Music Is History

by Questlove

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

This is the book that Questlove was destined to create. After a few books on food, Questlove turns his eye and ear to music with Music is History. Looking at the past 50 years, we are treated to a connoisseur and historian's point of view as he explores which songs are representative of each year and how each song symbolizes the cultural and political moment of the time. The B&N Exclusive Edition features a special chapter: Music is History Extended Remix, a collection of exercises and questions about the songs.

Music Is History combines Questlove’s deep musical expertise with his curiosity about history, examining America over the past fifty years.

Focusing on the years 1971 to the present, Questlove finds the hidden connections in the American tapes- try, whether investigating how the blaxploitation era reshaped Black identity or considering the way disco took an assembly-line approach to Black genius. And these critical inquiries are complemented by his own memories as a music fan, and the way his appetite for pop culture taught him about America.

A history of the last half-century and an intimate conversation with one of music’s most influential and original voices, Music Is History is a singular look at contemporary America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419751431
Publisher:	Abrams Image
Publication date:	10/19/2021
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Drummer, DJ, producer, culinary entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, and member of The Roots Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is the unmistakable heartbeat of Philadelphia’s most influential hip-hop group. He is the musical director for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where his beloved Roots crew serves as house band. Beyond that, this five-time Grammy Award–winning musician’s indisputable reputation has landed him musical-directing positions with everyone from D’Angelo to Eminem to Jay-Z. Questlove has also released multiple books, including the New York Times bestsellers Mo’ Meta Blues and Creative Quest, the Grammy-nominated audiobook Creative Quest, Soul Train: The Music, Dance and Style of a Generation, James Beard Award–nominated somethingtofoodabout, and, most recently, Mixtape Potluck Cookbook.

Questlove and Black Thought of the Roots have executive produced the acclaimed documentary series Hip-Hop: The Songs That Shook America on AMC under their production company, Two One Five Entertainment, which recently announced a first-look deal with Universal Television to develop scripted and non-scripted programming. Questlove will serve as executive producer for the upcoming documentary The League, centered on the tumultuous journey of Negro League baseball. He also made his directorial debut with the acclaimed feature documentary Summer of Soul, which explores the legendary 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. The film premiered on the opening night of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival in January, where it was awarded the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for Best U.S. Documentary. The film most recently broke the record for the highest-selling documentary to come out of Sundance when it was acquired by Searchlight/Hulu. Questlove is also set to direct an upcoming Sly Stone feature documentary.

Questlove has cemented himself as one of the most sought-after DJs in pop culture, with a resume that includes gigs for the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, the White House, Cartier, and hotels and nightclubs around the world. After streaming nearly three hundred virtual DJ sets in 2020, he has used this momentum to launch his own Twitch show called GO DJ, which champions sets from renowned international peers.

Additionally, Questlove served as the executive music producer and composer on the A&E Miniseries Roots. He also scored Chris Rock’s film Top Five and coproduced the Grammy Award–winning Original Broadway Cast Recording of Hamilton. Questlove also hosts his own acclaimed podcast, Questlove Supreme, on iHeart. Questlove costarred in Disney Pixar’s Golden Globe–winning animated feature Soul, which landed him an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance.

Editorial Reviews

07/26/2021

“Whenever there’s a history happening, there’s more than one history happening,” writes five-time Grammy winner Questlove (Creative Quest) in this exuberant look at the last five decades of history through the lens of music. He explains how, throughout time, music has touched upon a wide range of societal, social, and racial shifts, influencing culture in instances both big and small. In an effort to examine these moments, he selects a song for each year (starting in 1971, when he was born), to unpack “what was happening in the world in general,” adding a layer of intimacy with biographical accounts of his life as a musician. The songs analyzed are quite varied: while A Taste of Honey’s 1978 hit “Boogie Oogie Oogie” may serve as the perfect encapsulation of the disco era’s carefree mindset, Steely Dan’s “Hey Nineteen” offers a more tongue-in-check lesson on aging. Conversely, Prince’s rerecorded version of “1999” registers as a failed attempt to resist change, and as a bittersweet reminder that the past is something that can’t be replicated. Richard Nixon’s presidency, “Black Power,” 9/11, and other key cultural touchstones are mentioned, with songs used as a springboard for further reflection into history and how memory actively shapes it. This stimulating work is sure to attract deep thinkers and music theorists everywhere. Agent: Marc Gerald, Europa Content. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 09/01/2021

Musician and producer Questlove examines the artists, songs, and albums that affected him artistically and personally, from 1971 (the year of his birth) on. Each section is devoted to a different year and starts with a list (he loves lists) of important cultural events, then focuses on a noteworthy track. Questlove does more than just offer musical analysis: he puts the songs into context and digs into deep cuts and artists sometimes lost to history as he considers how we create history and how we think about popular music and culture. Steely Dan's "Hey Nineteen" becomes a jumping-off point for analyzing generation gaps; Living Colour's response to the racist Guns N' Roses song "One in a Million" leads to an exploration of race, music, and history. Questlove's playlists ("Singles I Actually Dig"; "Put You in My Mix") will make readers want to stop and listen—perhaps even on a Walkman, which was how Questlove first heard Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back (the focus of 1988). VERDICT This inspired volume continues Questlove's thoughtful and thought-provoking work and is an enduring analysis of the effects of music on personal, political, and cultural histories.—Rebekah Buchanan, Western Illinois Univ., Macomb, IL

Library Journal

2021-07-28
The iconic drummer, composer, and DJ tracks modern American history through music and vice versa.

Each chapter focuses on a specific year, beginning with 1971, when Questlove was born, and is structured around “a song that represents some idea connected to history: how it was experienced at the time, or how it is learned and understood, or what figures surface within it, or how different versions of it are reconciled, or how they cannot be.” Interspersed throughout are lists of songs—and the author’s commentary on each—divided into categories—e.g., songs worthy of being reinstated into communal memory; and hip-hop “deep cuts that…need to be excavated”; and songs in E minor, a key that “isn’t just a way of life for funk songs, but a world unto itself. In grappling with the mass of E-minor songs, I have divided the E-minor theme into two camps, the songs that get over and the songs that under­whelm.” Questlove also revisits songs by other artists on which he played drums. The scope of the book, like the author’s vinyl collection, is enormous, yet his tone makes for a fascinating, page-turning read. Whether he’s making a case that hip-hop was “at least in part a direct reaction to disco” or describing Bill Withers as his first true idol, Questlove makes for an engaging, dynamic narrator—just as he was in his excellent memoir, Mo’ Meta Blues (2013). Events, he writes, “can feel like closed boxes until we find our way in….And that’s why I decided to put ‘Does Everyone Stare’ [by The Police] not in 1979, the year it came out, but in 1981, the year it came out to me.” The author adds private stories such as the day, in 1993, when the Roots were signed by Geffen and his mother told him she was divorcing his father. From explicating protest songs to sampling, Questlove continuously encourages readers to cross-reference historical happenings and to read (and think) critically.

A palimpsestic, personal, and resonant journey with a living musical encyclopedia.

Kirkus Reviews

Questlove’s in-depth, witty, creative, personal, and authoritative musical history will keep people reading, listening, questioning, and musing for many years to come."

Booklist

Music Is History is an entertaining, informative and far-reaching work, meticulously excavating American culture and history with the eye of a seasoned cratedigger.

The Washington Post

Music Is History is an entertaining, informative and far-reaching work, meticulously excavating American culture and history with the eye of a seasoned cratedigger.”—The Washington Post

“This inspired volume continues Questlove’s thoughtful and thought-provoking work and is an enduring analysis of the effects of music on personal, political, and cultural histories.”—Library Journal STARRED Review

“Questlove’s in-depth, witty, creative, personal, and authoritative musical history will keep people reading, listening, questioning, and musing for many years to come."

—Booklist

“A palimpsestic, personal, and resonant journey with a living musical encyclopedia.”—Kirkus

“This stimulating work is sure to attract deep thinkers and music theorists everywhere.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher