1. ROCK’S FIRST DECADE and WHAT MADE IT ALL POSSIBLE
3. THE BRITISH INVASION: ADVENTURES IN EXCESS AND ELEGANCE
4. MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH: AN EXPLOSION OF NEW AMERICAN SOUNDS AND STYLES, 1965-1973
P.S. The book stops before 1990 for two reasons. First, it takes at least a decade to see which hits from each period become “Defining Records” of their time. Second, it is impossible to talk about most records since 1990 without a detailed technical explanation of the digital technology that made them possible. That is beyond this book, and largely gratuitous anyway, since the alphabet, vocabulary and grammar of sounds and dramatic devices around today were all invented in the analog era. Hip Hop, Rap, Drum and Bass, Acid Jazz and other current styles are mainly dressing the existing devices of rock/pop/R&B in new clothes. Recall what happened when a certain superstar invented a new alphabet to declare himself a unique event in Western Civilization. Nobody knew how to say his new name or order his records, so he went back to being plain old Prince. Spare me the vanity, please!