Encyclopedia Of Popular Music (Hardcover)

~ Colin Larkin (Author, Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up—The creation of this edition was clearly a monumental task and a labor of love for the editor, whose passion for and knowledge of popular music are first made evident in the introductory material. Within its alphabetical, cross-referenced arrangement, this ambitious work provides over 27,000 entries, including 6,000 that are new to this edition. Every aspect of popular music is covered, from Broadway show tunes and rap to heavy metal and big band, from the 1900s to today. The set provides information on artists and other important figures such as producers and songwriters. Entries encapsulate their subjects well even given length limitations. The six-page entry on the Beatles, for example, is concise yet comprehensive, as is the entry on Bob Dylan, which gives readers a clear sense of the man. Larkin and his contributors provide evaluations, using phrases such as "superbly crafted," to describe an album. The writing is always entertaining even when covering less-exciting career details. Each entry concludes with a comprehensive, rated discography covering all mediums and formats produced by the artist, and some also have further-reading lists. The main entries take up eight of this encyclopedia's volumes. The ninth volume provides a healthy quantity of selected album reviews, again presented alphabetically by artist, along with a bibliography, and the final volume is a set index. This title will be invaluable for research.—Tim Wadham, Maricopa County Library District, Phoenix, AZ
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Those who have followed the progress of this excellent work (an LJ Best Reference Book in 1992 as The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music; 2d ed., 1995) assume that Larkin will not disappoint, and here he delivers a monumental and quite handsome update. Anyone unfamiliar with this guide to 20th-century "nonclassical" music?rock, pop, rap, reggae, jazz, country, musical theater, etc.?will be staggered at the breadth and depth of the material. The third edition features 18,500 unsigned entries, normally 150 to 3000 words in length, including 4500 entirely new articles, with updates throughout. In comparison, the 14,500-entry 1992 edition now seems minuscule. Larkin continues to include performers, composers, producers, labels, companies, events, venues, films, and videos. One-hit wonders abound, and the international coverage is a model for all musical reference works. The index is now over 350 pages, with a song index of 50,000 titles, a relief for those confronting "who sang what?" questions. As with earlier editions, this is remarkably up-to-date, although additional "where are they now?" information would be welcome in future editions. Two other significant modifications have been made since 1995. For the first time, accompanying discographies list record labels and feature a five-star rating system; release dates of all recordings continue from earlier editions. The expansion into eight volumes also means that each volume is less unwieldy than before, although more shelf space is required for the set. Even without these new features, this is an acquisition without equal for all academic and public libraries and will easily replace either earlier edition.?Anthony J. Adam, Prairie View A&M Univ. Lib., TX
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1600 pages
• Publisher: Omnibus Press; 5 Concise edition (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1846098564
• ISBN-13: 978-1846098567
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 7.6 x 2.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #893,373 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference, very reasonable price, October 24, 2007

By	Arthur Maisel (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the best type of reference book: fun to browse in and reliable. (Warning: You'll want to buy a lot of CDs after looking at this book.)

The coverage of this selection from the complete 10-volume set is impeccable; I found very few omissions that I could quibble with. There are some typos and mistakes (how could there not be?), but almost none in the information relevant to the purpose of the book. All of the articles I have read succeed in Larkin's aim of steering a course between an "encyclopediese" recitation of dry facts and the overopinionated critical writing that pop music often suffers from.

The selection does favor English and American artists, but most users of the book will probably not find this a major limitation. The authors are at least aware of this byproduct of U.S. pop cultural hegemony.

The five-star rating system for albums is relatively new and still has some rough edges: when the author of an article doesn't avail him- or herself of it, the result is that all the albums are rated equally. Since the system is most useful in relative terms (Blonde on Blonde versus, say, Nashville Skyline) and unavoidably subjective, it would be better to omit the stars altogether if the author of an article doesn't want to make distinctions. But it's a small point.

It is hard to imagine how this could be better in any substantial way.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Utterly Amazing and, Unfortunately, Utterly Out of Reach, February 8, 1999

By	lbangs "lbangs" (from Tulsa, Oklahoma) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Hardcover)

My local library has a copy of this, and if you're lucky, your library does as well. If not, you are missing out, assuming you don't have the 700-plus bucks to slap down for this baby. The editors thoroughly trace the careers of most of the artists you could probably name off the top off your head and rates them from one to five stars. The star ratings in particular are much improved over the previous releases that included the ratings. Fairly comprehensive; I'll only complain that he includes several cheesy Christian heavy metal groups of the eighties and fails to mention any vital Christian artists who actually made great music (There actually are some, like Adam Again, Daniel Amos, or Mark Heard). A special delight is the excellent balance between British and American tastes, not leaning one way more than the other between the (at times) very different critical camps on either side of the Atlantic. Check out your public library for this one, and bring plenty of change to make copies of your favorite entries. Colin would probably kill you, but I won't tell...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Splendid, July 29, 2008

By	Lovblad (Geneva, Switzerland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

While of course not as exhaustive as the Encyclopedia of Modern Music from which it comes (but who can afford that?) this is one of the best books of its kind around. For those who knows the writing in Colin Larkin;s books they will know that it belongs to the trusty excellence of British rock-writing. It is extensively annotated and now even provides with stars rating the records (however this may be a mistake since there are other guides that have done a better job in that). This book is splendid and affordable and much preferable to the Rolling Stone encyclopedia for instance which is shockingly incomplete and not as well written. A must for any serious music fan...who might want to consider forking out the 1000 plus dollars for the encyclopedia....I am saving up for one.