The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music: From Rock, Pop, Jazz, Blues and Hip Hop to Classical, Country, Folk, World and More [Hardcover]

Paul du Noyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003

Rock, country, classical, hip hop, folk, world, dance—virtually every combination thereof and every major player therein—will be found within the pages of the most authoritative, informative, and entertaining guide to music ever published.



Genres Covered:




• Rock

• Pop

• Classical

• Jazz

• Blues

• Gospel

• Soul

• R&B

• Reggae

• Hip Hop

• World

• Dance

• Movie Soundtracks

• Musical Theater

• Electronic

• New Age

• Folk



More than 12,000 musicians, performers, composers, and songwriters—along with 800 colorful illustrations of artists, instruments, and album covers—fill the pages of a guide that is without equal in its substance and scope. Organized by genre, The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music offers concise introductions to each music form, presents a four-bar sample of its style, and provides biographies and discographies of key performers.


This invaluable reference also contains three appendices: an instrument glossary, an extensive bibliography, and a primer on the basics of reading music. No other book on the market covers more genres, includes more artists, and packs more information between its covers. It’s the ultimate guide for every music fan!






• Unparalleled in scope and substance

• Written and edited by
a distinguished team
of musicologists, musicians, and music aficionados, including
Stanley Sadie

• Organized by genre,
with comprehensive appendices and cross-references

• Ultimate music guide
for every family

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Paul du Noyer is the founder of Mojo magazine and former editor of Q magazine. He is also the author of numerous books on popular music. He lives in London.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823078698
• ISBN-13: 978-0823078691
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 1.4 x 11.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,027,568 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wide ranging look at all types of music, April 2, 2009

By 

Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music: From Rock, Pop, Jazz, Blues and Hip Hop to Classical, Country, Folk, World and More (Hardcover)

This book attempts to cover the whole musical spectrum, which sections devoted to pop, rock, jazz, blues, country, folk, classical, world, dance, hip hop, reggae, soul / R+B, gospel, electronic and soundtracks / theatre, each of which is divided into sub-styles. There's a final section headed popular and novelty, which covers contemporary Christian music, novelty songs, music hall, children's songs, Christmas songs, easy listening, lounge music and nostalgia. I guess that covers everything, however briefly, remembering that each main chapter covers a wide range. At the end of each section is an index of artists for that section, but there's also an overall index at the end of the book. The overall index is the essential one, because artists may not always be classified the way you expect them to be.

The perennial problem of classification is never far way. How do you define the boundaries of each musical style? Where does one musical style begin and other end? It is, of course, an impossible task, but in a book such as this, the editor had to make some kind of decision. You may not agree with his classification, but since the book is divided up according to styles, you'll have to get used to it if you buy the book. Each section contains an introduction giving a general history of the music, before exploring each sub-style in turn. As far as the editor is concerned, pop music began in the fifties, which is a fair enough decision, though not everybody will agree with it. Older music can be found scattered among other sections including jazz (Glenn Miller), easy listening (Bing Crosby) and nostalgia (Vera Lynn), although I consider those artists to be among the pop stars of their time. It's even more telling to see that Bing and Vera are classified differently. Both of them continued recording well into the seventies and each of them could be classed as nostalgia or easy listening, as could Glenn Miller.

The first section is about pop music. Accepting (however grudgingly) the editor's assumption that it started in the fifties, this 64-page section does a good job in tracing the changing face of pop music from then until the start of the new millennium. Next is the 44-page section on rock music. The editor suggests that rock music began as pop music with attitude, and that while pop music often tells us that everything is OK, rock music tells us that it's not OK, but we can change it. That's an interesting definition, but hardly a clear one and not always accurate, although it's never been easy to define the dividing line between pop and rock. A look at the sub-styles in the two categories make the division look easier than it really is.

Subsequent sections provide great overviews of jazz (36 pages), blues (28 pages), country (30 pages) and folk (28 pages). The 26-page classical section mainly sticks to the traditional music, but acknowledges that the music is being challenged as never before to retain a distinctive identity. (Jazz, folk and country all face this problem, as pop and rock influences encroach into all of them, but I suspect that classical music faces the biggest challenge of them all.) The remaining chapters are all excellent, though I wish there could have been more than one page about Christmas songs. Actually, I wouldn't have expected there to be more, but I'm wondering (since this book was published in 2003) whether Bing Crosby's White Christmas was still the biggest-selling single of all time even then. I thought Elton John's tribute to Princess Diana had surpassed it, but I must check that. I'd also dispute the list of leading exponents of Christmas music, some of whom only recorded one Christmas song.

Because this book covers so much ground, it can't cover anything in depth, but I knew that a book such as this one could barely scratch the surface (many big names don`t even get mentioned, or only do so briefly), especially as the same publisher released a similarly-sized volume devoted exclusively to country music, which is restricted to thirty pages here. You'll want to buy specialist books about your favorite styles, but this book is particularly useful at providing the basic information about those musical styles that you aren`t sufficiently interested in to buy a specialist book (well, not yet anyway) but which you`d like to read a little about.

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Book, December 31, 2011

By 

Cindy Schmelter - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music: From Rock, Pop, Jazz, Blues and Hip Hop to Classical, Country, Folk, World and More (Hardcover)

I bought this book for a young man in Uganda that is very interested in music. He can't put it down!