Remember the 80's? The Virgin Encyclopedia of 80's Music is a complete handbook of information and opinion about the history of the most fragmented and frequently maligned decade in the history of popular music. Here are 1000 entries on the bands, musicians, songwriters, producers and record labels - everyone who had a significant impact on the development of rock and pop music in those ten years, from the New Romantics who brought colour and image to fill the gap left by punk and the new wave, to the stadium acts who provided a launch pad for Live Aid, to the myriad variations of house and techno spawned in the latter half of the Eighties. As well as all the giants of the period the encyclopedia has the range and depth to include artists who flourished briefly and yet were quintessential to the decade. A perfect mix of fact and informed opinion contained in one single volume, distilled from the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, universally acclaimed as the world's leading source of reference on rock and pop history. Informed, infatuating and invaluable.

Whatever you were doing and listening to during the eighties, THE VIRGIN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EIGHTIES MUSIC will bring it all back. All the facts and informed opinions on the artists who made that decade's musical history are contained in this single volume, distilled from THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, the world's leading reference on rock and pop history.

The Virgin Encyclopaedia of the Blues is a complete handbook of information and opinion about the history of the most classically simple, enduring and inspiring genre in the history of popular music. All entries have been created from the massive database of The Encyclopaedia of Popular Music, which has swiftly and firmly established itself as the undisputed champion of contemporary music reference books. Brand new research ensures that the 1000 entries are bang up-to-date and cover everyone - the musicians, bands, songwriters, producers and record labels - who has made a significant impact on the development of the blues. It brings together pioneers like Robert Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson, the influence of Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon on the blues boom of the 1960s, and the most recent blues resurgence featuring Keb'Mo, Larry Garner and Jonny Lang. As well as the giants of the blues, this encyclopaedia has the range and depth to include performers who flew the blues flag during fallow periods, the 1980s band Roomful of Blues for example, or acts like Paul Butterfield, Chicken Shack, Stevie Ray Vaughan, who took the music to a wider, whiter, audience. Some blues musicians, including John Lee Hooker and Taj Mahal, seem to last forever. Others simply defined the genre, like Lead Belly, Bessie Smith and Howlin' Wolf. Whomever you remember or want to know more about, each entry gives the essential elements - dates, career facts, discography and album ratings - as well as a sense of context, striking a balance between the extremes of the self-opinionated and the bland.

Published for the first time in hard cover this invaluable handbook contains 1000 entries taken from theEncyclopedia of Popular Music, offering an insight into the 60s -- the most analyzed yet least understood decade in the history of popular music. It includes every artist who had a significant impact on the development of rock and pop music in those ten years, from the Beatles-led invasion of America to the States' own pop aristocracy of Phil Spector and the Beach Boys, from the rise of Motown to the arrival of psychedelia and the Summer of Love. A perfect mix of fact and informed opinion contained in one single volume. Covers the essential elements -- dates, career facts, discography, album ratings plus a sense of context for each artist.

This text presents a comprehensive and up-to-date reference work on popular music, from the early 20th century to the present day.

All the facts and informed opinion that you need on the artists who made the history of this decade are contained in this single volume, distilled from The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, universally acclaimed as the world's leading source of reference on rock and pop history.