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Love Goes to Buildings on Fire
Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever
Book Summary
Chronicles five epochal years of music in the Big Apple against a backdrop of the period's high crime, limited government resources and low rents, tracing the formations of key sounds while evaluating the contributions of such artists as Willie Colón, Bruce Springsteen and Grandmaster Flash.
This book is about:
- Popular music,
- New York,
- New York (State),
- History and criticism
NPR stories about Love Goes to Buildings on Fire
Best Books Of 2011
Staff Picks: The Best Music Books Of 2011
For a lot of us, the middle '70s was a dormant period in music sandwiched between two stellar periods: the monstrously creative middle and late 1960s and the shedding skin and rebirth of rock music in the late 1970s, particularly the punk and new wave movements. Will Hermes tears that myth apart and takes us on a journey, witnessing the birth of hip-hop, punk, minimalism, salsa and free jazz in the basements, lofts and small upstart clubs of New York City.
Hermes was a young teen... more
All Songs Considered
When New York Was 'On Fire': A Mid-'70s Musical Revolution
November 22, 2011 The city may have been in a period of deep economic trouble, but New York in the 1970s was the place that birthed new-wave, hip-hop, salsa, minimalist classical and disco. This week, All Songs talks to Will Hermes, author of the book Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York that Changed Music Forever.
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