"The essential oral history of hip-hop, from its origins on the playgrounds of the Bronx to its reign as the most powerful force in pop culture--from the award-winning journalist behind All the Pieces Matter, the New York Times bestselling oral history of The Wire. The music that we would later know as hip-hop was born at a party in the Bronx in the summer of 1973. Now, fifty years later, it's the most popular genre in America and its electric impact...

"A New Yorker writer's intimate, revealing account of Tupac Shakur's life and legacy, timed to the fiftieth anniversary of his birth and twenty-fifth anniversary of his death. In the summer of 2020, Tupac Shakur's single "Changes" became an anthem for the worldwide protests against the murder of George Floyd. The song became so popular, in fact, it was vaulted back onto the iTunes charts more than twenty years after its release--making it clear that...

"A lively, entertaining, wide-ranging oral history of the golden age of the rock concert based on over ninety interviews with musicians, promoters, stagehands, and others who contributed to the huge cultural phenomenon that is live rock. Between 1950 and 1985, the rock concert developed its allure and power as a unifying experience-and became an influential multi-billion-dollar industry. In Rock Concert, acclaimed interviewer Marc Myers sets out to...

"The four-time winner of the Emmy for outstanding reality series, RuPaul's Drag Race never set out to win over conventional America or climb the ladder of mainstream pop culture success. Its first season was classic counterculture, developed and filmed while President G.W. Bush was in office but launched at a time when Obama fever was at a national high. Over thirteen years and about 160 drag queen contestants later, everything from its language and...

"The Girl Group Sound, made famous and unforgettable by acts like The Ronettes, The Shirelles, The Supremes, and The Vandellas, took over the airwaves by capturing the mix of innocence and rebellion emblematic of America in in the 1960s. As songs like "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," "Then He Kissed Me," and "Be My Baby" rose to number one, Girl Groups cornered the burgeoning post-war market of teenage rock and roll fans, indelibly shaping the trajectory...

"Just what is 'yacht rock', you ask? Perhaps the easiest description is: music that would not sound out of place being played while carousing aboard a yacht back in the good old days. But these songs were also some of the top pop gems of the 70s and 80s. And while some associate yacht rock's biggest songs with one-hit wonder artists, several of rock's most renowned artists fall under this category, too including Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, The Doobie...

"The untold stories behind The Office, one of the most iconic television shows of the twenty-first century, told by its creators, writers, and actors"--

Scope and content: The Persian Gulf War series of the Veterans History Project Collection includes materials relating to Nashville area residents and veterans who served in the military or supported the war effort as civilians. This series includes items relating to both Operation Desert Shield (1990) and Operation Desert Storm (1991) and the liberation of Kuwait. Many individuals served in the military prior to or after this conflict, and their interviews...

Scope and content: Materials in this series include interviews and items relating to individuals who served during peacetime or during periods of conflict other than those wars specified by the Library of Congress in their Veterans History Project. As a general rule, items for this series were not directly solicited, but rather were added to the project in the course of gathering materials and interviews for other segments. Note that individuals who...

Scope and content: Oral history interview with Nashville businessman David Swett, Jr., conducted 17 July 2006 by John Egerton as part of a cooperative effort between the Nashville Public Library's Nashville Business Leaders Oral History Project and the Southern Foodways Alliance. During the interview, Swett discusses such topics as his grandfather, Walter Swett's, establishment of the family restaurant, Swett's; his grandfather's encounters with...