The Guardian
Has never been bettered as the definitive history of rock.
Jon Landau, Rolling Stone
The one essential work about the history of rock 'n' roll...provocative enough to send the reader back to the turntable again and again.
Jerry Hopkins Los Angeles Times
The most thorough history of rock 'n' roll...immensely readable...if you're into rock 'n' roll, this is the book for you.
Barney Hoskyns, 'Independent on Sunday'
"groundbreaking account of pop's rise and dissemination... superbly researched."
Product Description
This comprehensive study of the rise of rock and roll from 1954 to 1971 has now been expanded with close to 100 illustrations as well as a new introduction, recommended listening section, and bibliography.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Charlie Gillett is presents a weekly show on GLR, manages the Oval record label and has been recognised as one of the finest writers to have written for NME.
Excerpted from The Sound of the City by Charlie Gillett. Copyright © 1996. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The city's sounds are brutal and oppressive, imposing themselves on anyone who comes into its streets. Many of its residents, committed by their jobs to live in the city, measure their freedom by the frequency and accessibility of departures from it.
But during the mid-fifties, in virtually every urban civilization in the world, adolescents staked out their freedom in the cities, inspired and reassured by the rock and roll beat. Rock and roll was perhaps the first form of popular culture to celebrate without reservation characteristics of city life that had been among the most criticized. In rock and roll, the strident, repetitive sounds of city life were, in effect, reproduced as melody and rhythm.
But during the mid-fifties, in virtually every urban civilization in the world, adolescents staked out their freedom in the cities, inspired and reassured by the rock and roll beat. Rock and roll was perhaps the first form of popular culture to celebrate without reservation characteristics of city life that had been among the most criticized. In rock and roll, the strident, repetitive sounds of city life were, in effect, reproduced as melody and rhythm.
