The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux (New York, NY), 2007.Ĭontributor to periodicals, including the New Republic, Lingua Franca, Slate, London Review of Books, Fanfare, and Feed.Īuthor of Web blog, The Rest Is Noise. Two-time recipient, ASCAP- Deems Taylor Award for music criticism Holtzbrinck fellowship, American Academy of Berlin Banff Centre fellowship National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism, 2007, Best Books of 2007 list, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, New York magazine, Time, Newsweek, and Economist, and Pulitzer Prize finalist for general nonfiction, 2008, all for The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. New York Times, music critic, 1992-96 New Yorker, music critic, 1996. Agent-Tina Bennett, Janklow & Nesbit Associates, 445 Park Ave., New York, NY 10022. Office-New Yorker, 4 Times Sq., New York, NY, 10036. In the tradition of Simon Schamas The Embarrassment of Riches and Louis Menands The Metaphysical Club, the end result is not so much a history of twentieth-century music as a history of the twentieth century through its music.Born 1968, in Washington, DC married partner Jonathan Lisecki (an actor and film director), 2005. We follow the rise of mass culture and mass politics, of dramatic new technologies, of hot and cold wars, of experiments, revolutions, riots, and friendships forged and broken. Ross, in this sweeping and dramatic narrative, takes us from Vienna before the First World War to Paris in the twenties, from Hitlers Germany and Stalins Russia to downtown New York in the sixties and seventies. Whether they have charmed audiences with the purest beauty or battered them with the purest noise, composers have always been exuberantly of the present, defying the stereotype of classical music as a dying art. It tells of maverick personalities who have resisted the cult of the classical past, struggled against the indifference of a wide public, and defied the will of dictators. The Rest Is Noise takes the reader inside the labyrinth of modern sound. Minimalist music has had a huge effect on rock, pop, and dance music from the Velvet Underground onward.Īlex Ross, the brilliant music critic for The New Yorker, shines a bright light on this secret world, and shows how it has pervaded every corner of twentieth century life. Avant-garde sounds populate the soundtracks of Hollywood thrillers. At the same time, the influence of modern music can be felt everywhere. While paintings by Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock sell for a hundred million dollars or more, shocking musical works from Stravinskys Rite of Spring onward still send ripples of unease through audiences. The scandal over modern music has not died down.

Alex ross the rest is noise review