The Virgin Encyclopedia of 60's Music [Hardcover]

Colin Larkin (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2002 | Series: The Virgin Encyclopedia

Published for the first time in hard cover this invaluable handbook contains 1000 entries taken from the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, offering an insight into the 60s -- the most analyzed yet least understood decade in the history of popular music. It includes every artist who had a significant impact on the development of rock and pop music in those ten years, from the Beatles-led invasion of America to the States' own pop aristocracy of Phil Spector and the Beach Boys, from the rise of Motown to the arrival of psychedelia and the Summer of Love. A perfect mix of fact and informed opinion contained in one single volume. Covers the essential elements -- dates, career facts, discography, album ratings plus a sense of context for each artist.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'The meticulous accuracy here is infuriating' The Guardian; 'approaches the subject with genuine scholarly intent and never descends into pretension' The Express

About the Author

Colin Larkin has the best credentials for the compiler of a music reference book - he loves the music. In 1989 with twenty years' experience in music and publishing, and unhappy that popular music has not been deemed worthy of serious reference, he set about creating an equivalent to the Grove Dictionary Of Music. The Encyclopedia Of Popular Music from which this Encyclopedia is derived was first published in 1992, following three years of intensive research. The original database has trebled in size and now includes over 8 million words, the biggest of its kind in the world. Everyday of every year the database in updated and expanded.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: Virgin Books; 2nd edition (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852279338
• ISBN-13: 978-1852279332
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,559,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Exhaustive but spotty., January 8, 2007

By 

William G. Ratcliffe "wearevinyl" (Lawrenceville, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Virgin Encyclopedia of 60's Music (Hardcover)

Not a bad endeavor indeed, to try to list as many noteworthy perfomers during the 60's. You do get the popular entertainers like Elvis, Beatles, etc., but, considering that this book was written in the UK, many USA performers did not make the grade, so the reader on some of those who did make it to the pages included here will not get any new information.

Of those performers who are included, and are familiar to the USA, the information is at times spotty and incorrect. The lack of pictures for the many that are not familiar or had one hit then went missing on the Pop Charts would have been a bonus, since we all pretty much know who the Beatles are by now.

So, overall i was impressed with the many entries concerning pop music from the UK's point of view, i was not impressed by the omissions. Considering the popularity of country music in the UK that was imported from the US, not many were mentioned here.

Another thing, and to those who were young enough to remember, tho our country had a 'British Invasion', the UK also had an 'USA' invasion, when Motown, Girl Groups and Garage Bands were imported and saw many hits there.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Wish I knew How Good This Book is..., January 4, 2004

By 

Skorp "no_name" (Global) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Virgin Encyclopedia of 60's Music (Hardcover)

I would love to be able to review this book, but... Amazon (Still!!!) shows this as shipping within 24 hours. Don't believe it, I've been waiting since November and have approved numerous delays, just today I approved another. Just so you know, this book takes 2 months to ship (minimum!), and I still don't know when I'll get it. By the way, same deal for the Encyclopedia of 70s Music.

Amazon, it is time to be honest to your patrons, change the estimated shipping date to something realistic!

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Virgin Encylopedia of 50's music, November 28, 2005

By 

Stuart Jones (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Virgin Encyclopedia of 60's Music (Hardcover)

Hi everybody, First of all I am not reviewing the book as such but I thought that I just had to write and thank you for your great service. I ordered the above book plus the 60's Encyclopedia and yes I did pay extra postage but I placed my order at Mid day [UK] time on friday the 25th November 2005 and received both Items at Mid Day [UK]time on Monday the 28th November 2005. I would not have got them this quick if I had ordered them from a UK source which of course I could not have done because they are out of print over here. Great work Guys Many thanks Stuart Jones UK.