American Popular Music ─ From Minstrelsy to MP3

Explore the rich terrain of American popular music with the most complete, colorful, and authoritative introduction of its kind. In the fourth edition of their best-selling text, American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MP3, Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman provide a unique combination of cultural and social history with the analytical study of musical styles. This new edition traces the development of jazz, blues, country, rock, hip-hop, and other popular genres from their multicultural roots to the digital world of the twenty-first century.

What's new to the fourth edition?
* A detailed overview of American popular music's European, African, and Latin American roots
* Expanded treatment of jazz--including the remarkable early work of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington--and its influence on emerging trends in American pop
* Enhanced coverage of Broadway and contemporary country music
* Updated sections on the music business and music technology

NEW! Purchase a copy of American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MP3, Fourth Edition, and receive a FREE MP3 download of over 50 music tracks featured in the text.

Larry Starr is Professor of Music at the University of Washington. He is a respected scholar of American popular music and the music of Ives, Gershwin, and Copland.

Christopher Waterman is Dean of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. An anthropologist specializing in the music of Africa and the Americas, he is also a bassist who has performed professionally in a wide variety of popular genres.