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chloelikedolivia's review against another edition
4.0
This is a really interesting history of the last 70 years of popular music through the lens of genre. Sanneh ably traces developments in sound to larger sociological phenomenon and vice versa, and is at his best when he is doing that most specifically. Unfortunately, the final pages of the book take a panoramic view that ends up being contradictory to the delicate, interesting work that led up to it.
helsvetica's review against another edition
3.0
I think I was expecting more of how history influenced music in the 50s to the 2000s or how music developed in response to the turbulence of the times. The work is more about how the sound evolved but not much about why (if that makes sense).
mrbusche's review against another edition
3.0
Take my review with a grain of salt - I enjoyed the book overall, but skipped the sections where he talked about bands I didn't care for, which was probably 40% of the bands
miguelf's review
4.0
Confession that I skipped the country chapter, but found the rock/punk/ and hip-hop chapters to be of good enough quality to keep listening. There’s a lot of wandering around as the topics covered are fairly vast, but Sanneh puts a good story together. His ‘test’ for being a volunteer at Harvard’s radio station was ridiculous but can totally understand having been in a similar type of environment and he's a very good writer in general and on music specifically.
jonmichaelnoise's review
informative
medium-paced
3.0
The breadth of history presented is admirable, but devotees of any one of the genre chapters will realize how shallow those histories are.
The personal reflections are more interesting but not delved into enough to sustain the book’s momentum.
The last parts of the book, especially the pop chapter, seem to shift into what I suspect might be the book’s intent overall, to discuss the importance of genre categorizations.
If I find it tedious when people argue about what is and isnt “metal”, let alone any of the infinitely divisible subgenres within, I can only suspect that other genre’s similar purity tests are likely similarly tedious.
Unfortunately, if this was the point of the book, more of the book should have been about that, and not shoved into the last chapter.
The personal reflections are more interesting but not delved into enough to sustain the book’s momentum.
The last parts of the book, especially the pop chapter, seem to shift into what I suspect might be the book’s intent overall, to discuss the importance of genre categorizations.
If I find it tedious when people argue about what is and isnt “metal”, let alone any of the infinitely divisible subgenres within, I can only suspect that other genre’s similar purity tests are likely similarly tedious.
Unfortunately, if this was the point of the book, more of the book should have been about that, and not shoved into the last chapter.
jonallanson's review against another edition
5.0
I went into this expecting to like it, but still I was surprised by just how much I did enjoy reading it. This is an incredibly well-written book, and the author makes some convincing points about popular music. The book takes a historical approach to the genres of popular music it focuses on, and presents stories, facts, quotes, and numbers in ways that draw you into the subject matter. When the author was telling stories about how artists came to write their hits, I knew I would be enthralled. I did not anticipate being equally as interested in how the author discussed chart positions or sales numbers of those same hits. I'm still enjoying the novelty of reading "history" books about times I lived through, and this book contains some of that to sweeten the deal as well. Lots of nostalgia for many of the songs and artists mentioned, but also lots of thoughts provoked by the way the author discussed those songs and artists. The best part, far from prescribing what you should think about popular music, the author makes the best case for being self-reflective and unapologetic about the music you like. Popular music is after all popular, and that shouldn't be a bad thing. Recommended.