A History of Rock Music : 1951-2000

Rating:
Summary: The Only History Of Rock
Review: Heve you ever noticed the annoying sensation of missing something when you read reviews and books about music ?
Have you ever felt you couldn't fully understand the meaning of genres names, of changes in style ? New wave, new age , paisley underground, slo-core, lo-fi, garage and many ( many ! ) others are discussed here.
But above all there's an accurate study of the causes of these changes, and an incredible care for details.
Maybe sometimes the positions of the writer are a little strong , ( especially about Beatles and followers ) , but it's only a matter of personal taste and, however, it's all related with the philosophy of the book. Read the preface and you'll understand.
Not simply a grat music book : this is THE Music book !

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: I always thought that a truly complete history of rock was an impossible task : too many bands and records and fads ...
This book cover anything and it does it very logically.
A must-read for any music fan

Rating:
Summary: A Godsend
Review: Really the most amazing history of rock I've ever come across. I don't really agree that this is a "listing" of all the rock musicians from 1951-2000: once I took the time to actually read it in chronological order, Scaruffi's bold, seemingly unsupported assertions about Elvis, The Beatles and others made much more sense, and I had the feeling that I really understood how rock music has evolved over the years. It can be so hard to look for all this information in other sources, and this book really layed everything out clearly.
But a warning: this is no coffee-table book - the information is presented in a no-frills, sterile way that compares to a textbook. Threre are books out there that are much more fun to read, but if you're serious about really knowing rock music, all its sub-genres and other musical styles that influenced it, this book is gold. The only down sides are its ungainly index and the density of the information... but how else does one fit so much information into one book?

Rating:
Summary: Encyclopedia
Review: The author is certainly knowledgeable and if you are looking for an encyclopedic book which mentions all bands in last 50 years you may enjoy the book. If you are looking for a story - how certain styles developed, why were they influential - then it is a painful reading. An average paragraph mentions 4-5 band names. If you know rock music well, the book may help to remind bands you have long forgotten and help to group the bands under specific music styles. But I'm not sure that you would learn much more than that from this book.

The author also comes out with strong opinions without argumentation, e.g. Elvis Presley is one of the most overestimated musicians. This may be true, but it depends what kind of influence are we talking about - music itself, music business, youth culture. Nobody can throw out a statement like this just with one sentence.

Rating:
Summary: i liked it
Review: This is a book i'd recommend, whether you're a specialist (I think I am) or a novice (my sister is, and she never was into rock music before she read my copy of Scaruffi's book).
I got five shelves of books on music, and this one ranks
with the ten best. First, its comprehensive: it begins a century ago, it ends with the year 2000. That's as recent as printed books can get. That's what I wanted: not the usual "history of rock'n'roll" that starts with rock round the clock and ends with the sixties... I disagree with the reader who wrote that this book does not deal with the evolution of a style.
What it doesn't have is the "mundane" story that so many rock
historians indulge in. If you want to know what Clapton
whispered to Beck when they produced the first guitar feedback, and what they were drinking, this aint the book. But just check out the first two chapters: I had never read all this stuff about musicians who predated everything from sampling to world-music... Its also the most detailed chronicle of rap, techno and house that I have found in print (his website has a lot more, by the way).
There are two main drawbacks:
1. No index. Who was the idiot who decided that a 600-page book with thousands of names did not deserve an index of names??? I would also like an index of songs and records.
2. This should really be 2 or 3 books. If you are familiar with his website, this dude has written a lot more stuff on all the bands you can think of. The book is summarizing long bios in a few short sentences.
Still, I can't think of any book in my collection that packs so much info.
Tahnks to this book I also discovered another great book, the A bient Century (its one of the few given as biblio).