Pop category: 3054 books

Are you a romantic optimist with a cheery disposition? You might be a “Paul.” Brooding, introverted, and artistic? You are probably a “John.” If you tend to take life as it comes with a happy go-lucky attitude, most likely you are a “Ringo.” Thoughtful, with a tendency...

A celebration America’s ongoing love affair with the Beatles, four longhaired, oddly dressed chaps who appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday evening, February 9, 1964 with half of America watching from their living rooms. Editor Ben Nussbaum traces the beginnings of this first internationally...

He's made $100 million, is the hottest DJ in the world and has worked with the pop royalty - but who is Calvin Harris? And how did he go from stacking shelves in his local supermarket to such astonishing global success? He's come a long way from making music in his bedroom in his native Dumfries but...

This superb selection of Michael Jackson hits spans the whole of his extraordinary career. From his piping Rockin’ Robin’ at the age of 14 to 2003’s One More Chance, these are the musical highlights of The King of Pop’s journey from child prodigy to global superstar. Each song is beautifully...

BBC Radio 6 Music is the place for alternative music – and this is the quiz for its fans. From indie pop and iconic rock to trip hop, electronica and dance, these questions will test your knowledge of the last 60 years of floor-fillers, cult classics and the best B-sides to the limit. Including...

Before they emerged as Simon and Garfunkel, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel performed and recorded as Tom and Jerry, after the cat and mouse duo of animated comedy. The pair met at school in Queens, New York, in 1953 and shared an interest in folk revival music as it entered the popular consciousness....

If You're Feeling Sinister shows how Belle & Sebastian transformed themselves over the space of a decade, from a slightly shambolic cult secret into a polished, highly entertaining, mainstream pop group. Along the way, the book shows how the internet has revolutionized how we discover new music-often at the cost of romance and mystery.

The perfect gift for music fans and anyone who loves artists like Elvis Presley, Randy Newman, Sly Stone, Robert Johnson, and Harmonica Frank. In 1975, Greil Marcus’s Mystery Train changed the way readers thought about rock ’n’ roll and continues to be sought out today by music fans and...

From 1987 to 1995, Bristol, England's Sarah Records was a modest underground success and, for the most part, a critical laughingstock in its native country-sneeringly dismissed as the sad, final repository for a fringe style of music (variously referred to as "indie-pop,†? "C86,†? "cutie†?...

David Sylvian spans three decades of image-conscious pop culture. From South London schoolboy in the Seventies to respected composer of the Nineties and beyond, he remains a uniquely fascinating hero. The new edition of Martin Power's acclaimed biography explores every detail of a unique life....

Building on the national bestselling success of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, preeminent pop culture writer Chuck Klosterman unleashes his best book yet—the story of his cross-country tour of sites where rock stars have died and his search for love, excitement, and the meaning of death. For...

Created in the late 1960s, fashionable in the early 1970s and hated in the 1980s Progressive Rock has a colourful and eventful story. Many of the genres main protagonists, including Genesis, Yes, King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, remain as popular as ever, while lesser-known names like...

From the moment that Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm conceived 'Rocket 88' to the suicide of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain and Lennon's Anniversary concert, 'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky chronicles 50 moments in history that shaped rock and roll as we know it. The stories of behind the iconic...

A revealing new perspective on Bob Dylan's enduring legacy - from one of the foremost experts on the Nobel Peace prize-winning artist. Forget About Today shows a side of Bob Dylan that most people - from fans to skeptics - have never seen. Rather than another gossipy account of his romances,...