Customer Reviews

The Virgin Encyclopedia of 70s Music

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An endeavour like this is bound to have its benefits and flaws. Some artists who in retrospect proved not as influential or heavy in importance wind up having extensive coverage while others might get no mention at all or very little of it.

It's all more a matter of perspective of course and having read other encyclopedias of the sort i know that this is the case with basically all of them.

With this then intentionally overlooked, this book is pretty darn good for what it offers. It has for the most part extensive histories of the artists it presents and -allthough not thorough-discographies that compliment these presentations. On that particular point comes the real miss, which is the behind the glamorous scenes look at things. The escapade element (and yes, im being ridiculously mild) is mostly absent, which is striking considering that the rock and pop world would not be what it was and is without it. Yes, there are mentions of the drug adventures as well as other "mishaps" but just mere mentions, in some cases these are omitted, and in any case less focus is given to issues as these than there should've been.

Granted, it would probably make the book double its size were it more detailed this way but then it would be more complete.

As a reference book though, or even as a starting point for those who are rediscovering or beginning to explore the 70s it's really, really good. It's perhaps too harsh to subtract a star on this review for what i mentioned above but then again i believe that a complete encyclopaedia is missing badly from the market.

If you're looking to pick one out of the many 70s music books out there you wouldnt be off the mark by choosing this one.