Bands That Rock!

Punk rock innovators the Clash were the first group to bring this style of high-energy music to the top of the charts. Their songs were explosive acts of defiance that combined the sounds of rockabilly, reggae, funk, and hip-hop. This engaging book examines how the group used music, art, and fashion to deliver a strong political message. Through full-color photographs, fascinating direct quotations, and informative sidebars, readers will discover how in the band's short history, the Clash created exciting and brand-new sounds and spoke out against racism and consumerism. Moving beyond hits such as "Rock the Casbah" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" this text reveals why some called the group "the only band that matters."

Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Brad Whitford, and Joey Kramer, in the early 1970s, these five young men from diverse backgrounds came together to form Aerosmith, a blues-tinted hard rock band that eventually would become known as one of the greatest rock-and-roll bands in history. However, the band's path to iconic status, with millions of records sold and a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was anything but easy. Featuring an engaging narrative, informative sidebars, and direct quotations, this book explores the hits and misses of this rock band that, despite it all, keeps on rocking.

Led Zeppelin rocketed to fame in 1969 with their first album, simply titled Led Zeppelin, and the band's name has since been synonymous with the best rock and roll ever recorded. Their iconic "Stairway to Heaven" is regarded as one of rock and roll's most influential songs. Once considered rock and roll's bad boys, they are now one of the genre's elder statesmen. Through stunning photographs, informative sidebars, and revealing direct quotations from the band members themselves, this entertaining biography tells the story of four men from England who just wanted to play rock and roll, and it covers Zeppelin's accomplishments and challenges through the years.

On July 12, 1962, the Marquis Club in London debuted a new band. Scruffy-looking and irreverent, they performed music that hadn't really been heard on English shores, a combination of the blues, a style of music written and performed by slaves in the American South, and a newer genre, rock and roll. They called themselves The Rolling Stones. Through informative sidebars, fascinating direct quotations, and revealing personal facts, this book explores the past, present, and future of the legendary band that more than fifty years later, still keeps turning out hits.

Onstage and offstage, the Grateful Dead ran their band on their own terms. Each concert was different from the last, and their fans loved them for it. Many of the band's songs were autobiographical, and their fans could relate to life's ups and downs, which included drug and alcohol addiction, death of band members, illness, and breakups of personal relationships. Featuring fascinating sidebars, revealing direct quotations, and accessible language that highlights the sense of community that existed among Deadheads, this book delves into the thirty-plus-year career of the Grateful Dead and looks to the future of its founding members.

As one of the flashiest, most captivating rock bands of the 1970s and 1980s, Queen quickly became one of the most beloved rock bands in the world. This biography explores the lesser-known parts of their story, such as their early days as a student band, as well as the formative years leading to their global explosion. Readers will also come to understand the broad and lasting impact of the band, from Freddy Mercury's groundbreaking role as a queer icon to their musical influence on other artists.

Tapping into the harmony as well as the discord of the creative process, Pink Floyd was a pioneer in producing concept albums and including pyrotechnics in live performances. Full-color images, fascinating personal facts, and engaging narratives will pull the reader right into the trials and triumphs of Pink Floyd, who even after losing founding member and creative genius Syd Barrett, sold more than two hundred million albums, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and inspired legions of musical performers, including David Bowie and Queen. Readers will discover why more than fifty years after the first album, Pink Floyd continues to attract new generations of fans.

U2 has sold more than 170 million records; won twenty-two Grammy Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, and two Golden Globes; and recorded fourteen studio albums. U2's members are some of the most influential and highly recognized philanthropists in the world. Since the band's modest start in a strife-torn Ireland in 1976, the ragtag group from Dublin has used success as a platform to raise sociopolitical awareness, explore spirituality, and launch highly successful charities. Featuring striking photographs, fascinating direct quotations, and informative sidebars, this captivating, lively text will reveal to readers how four musicians of dubious musical ability became one of the biggest bands in the world.

The Ramones' logo T-shirts and "Hey! Ho! Let's go!" chant are familiar around the world, but a lot of people might not know the degree to which the Ramones reshaped pop music. Striking photographs, fascinating personal facts, and an engaging narrative will show readers how the band unleashed punk rock on the world with two-minute bursts of energy, combining bubblegum pop sensibilities with teenage boredom and pop culture references that created a wall of sound unlike anything audiences had heard before. This book reveals how the Ramones helped create a style of music that continues to resonate from sweaty clubs to baseball stadiums.