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Rock and Pop Music Books of 2023
Browse some of the biggest pop and rock book releases of the year, including biographies, memoirs, music history books, and more.
Pop and Rock Autobiographies
Barbra Streisand is by any account a living legend, a woman who in a career spanning six decades has excelled in every area of entertainment. She is among the handful of EGOT winners (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) and has one of the greatest and most recognisable voices in popular music. In My Name Is Barbra, she tells her own story about her life and extraordinary career.
Available Format: Book
Half of one of the greatest creative partnerships in popular music, Bernie Taupin is the man who wrote the lyrics for Elton John. Taupin, a famously private person, has kept his own account of their adventures close to his chest, until now. Unique and utterly compelling, Scattershot will transport the reader across the decades and around the globe, along the way meeting some of the greatest creative minds of the 20th century, and into the vivid imaginings of one of music's most legendary lyricists.
Available Format: Book
Sly Stone is a trailblazer who created a new kind of music, mixing Black and white, male and female, funk and rock; penned some of the most iconic anthems of the 1960s and 70s; and electrified audiences with a persona and stage presence that set a lasting standard for pop culture performance. In his much-anticipated memoir, he's finally ready to share his story - a story that many thought he'd never have the chance to tell.
Available Format: Book
Karma is the definitive autobiography from the incomparable Grammy, Brit and Ivor Novello award-winning lead singer of Culture Club and LGBTQ+ vanguard: Boy George. Told in his inimitable style, Karma tells the story of the charismatic frontman - the drama, the music, his journey of addiction and recovery, surviving prison, meeting legends like David Bowie, Prince and Madonna, and the highs and lows of a life lived in the spotlight and in the headlines.
Available Format: Book
A music-obsessed retrospective, beginning with his childhood epiphany of rock 'n' roll in the early 1960s into an infatuation with the subversive world of 1970s punk and no wave blasting forth from New York City - where he eventually runs off to join a band in 1978. By 1981 Moore would form the legendary and notorious experimental rock group Sonic Youth.
Available Format: Book
In 1989, a young Michael Ball landed the lead role in the musical Aspects of Love. It was a moment that changed his life forever. Over three decades later, Michael returned to a new production of the same show where he made his name, and with a lifetime's worth of stories to tell.
Available Format: Book
The song was Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley. It sounded like nothing he had ever heard before. In that instant, the schoolboy who was destined to take the hit parade by storm as Cliff Richard fell in love with rock and roll. A Head Full of Music is a vibrant personal journey for Cliff, and it's a joy to accompany him on it.
Available Format: Book
From S Club 7 pop star to Hollywood starlet, Hannah Spearritt has been on the stage, screen and airwaves since her teens. As one seventh of an iconic pop band, providing the soundtrack to so many childhoods, she has spent most of her life in the limelight. Now, for the first time ever, she's ready to open up in this deeply candid memoir.
Available Format: Book
With over 70 million records sold, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath are one of the most influential bands of all time. From the very beginning, Geezer Butler was at the heart of their success. Featuring Geezer’s candid reflections on his working-class childhood in Luftwaffe-battered Birmingham, his almost-life as an accountant and his fascination with horror, religion and the occult, Into the Void reveals the softer side of the heavy metal legend, while holding nothing back.
Available Format: Book
Geddy Lee is one of rock and roll's most respected bassists. For nearly five decades, his playing and work as co-writer, vocalist and keyboardist has been an essential part of the success story of Canadian progressive rock trio Rush. Here for the first time is his account of life inside and outside the band.
Available Format: Book
A fascinating new book charting the life and career of Sex Pistols legend Glen Matlock through the lens of thirty of his most formative songs - from the ones that influenced him as a child to the ones he wrote and played on as a star. This is the story of an outspoken, uncompromising man and remarkable, game-changing musician.
Available Format: Book
Tomorrow's Here Today: Lightning Seeds, Football and Cosmic Post-Punk
Nine Eight Books | Ian Broudie
Few musicians have lived a musical life as rich as the songwriter and producer Ian Broudie. Throughout nearly fifty years of making music, he has had a front-row seat working with generations of fantastic musicians in the creation of countless groundbreaking records. In Tomorrow's Here Today, he reveals what he has learnt about creativity, how to work with musicians touched by genius and what it is like to stumble through an exploding industry without losing sight of your dreams.
Available Format: Book
Given only a few months to live following a harrowing diagnosis in 2002, Marie boldly forged ahead into a life with newfound courage and inspiration. She continued as both a solo singer and with Roxette. In all, Roxette is Sweden’s biggest music group—second only to ABBA. Heart-wrenching yet winning, and told with exceptional energy and sincerity, Listen to My Heart sheds new and revelatory light on the life and work of one of our generation’s most talented and courageous artists.
Available Format: Book
Pop and Rock Biographies
With her arrival on the music scene in the early 1980s, Madonna generated nothing short of an explosion, taking the nation by storm with her liberated politics and breathtaking talent. Deftly tracing Madonna's story from her Michigan roots to her rise to super-stardom, master biographer Mary Gabriel captures the dramatic life and achievements of one of the greatest artists of our time.
Available Format: Book
Nick Drake: The Life is the only biography of Nick to be written with the blessing and involvement of his sister and Estate. Drawing on copious original research and new interviews with his family, friends and musical collaborators, as well as deeply personal archive material unavailable to previous writers - including his father's diaries, his essays and private correspondence - this is the most comprehensive and authoritative account possible of Nick's short and enigmatic life.
Available Format: Book
A revealing portrait of George Harrison, the most undervalued and mysterious Beatle. Unprecedented in scope and filled with numerous colour photos, this rich biography captures George Harrison at his most multi-faceted: devoted friend, loyal son, master guitar-player, brilliant songwriter, cocaine addict, serial philanderer, global philanthropist, student of Indian mysticism, self-deprecating comedian and, ultimately, iconic artist and man beloved by millions.
Available Format: Book
Paused in Cosmic Reflection is the definitive story of The Chemical Brothers. Told in the voices of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, with contributions from friends and collaborators, it is fully illustrated with 30 years of mind-bending visuals.
Available Format: Book
Everyone has their favourite era of the Bee Gees' career, but so much is still unclear about this celebrated but often misunderstood band. This book will provide the perfect route in, pulling together every fascinating strand to tell the story of these pioneering, melancholic masters of pop.Award winning author Bob Stanley captures the human story at the heart of the Bee Gees in this lyrical and stylish read.
Available Format: Book
Tupac Shakur is one of the greatest and most controversial artists of all time. More than a quarter of a century after his tragic death in 1996, he continues to be one of the most misunderstood, complicated and prolific figures in modern history. Tupac's unapologetic lyrics, for which he was villainized by many at the time, read in these pages as prophecy. His cry of outrage in a country that repeatedly told Black men and women that their lives did not matter, continues to inspire his fans around the world.
Available Format: Book
The book is an encyclopaedic A-Z of The Cure examining and riffing on miscellaneous trivia, biographies of the band members past and present, summaries of each album and selected songs, details of the band's various tours and films, and essays on broader topics such as their image, their politics and their influences. Playful, eccentric and irreverent - true to the spirit of the band itself.
Available Format: Book
Comprising a vivid and varied series of miniature biographies, revealing profiles, thought-provoking essays and a multitude of previously unknown anecdotes and quotes, Hercules!: The A to Z of Elton John is the perfect compendium for the casual fan or devoted connoisseur, providing a funny, comprehensive and fully alphabetised overview of the star's life and music.
Available Format: Book
Live Dead: The Grateful Dead, Live Recordings, and the Ideology of Liveness
Duke University Press | John Brackett
The Grateful Dead were one of the most successful live acts of the rock era. In Live Dead, musicologist John Brackett examines how live recordings—from the group’s official releases to fan-produced tapes, bootlegs to “Betty Boards,” and Dick’s Picks to From the Vault—have shaped the general history and popular mythology of the Grateful Dead for more than fifty years.
Available Format: Book
The comprehensive illustrated biography of Harry Styles's amazing story to date.
Available Format: Book
Music History & Reference
Reach for the Stars: 1996–2006: Fame, Fallout and Pop’s Final Party
Nine Eight Books | Michael Cragg
Using the arrival of the Spice Girls as a jumping-off point, this fascinating new narrative will explore, celebrate and contextualise the thus-far-uncharted period of British pop that flourished between 1996 and 2006. Using the oral-history format, Cragg goes beneath the surface of the bubblegum exterior, speaking to hundred's of the key players about the reality of their experiences.
Available Format: Book
Cathi Unsworth provides the first comprehensive overview of the music, context and lasting legacy of goth. This is the story of how goth was shaped by the politics of the era - from the miners' strikes and privatisation to the Troubles and AIDS - as well as how its rock 'n' roll outlaw imagery and music cross-pollinated throughout Britain and internationally, speaking to a generation of alienated youths. A fascinating social history, Season of the Witch tells the tale of an enduring counter-culture.
Available Format: Book
Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story: Rude Boys, Racism and the Soundtrack of a Generation
White Rabbit | Hardback
In 1979, 2 Tone exploded into the national consciousness as records by The Specials, The Selecter, Madness, The Beat, and The Bodysnatchers burst onto the charts and a youth movement was born. Told in three parts, Too Much Too Young is the definitive story of a label that for a brief, bright burning moment, shaped British culture.
Available Format: Book
Delving into the public and private personas of performers from Jenny Lind to Sarah Bernhardt, Nina Simone to Rihanna, this book looks at what it means to be a "diva" and how this has been subverted and embraced over time. Illustrated with dynamic performance pictures and sumptuous stage costumes, Diva is a look at the glamour, celebrity, fashion, and feminism inherent in being designated a "diva."
Available Format: Book
Blackbird: How Black Musicians Sang the Beatles into Being—and Sang Back to Them Ever After
Pennsylvania State University Press | Kapurch & Smith | Hardback
From the beginning, the Beatles acknowledged in interviews their debt to Black music, apparent in their covers of and written original songs inspired by Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, the Shirelles, and other giants of R&B. Blackbird goes deeper, appreciating unacknowledged forerunners, as well as Black artists whose interpretations keep the Beatles in play.
Available Format: Book
Lyrics and Photobooks
Amy Winehouse: In Her Words shines a spotlight on her incredible writing talent, her wit, her charm and lust for life. Bringing together Amy’s own never-before-seen journals, handwritten lyrics and family photographs together for the first time, this intimate tribute traces her creative evolution from growing up in North London to global superstardom, and provides a rare insight into the girl who became a legend.
Available Format: Book
In 2020, an extraordinary trove of nearly a thousand photographs taken by Paul McCartney on a 35mm camera was re-discovered in his archive. They intimately record the months towards the end of 1963 and beginning of 1964 when Beatlemania erupted in the UK and, after the band's first visit to the USA, they became the most famous people on the planet. 1964: Eyes of the Storm presents 275 of McCartney's photographs.
Available Format: Book
The essential, illustrated, song-by-song story of one of the most enduring acts in rock music history. Fleetwood Mac is one of the most successful bands of all time. Despite a long and complicated history, the band has survived dysfunction on a scale that would see many others implode, and remains a perennial favourite across generations.
Available Format: Book
The life of the Man in Black is revealed through his lyrics and by rare photographs and ephemera, in this beautifully illustrated official hardback edition, fully authorised by the Cash estate and featuring 125 of his most iconic songs.
Available Format: Book
The only authorised and official book about one of the greatest pop groups of the 20th century. Covering their entire career, with a foreword and captions from Björn, Benny, Frida and Agnetha, the book features never-seen-before pictures spanning the band's entire career. With unprecedented behind-the-scenes access and first-hand accounts, this is the perfect gift for ABBA fans everywhere.
Available Format: Book
The centerpiece of Bob Dylan: Mixing up the Medicine is a carefully curated selection of over 600 images including never-before-circulated draft lyrics, writings, photographs, drawings and other ephemera from the Dylan archive. The magnum opus every Bob Dylan fan has been waiting for since the 60s and will be a landmark publication for the ages.
Available Format: Book
The Gods We Can Touch is a highly intimate book, taking readers on a journey to the very heart of Aurora’s world, through her creative process, and her inspiration as she wrote her acclaimed third studio album of the same name. This full-colour reproduction of Aurora’s personal notebook also features all song lyrics from the album, as a beautifully presented cloth hardback with gold foiling.
Available Format: Book
Renowned photographer Pat Graham presents each instrument as a full portrait, supported by micro shots highlighting the specific details that make each one unique, while Johnny Marr himself reveals in his accompanying commentary on what tracks and at which shows the guitars were played.
Available Format: Book
Ellena Taylor - Sheet Music and Books Manager
