Bob Stanley (1) (1964–)

The subtitle of this book describes it well. In this book, Bob Stanley tackles the seemingly impossible quest to distill all of modern pop into one book. He chooses as his start and end points “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and the Comets, and “Crazy in Love” by Beyoncé. In between, we learn about a dizzying array of genres, musicians and albums. Stanley puts together some interesting connections between various bands, and puts popular bands into their historical context by explaining what was going on in other parts of the pop music scene at the time.

Everyone has their favourite acts, and Stanley is no exception. He doesn’t spend the entire book belabouring the point about which are his favourites, but he’ll certainly let you know which of two equally important acts he likes better, or his opinion of a popular song. It is interesting to read about his perspective and the enthusiasm he brings to the project as a whole. I still can’t say I understand house music or techno, but this book did leave me thinking I should go check out some groups I missed in the R&B/hip-hop genres, such as TLC.

The chapters are short and there are a lot of them — I couldn’t believe how much book there was. This is the sort of book that would reward multiple readings, especially with a playlist in hand. Someone has in fact created a Spotify playlist for the book, if you use that service: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2ij4uEGLKW4xaUZqyk5KV3… (meer)