Acknowledgements
This eBook and accompanying videos were created on macOS using a variety of free tools and resources.
License
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. You are free to remix, adapt, and share it—just don’t sell it, and please give credit. If you build on it, share your version under the same license.
Tools Used in Production
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The text and most source code examples were written in asciidoc format using Visual Studio Code, a free, open-source IDE.
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The HTML was generated with Asciidoctor, a free, open-source tool for converting AsciiDoc to HTML and other formats.
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The source repository and published HTML version of the eBook are hosted on GitHub and GitHub Pages, respectively.
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Videos embedded in the course were created with OBS Studio, Canva, and Davinci Resolve. A few visuals were created in Apple Keynote.
Visuals & Design
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The CSS (visual style) for the HTML version of this eBook is inspired by the Architect theme for GitHub Pages.
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Icons used throughout this book are by Guilherme Furtado from The Noun Project, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
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Some illustrations and visuals were created with help from DALL-E via ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot.
Music Stuff
I’m not a musician, and really am no more of a fan than the average person. But I am nerdy about music history, and especially the cultural impact of music.
A lot of the stupid little references in the book and videos are just things I happen to know; in some cases I just jump over to Wikipedia and find something that’s interesting and is documented well enough that I trust it to be true.
If you’re interested in music (well, rock music) history, there are a few things I can recommend:
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A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs by Andrew Hickey. This is an amazing ongoing podcast that is doing just what the title says, starting all the way back in 1939 and moving chronologically from there. It’s incredibly well-researched, and Andrew does such a good job of using these individual songs to create a cohesive narrative.
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Peter Guralnick is a music historian and biographer who specializes in early rock and roll. His two-volume biography of Elvis Presley (Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love) is widely considered the definitive work on Elvis. His biography of Sam Phillips (Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll) is also excellent and covers Sun Records and the early days of rock and roll. I haven’t gotten to his Sam Cooke biography yet, but it’s on my list.
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Mark Lewisohn is a Beatles historian and author of the Tune In, which is the first book in a planned three-volume biography of the Beatles. It’s a massive book, but it’s incredibly well-researched and provides a detailed look at the Beatles' early years. The extended edition is an astonishing 1,700 pages long, and only covers to the end of 1962—before the band even released their first album! If you want a deep dive into their time in Hamburg, this book is for you. Beatles fans everywhere are impatiently awaiting the next volume.
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Cocaine & Rhinestones by Tyler Mahan Coe. Another well-researched podcast, this one focuses on country music. I don’t listen to country music, but based on the title alone, I figured it was worth a listen. Turns out, it’s great—even for someone who doesn’t really like country.
