Whether you're a lifelong collector or have only just gotten hip to the vinyl revival, navigating the vast landscape of rock albums can be a daunting prospect. Enter Mike Segretto and his mammoth 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Minute, a history of the rock LP era told through a very personal selection of nearly 700 albums. Beginning with the birth of rock and roll in the 1950s, Segretto moves through the explosive innovations of the 1960s, the classic rock and punk albums of the 1970s, the new wave classics of the 1980s, and the alternative revolution of the 1990s, always with an eye to both the iconic and the ephemeral, the failed experiments and the brilliant trailblazers. It's all here: everything from the classics (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Purple Rain, Nevermind, and countless other usual suspects) to such oddities as albums by Johnny "Guitar" Watson, P. P. Arnold, The Dentists, and Holly Golightly. Throughout, Segretto reveals the perpetual evolution of a modern art form, tracing the rock album's journey from a vehicle for singles and filler sold to kids, through its maturation into a legitimate, self-contained medium of expression by 1967, and onward to its dominance in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. Whether you read it from cover to cover, seek out specific albums, or just dip in at random and let the needle fall where it may, 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Minute is a fun, informative, and unapologetically opinionated read.

33 Revolutions Per Minute tracks the turbulent relationship between popular music and politics, through 33 pivotal songs that span seven decades and four continents, from Billie Holiday singing 'Strange Fruit' to Green Day raging against the Iraq war. Dorian Lynskey explores the individuals, ideas and events behind each song, showing how protest music has soundtracked and informed social change since the 1930s. Through the work of such artists as Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Fela Kuti, The Clash, Public Enemy and Gil Scott Heron, Lynskey examines how music has engaged with racial unrest, nuclear paranoia, apartheid, war, poverty and oppression, offering hope, stirring anger, inciting action and producing songs which continue to resonate years down the line.

Singles, 45s, 7-inchers: they have many names, but they only come in one package (a square of folded cardboard with a miniature poster on either side). The gold standard of Top 40 playlists for decades, these small albums have long been favourites of DJs and collectors who prize them for their small-scale graphic design.Organized chronologically, 45 RPM brings together more than 200 albums from all genres of music, chosen for their innovative design. Included are albums by Paul Anka, The Beatles, Boston Pops, Clash, Donovan, Dizzy Gillespie, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dean Martin and REM.Music historian Chuck Granada presents the history of the 45, its place in the music business and its designers. Each decade of design is introduced by a specialist of that period: Eric Kohler (1950s), Spencer Drake (1960s), Roger Dean (1970s), Bruce Licher (1980s) and Jeff Kleinsmith (1990s).