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Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres book cover by Kelefa Sanneh
Paperback

Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres

by Kelefa Sanneh

$11.78 / copy at 25+ copies As low as $9.50 at 1,000+Your best volume price

Total $294.50

Paperback · 496 pages Penguin Publishing Group · 2022

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About the book

Major Labels

One of Oprah Daily's 20 Favorite Books of 2021 • Selected as one of Pitchfork's Best Music Books of the Year

“One of the best books of its kind in decades.” —The Wall Street Journal

An epic achievement and a huge delight, the entire history of popular music over the past fifty years refracted through the big genres that have defined and dominated it: rock, R&B, country, punk, hip-hop, dance music, and pop

Kelefa Sanneh, one of the essential voices of our time on music and culture, has made a deep study of how popular music unites and divides us, charting the way genres become communities. In Major Labels, Sanneh distills a career’s worth of knowledge about music and musicians into a brilliant and omnivorous reckoning with popular music—as an art form (actually, a bunch of art forms), as a cultural and economic force, and as a tool that we use to build our identities. He explains the history of slow jams, the genius of Shania Twain, and why rappers are always getting in trouble.
 
Sanneh shows how these genres have been defined by the tension between mainstream and outsider, between authenticity and phoniness, between good and bad, right and wrong. Throughout, race is a powerful touchstone: just as there have always been Black audiences and white audiences, with more or less overlap depending on the moment, there has been Black music and white music, constantly mixing and separating. Sanneh debunks cherished myths, reappraises beloved heroes, and upends familiar ideas of musical greatness, arguing that sometimes, the best popular music isn’t transcendent. Songs express our grudges as well as our hopes, and they are motivated by greed as well as idealism; music is a powerful tool for human connection, but also for human antagonism. This is a book about the music everyone loves, the music everyone hates, and the decades-long argument over which is which. The opposite of a modest proposal, Major Labels pays in full.



The book, Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres [Bulk, Wholesale, Quantity] ISBN#9780525559610 in Paperback by Kelefa Sanneh may be ordered in bulk quantities. Minimum starts at 25 copies. Availability based on publisher status and quantity being ordered.

Details

Publisher
Penguin Publishing Group
Author
Kelefa Sanneh
Format
Paperback
Published
Oct 4, 2022
ISBN-13
9780525559610
ISBN-10
0525559612
Pages
496
Carton quantity
24 copies
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CopiesPrice per copyYou save
25 – 99 $11.78 38% off list
100 – 249 $11.02 42% off list
250 – 499 $10.26 46% off list
500 – 999 $9.88 48% off list
1,000+ $9.50 50% off list
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What does Major Labels cost when I buy for a group?

Volume pricing applies automatically in your cart, with no code needed. Price per copy: 25 to 99 copies, $11.78 (38% off list); 100 to 249 copies, $11.02 (42% off list); 250 to 499 copies, $10.26 (46% off list); 500 to 999 copies, $9.88 (48% off list); 1,000+ copies, $9.50 (50% off list). Need a different quantity, or a quote to forward for approval? Ask a specialist and we will confirm pricing before you pay.

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