Ian King

Part reference book, part history, and part road map to the connectivity of popular music, this book is a must for all rock ‘n’ roll fans as it brings together a compilation of over two hundred genres of rock music—an entertaining, enlightening, knotty family tree of America’s favorite musical genre.In the six decades since rock ’n’ roll stole America’s soul, the single genre has produced over two hundred sub-genres. The days of being able to walk in to a Tower Records and seek out recommendations from an aloof, all-knowing staffer has been relegated to a long-lost Generation X paradise preserved in John Hughes films. From iTunes to Spotify, listeners now regularly turn to algorithms instead of human advice to develop relationships with the music they love.The essential companion for any rock lover’s collection—be it on vinyl or Spotify playlists—Appetite for Definition breaks down algorithms into their human stories and interconnected histories. It provides and pulls up recommendations from a deeper well of consideration and gives you the tools to do the same. Operating on a macro level it surveys the myriad microlevel movements into an accessible map that readers can use to navigate the vast, craggy terrain of rock music and take their rock knowledge—whether casual or obsessive—to the next level.

This book explores the relationships between how the body appears and feels in everyday life through aesthetics. The recent shift away from Kantian aesthetics towards a more enacted route places at its core the realization that the world is experienced as possibilities for action, and critical to this understanding is how the body’s movement generates multiple pre-linguistic experiences and meaning. This route therefore realizes the importance of the body’s role in working in conjunction with cognition in generating these experiences. Nevertheless, this attention has predominantly focused on how the body ‘feels’ through engagement, rather than how it appears. This might be problematic as it is essential to appreciate that the body is not naked in everyday life, and therefore through dress we look to restore the balance between appearance and feel. We ‘dress’ our bodies to communicate – to express our confidence (or not), identity, status, aspirations,affiliations etc. We dress according to the situation/audience etc. It might be to attract attention, to protect or to hide the body. It might be to accentuate height, or religious belief, or simply to shock or conform. Essentially, it is not simply clothing that we wear that achieves this – for example, hair, makeup, jewellery, handbags, shoes, piercings, tattoos – cumulatively these constitute how we ‘dress’ our bodies. Thus, the appearance (as well as the feel) of the body is significant if we are to appreciate an enacted approach to aesthetics.

The Collins Gem series is being relaunched in Spring 2004 and this new title features a new internal design and a strong new cover design. Packed full of tips for the aspiring watercolourist, its handy format makes it ideal for quick reference either in the studio or out in the field.