Zero Books say this about themselves:
"Zer0 is committed to the idea of publishing as a making public of the intellectual. It is convinced that in the unthinking, blandly consensual culture in which we live, critical and engaged theoretical reflection is more important than ever before."
Subsequently several things immediately grab me about this book but it's difficult to know whether they are faults or not, so I'll just report them and you can decide if it sounds like your kind of thing.
Firstly, there are several irritating editorial mistakes which leave you wondering if the proofreader read it very carefully at all. It doesn't get in the way of the arguments, but it is irritating.
Secondly despite quoting from many books and summarizing others, there is neither a bibliography, nor a list of references anywhere in the book. Presumably putting a bibliography in the back of the book would have been far too blandly consentual for Zero Book's switched on readers.
Thirdly, and more importantly, this book is very interesting in its description of the thread of music that it follows through the 20th Century, but it does seem to be quite a personal journey taken by Stubbs. He leaps from Schoenberg to Stockhausen, from the Futurists to the Musique Concret-ists, then suddenly hits what appears to be his favourite subject, free improvisation and obscure arthouse bands from the 70s and 80s. I didn't know a lot about these artists, so it was an interesting read, as were Stubbs' conclusions about them, but it doesn't take into account the majority of 20th Century music. At one point he mentions Wire magazine and you get the feeling that much of his musical tastes have been lead by that publication.
Finally, Stubbs leaves it to the last chapter to start to answer the question on the front cover, which he does so relatively successfully positing several possible answers, although any thoughtful reader could probably have come up with a list of similar ones themselves. You could easily read the last chapter without reading any of the others, the earlier chapters seemingly acting as a sort of incomplete potted history of 20th century art and music.
Ultimately an interesting read and a good addition to a library of 20th century music type books, but I think if it were the only book you read on 20th century music it would leave you confused.