Alex Ross: "Listen to This"

 Summary and video here; 
          reviews here:
                music samples from a  helpful chapter. click here: "Chacona, Lamento, Walking Blues".

Below, from the book's website , lots of audio files for the audiophiles.  Enjoy:


NOTE: If you are using an iPad, an iPhone, or another device that doesn't use flash, use these pages instead.
1. LISTEN TO THIS: Crossing the Border from Classical to Pop
2. CHACONA, LAMENTO, WALKING BLUES: Bass Lines of Music History
3. INFERNAL MACHINES: How Recordings Changed Music
4. STORM OF STYLE: Mozart's Golden Mean
5. ORBITING: Radiohead's Grand Tour
6. THE ANTI-MAESTRO: Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Los Angeles Philharmonic
7. GREAT SOUL: Searching for Schubert
8. EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPES: Björk's Saga
9. SYMPHONY OF MILLIONS: Classical Music in China
10. SONG OF THE EARTH: The Arctic Sound of John Luther Adams
11. VERDI'S GRIP: Opera as Popular Art
12. ALMOST FAMOUS: On the Road with the St. Lawrence Quartet
13. EDGES OF POP: Kiki and Herb, Cecil Taylor and Sonic Youth, Sinatra, Kurt Cobain
14. LEARNING THE SCORE: The Crisis in Music Education
15. VOICE OF THE CENTURY: Marian Anderson
16. THE MUSIC MOUNTAIN: Inside the Marlboro Retreat
17. THE END OF SILENCE: John Cage
     [chapter added for paperback and European editions]
18. I SAW THE LIGHT: Following Bob Dylan
19. FERVOR: Remembering Lorraine Hunt Lieberson
20. BLESSED ARE THE SAD: Late Brahms