<DIV><DIV><DIV><DIV><DIV>One of <I>The Telegraph</I>'s Best Music Books 2011 <P></P></DIV><P>Alex Ross's award-winning international bestseller, <I>The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century</I>, has become a contemporary classic, establishing Ross<I> </I>as one of our most popular and acclaimed cultural historians.<I> Listen to This</I>, which takes its title from a beloved 2004 essay<I> </I>in which Ross describes his late-blooming discovery of pop music,<I> </I>showcases the best of his writing from more than a decade at<I> The New Yorker</I>. These pieces, dedicated to classical and popular<I> </I>artists alike, are at once erudite and lively. In a previously unpublished<I> </I>essay, Ross brilliantly retells hundreds of years of music<I> </I>history—from Renaissance dances to Led Zeppelin—through a few<I> </I>iconic bass lines of celebration and lament. He vibrantly sketches<I> </I>canonical composers such as Schubert, Verdi, and Brahms; gives<I> </I>us in-depth interviews with modern pop masters such as Björk<I> </I>and Radiohead; and introduces us to music students at a Newark<I> </I>high school and indie-rock hipsters in Beijing.<BR><BR>Whether his subject is Mozart or Bob Dylan, Ross shows how music expresses the full complexity of the human condition. Witty, passionate, and brimming with insight, <I>Listen to This </I>teaches us how to listen more closely. </P></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>