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Best non-fiction music books

Description: Readable, reasonably non-technical books about music-history, musicians, instruments, etc. (For musically-influenced novels, see the list "music to my eyes")

Rank Title Author Added

1

Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter

by Randy L. Schmidt

191 members

12 reviews

3.9

Member: dara85

2

Theft: A History of Music

35 members

3 reviews

3.2

Member: hipdeep

3

Those Twentieth Century Blues: An Autobiography

by Michael Tippett

16 members

5

Member: thorold
Explanations: thorold: One of the best-ever musical autobiographies, whatever you think of Tippett as a composer

4

Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven

by John Eliot Gardiner

758 members

9 reviews

4.2

Member: thorold
Explanations: thorold: Everything you would hope for in a book about Bach by one of his leading modern interpreters

5

Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs

470 members

16 reviews

3.9

Member: hipdeep
Explanations: hipdeep: I know it's basically opinion/humor writing, but it's nonfiction, and the question of "what makes a song bad" is both interesting and laugh-out-loud funny.

6

The Last Days of John Lennon

by James Patterson

294 members

5 reviews

½ 3.4

Member: dara85

7

World Within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music

97 members

6 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: hipdeep

8

Schubert's Songs: A Biographical Study

by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

72 members

4.1

Member: thorold
Explanations: thorold: Not always the liveliest of writers, but no-one knew Schubert's songs better

9

Mainlines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader

by Lester Bangs

390 members

2 reviews

3.8

Member: hipdeep

10

Benjamin Britten: A Biography

by Humphrey Carpenter

154 members

4 reviews

3.9

Member: thorold

11

Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century

by Greil Marcus

1,201 members

13 reviews

4

Member: hipdeep

12

Mozart's Women: His Family, His Friends, His Music

248 members

9 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: thorold
Explanations: thorold: Very interesting account of Mozart's working relationships with singers and how they influenced his operas.

13

Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality

by Susan McClary

140 members

3 reviews

½ 3.3

Member: thorold
Explanations: thorold: Classic postmodern feminist challenge to traditional musicology. More readable than it sounds...

14

Redbone: The True Story of a Native American Rock Band

by Christian Staebler

116 members

7 reviews

3.9

Member: hipdeep

15

Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk

2,143 members

24 reviews

4.1

Member: hipdeep

16

89 members

1 review

½ 3.7

Member: thorold

17

Broken Horses: A Memoir

by Brandi Carlile

371 members

16 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: hipdeep

18

Gustav Mahler: Memories and Letters

142 members

3 reviews

4

Member: thorold
Explanations: thorold: Of course it's more about Alma than about Gustav, but it's still fun

19

How To Play the Harmonica: and Other Life Lessons

25 members

1 review

½ 4.3

Member: hipdeep

20

The composer as listener; a guide to music

by Irving Kolodin

10 members

1 review

4

Member: thorold
Explanations: thorold: Nice anthology of writings about music by Great Composers

21

How to Write One Song: Loving the Things We Create and How They Love Us Back

194 members

8 reviews

4

Member: hipdeep

22

Confessions of a Jewish Wagnerite: Being Gay and Jewish in America (Cassell Lesbian & Gay Studies)

by Lawrence D. Mass

50 members

½ 4.5

Member: thorold

23

Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell

49 members

1 review

½ 3.7

Member: hipdeep

24

Robert Schumann: Life and Death of a Musician

by John Worthen

39 members

2 reviews

½ 4.4

Member: thorold
Explanations: thorold: Readable biography that avoids the temptation to get over-excited about the causes of Schumann's illness

25

5,810 members

245 reviews

4.1

Member: hipdeep

26

Exploring Music: The Science and Technology of Tones and Tunes

by Charles Alfred Taylor

13 members

Member: thorold
Explanations: thorold: Very approachable short guide to the physics and engineering of producing and hearing musical sounds.

27

The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music

1,455 members

54 reviews

4.2

Member: hipdeep

28

Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story

497 members

14 reviews

4

Member: hipdeep

29

Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music

93 members

2 reviews

½ 3.4

Member: hipdeep

30

His Eye Is on the Sparrow: an Autobiography by Ethel Waters

by Ethel Waters

177 members

1 review

½ 3.7

Member: hipdeep

31

Temperament: The Idea That Solved Music's Greatest Riddle

by Stuart M Isacoff

1 member

Member: hipdeep

32

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

by Daniel J. Levitin

4,236 members

68 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: hipdeep

About This List

Started: thorold
September 2019
Type: Numbered and unnumbered

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