Customer Reviews

The Encyclopedia of Popular Music

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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...

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.

Dear! Where is DEINE LAKAIEN? Where is FIREWATER? Where is INTERPOL? Where is SLOWDIVE? Where is WOLFMOTHER and many other, in my opinion, shapers of popular music? Aguillera and Spears unfortunately are in place....
Authors have to pay more attention what they put in such important book, and do not leave behaind the board really iportant bands!