friends, and how they talk about and use language to construct themselves as authentic within Hip Hop. Cutler considers the possibility that young people experimenting with AAVE-styled speech may improve the status of AAVE in the broader society. She also addresses the need for educators to be aware of the linguistic patterns found in AAVE and Hip Hop language, and ways to build on Hip Hop skills like rhyming and rapping in order to motivate students and promote literacy.