The Guinness Rockopedia: The Ultimate A-Z of Rock and Pop |
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Pages: 504 (Hardcover) ISBN: 0851120725 Pub: Guinness World Records Limited Pub date: 1998-08-07 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 170423 |
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Editorial Review:
Already well established in the music reference market, Guinness launches its Rockopedia, which, as the title suggests, is an encyclopedia of rock and pop. Listed alphabetically, it contains fairly lengthy biographies of more than 700 artists and also features entries on musical styles, events and festivals, record labels, and key industry people such as producers and songwriters. Although there are no discographies, all major releases are listed in the main text for each entry. Also provided is an extensive index and useful information not often featured in similar works such as further reading, internet sites, and fan club addresses.
Image is crucial to the music industry and the text is brought to life by more than 400 superb photographs, many of which are unusual or rare, all of which capture the diversity and excitement of the pop world and its participants.
Any non-exhaustive encyclopedia will inevitably court debate concerning who does and who doesn't warrant an entry but this achieves a good balance mixing former and current artists with popular and influential artists. It is also packed full of trivia and littered with interesting quotes either from the artists themselves or from others commenting upon them; the most peculiar and funniest of which is taken from an episode of The Simpsons where Homer Simpson informs Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins that "my kids think you're the greatest. And thanks to your gloomy music, they've finally stopped dreaming of a future I can't possibly provide".
Snappy and visually stimulating, The Guinness Rockopedia is both an informative and entertaining guide to the world of popular music. From Bill Haley to the Wu-Tang Clan, from the Lollapalooza festival to Factory records, more than 40 years of rock and pop is accurately represented here. For those about to rock, use this to learn about your predecessors. For those unable to, it is an excellent substitute. --Robert Brookes
Reader Reviews:
A really good book for those interested in today's music. (4/4 people found this helpful)
This is a great book, for anyone who is interested in music from the 40's to the 90's. This book has all types of music, blues, britpop, rock, rap, everything you would want to know about music. The information on each singer/band is really interesting and gives alot of details. The pictures are also really cool, they show many of the artists, and the tell you who the pictured artist is. This book also has a glossary in the beginning, explaining any terms you might not recognize. It tells you about different genres of music, where they came from which artists were involved, and it what time they occured. I recommend this book to anyone interested in music, if you don't know much, this will give you a good start, and if you think you know everything you need to know about music, you don't, untill you read this book.
Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Reference -> Encyclopaedias
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin)
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Hardcover
Books -> Refinements -> Condition (condition-type)