Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Story of Pop Music from Bill Haley to Beyoncé

This book is beautifully written. Bob Stanley is a rare person in that he both writes critically about music and makes it, very successfully. He talks it AND walks it.As well as bringing his years of hands-on experience to the project, he writes fluently and with great style. He combines critical analysis with historical narrative as well as anyone I've ever read on the broad topic of pop music. His opinions rest lightly on the page. I think you could disagree with him in conversation and enjoy a good-humoured debate.I saw a couple of daft factual errors which I wish had been picked up by his editor. However, I wasn't looking for them and they weren't major enough to derail the topic.I take most critics' opinions with a huge lump of rock salt; my theory being that having experience as a competent practitioner gives your opinions a large dose of credibility. Bob Stanley writes affectionately, knowledgeably and with flair. I have enjoyed every page and look forward to reading more of his work.

A thoroughly concise, engaging review of what made "pop" music so "pop-ular"! Although I grew up with a significant number of the artists mentioned in the book in my listening catalog, I found myself "rummaging" through my collection to find many of the songs named, just to give a listen, based on what Stanley had written.In some ways, it was a "trip through Memory Lane", but it also opened my eyes (ears?) to songs & artists I've not thought of (or necessarily paid any attention to) for years.Well worth the time & money for anyone who's interested in music period. The information on studio machinations was illuminating and highly interesting. Thanks for a great book! (4 vs. 5 stars, as I think it deserved a larger tome!)

The is the best rock book I have ever read. The author's depth of knowledge is extraordinary given the scope of this work. The prose is imminently readable. Each of the fifty some odd chapters reads like an in-depth magazine article organized around a particular theme. Always having fancied myself as one who knew a huge amount about the music and the artists of the time periods covered here, I found my own knowledge to be woefully lacking. That said, I rarely found myself disagreeing with the author's take on the topics I knew well. If you are a die hard fan like me, this book is a feast. I was sad when I had finished it. As merely a reference work, this book will stand the test of time. But, first and foremost, it must be enjoyed as a trip back in time to the people and the music that put a soundtrack to your life.

It comes as no surprise that one of the trio who have made 25 years' worth of fantastic music under the name Saint Etienne has turned out to be an adept chronicler of 60+ years of pop music. His record collection must be staggering. This is a long but breezy book, equally suited for reading start-to-finish or dipping in to selected eras at will. It's largely chronological, with side-trips to discuss genres, fads, and individual artists at appropriate points. I don't agree with every pronouncement Stanley makes about certain bands and artists, but I'm glad he makes them -- this is an *opinionated* stroll through pop history, not a dry timeline.I especially appreciate the way he hops back and forth across the Atlantic as rock and pop have done over time; I've read many books with either British or American focuses, but never one that tried to make sense of how the balance has shifted between them like this one does. I also applaud Stanley for paying necessary attention to the role of disco / dance / techno music, which is so often ignored or posited as antithetical to rock music when it's a vital part of its DNA."Yeah Yeah Yeah" takes us from the birth of rock in the 1950s up to about the year 2000, where Stanley draws a line and claims that download culture is fundamentally different than the "Top of the Pops"/"American Bandstand" chart-driven era. I 60% agree with him and 40% think this line is a little arbitrary... but at 750 pages as it is, he had to stop writing somewhere! I look forward to Volume 2 ("Meh Meh Meh"?) when the dust settles on the forecast Death of the Music Industry (TM).

An excellent, thoroughly researched and well-written story. dgp

There are not enough references to pure pop such as 2Unlimited and the Thompson Twins but I think feral youth young and old with luv it 4 ever

Una historia de la música pop a cargo de Bob Stanley, del grupo Saint Etienne. Extensa y pormenorizada,cubre todas las vertientes de la música popular moderna desde el nacimiento del rock an roll hasta las últimas tendencias. No es una enciclopedia, mas bien un ensayo con opiniones que a veces pueden ser discutibles (para gustos, colores), pero que demuestra un gran amor por la música. Lleno de datos y anécdotas. Única pega, lógica por otra parte, es que es totalmente anglocèntrica, a excepción de ABBA casi no se habla de artistas que no sean británicos o estadounidenses.

This book looks like a massive reference work - which in many ways it is - but don’t let that put you off because it’s actually a series of well written and incredibly well researched essays on just about every aspect of Rock & Pop.Each chapter holds together on its own as an overview of a particular musical genre/movement and each can be read, on its own, if you just want to dip in & out of the book. But, read sequentially, they constitute a highly engaging overview of more than 60 years of popular music in all its multifarious forms. It’s history presented as an intriguing "story"; something that few history books achieve because few authors’ have the combination of required skills. Bob Stanley does and, coupled with his obvious love of music and his incredible knowledge of it, he’s produced something that's awe inspiring in its scope and sheer "readability".Sure, you can nit-pick about some things, but that’s probably because he doesn’t go into sufficient detail for you about your favourite genres or artists; but, of course, if he did – which, based on what’s in here, he almost certainly could - this already large book would run the risk of becoming the encyclopaedically "dry" reference work that Stanley so cleverly avoids. You could also question some of his opinions or, how much space he devotes to some artists compared to others, but, hey, this is music he's dealing with which it's pretty impossible to write about in such an engaging manner without some degree of subjectivity.As it is, the only real problem is that the paperback version is actually quite difficult to physically hold – the Kindle version is recommended.

Great overview, but clearly biased with the writer's taste. The usual thing in this kind of books