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Title: All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (3rd Edition)
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Manufacturer: Backbeat Books
List Price: $29.95
Our Price: $18.00
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| Customer Reviews: |
| All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (3rd Edition) by Backbeat Books Marvellous | This is the 3rd edition of the AMG guide and its a brilliant read. Subtitled "The Definitive Guide To Rock, Pop and Soul" it is five years old now, but as its nearly 1400 pages in length you won't get bored with it.
Artists are listed alphabetically and an enhanced 5 star rating system is used. Apart from the number of stars some albums additionally get either a filled circle a filled star or the outline of a star. Generally the very best recordings by an artist will get a filled star and any acknowledged masterpieces will get an outline star. So most of The Beatles albums are 5 star albums with an extra outline star. Sounds complicated on paper but its not - its just difficult to describe!
At the back of the book are a series of essays on different genres, such as electric blues, Rap etc. These feature family trees of the most important artists and are interesting reading their own right.
AMG also do separate books on Jazz, Soul and Blues all of which I recommend. You can waste hours with this book reading about what you are listening to, which makes the whole experience that much more pleasurable. | | All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (3rd Edition) by Backbeat Books Why Does All Music Guide Get Their Facts So Mixed Up? | When I read things written, as in biographical form, attributed to All Music Guide, I have to wonder if they have ever heard of, 'fact checking'. How about comparing the lp/cd's and official bios and websites to get the honest picture of what might have happened.
Please give me a place to write to them - especially Chris Woodstra and the others who need to update their knowledge of power pop. Unfortunately, the journalism loses credibility. Why? What ever happened to real journalists and companies who FACT CHECKED?
I would never have been a publicist if I had not had that skill and I have been one for nearly 30 years!
Sincerely,
Annie Pfeiffer Gower
Former "National Tour Publicist" for the launch of Virgin Records USA 1979/ meshing of Virgin/Atlantic and launch of both labels including Frontline and Caroline, Virgin Publishing (including The Sex Pistols) and many bands on the road - the most important was all the press done before The Records even hit the States.
Crashes was aptly named but The Records bio is never correct. A{G | | All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (3rd Edition) by Backbeat Books More punk & less r&b next time...PLEASE! | First off this is supposed to be a guide to ROCK. With that in mind the following artists are missing:
Fear, Robin Trower, Accept, Raven, Giant Sand, Saxon, Yngwie Malmsteen(in fact there are no shred guitarists from the 80's included), New Model Army, Monkeywrench, Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band, The Pandoras, Warrior Soul & Deadbolt.
The next list is all of the artists that are in this ROCK guide:
Celine Dion, Mary J. Blige, D'Angelo, TLC, Tony! Toni! Tone!, Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, Spice Girls, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Mariah Carey, Biz Markie, Coolio, Das EFX, Dr. Dre, Raekwon, Puff Daddy, Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, Rakim, Busta Rhymes, Vanilla Ice, Jay-Z, Jodeci, K-Ci & Jojo and last but not least the rockinest act ever Kid & Play.
Another beef that I have is that quite often a greatest hits type of record will be the only album reviewed by what I consider to be important bands. One that comes to mind is Rainbow. They had many albums with many different lineups so reviewing a greatest hits album will just not suffice. With all this negativity I still admit to reading this thing to death and it does come in quite handy for mostly classic rock purchases.
Next time leave the radio r&b for the r&b guide and include more complete discographies, metal, indie & punk or press up some separate guides for those genres. | | All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (3rd Edition) by Backbeat Books 5 stars, PLEASE!! | Desiding that I needed a new record guide book as my Rolling Stone Record Guide, copyright 1979 was out dated, I bought the All Music recorg Guide, 3rd edition. They hand out 5 stars like candy. I think that as I have aged( I'm 55.) that the critical faculty of reviewers, be that music, books or movies has deminished. A 5 star record should be a combination of extrodinary talent, musically and lyrically and be somewhat groundbreaking. Not to mention that EVERY song on it had better be good! You would have a hard time housing all the 5 star recordings in the tome.
Let's reserve the 5 stars for the truely GREAT!!! Recordings that will stand the test of time. So I would say take quite a bit of salt with this guide. | | All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (3rd Edition) by Backbeat Books Excellent bathroom reading | | Has some errors and odd omissions, but I still learn something every time I pick it up. The online version is far more complete ... but I don't have a computer in my bathroom, yet. | | All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (3rd Edition) by Backbeat Books Product Description | | Easy to use and fun to explore, this 1,400-page tome is the most complete guide ever published on the artists and recordings that really rock. Compiled by dozens of music critics, it reviews and rates more than 14,000 great albums by over 2,200 artists and groups in more than 400 styles - both mainstream and alternative - including bootlegs, import-only releases, important out-of-print recordings, and lesser-known cult artists. A brief profile details each performer's career, while insightful reviews of top recordings help define the musician's artistic development and impact on rock. Expanded biographies spotlight major figures, along with complete album discographies. Also features educational essays and "music maps" that chart the evolution of rock's diverse subgenres at a glance. |
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