This is a complete handbook of information and opinion about the history of country music. Based on the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, the book contains over 1000 entries covering musicians, bands, songwriters, producers and record labels which have made a significant impact on the development of country music. It brings together people such as Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks and Jimmie Rogers and the influence of Patsy Cline and Hank Williams and more recent figures such as Mary-Chapin Carpenter and LeAnn Rimes. Each entry offers information such as dates, career facts, discography and album ratings.

This is the hard cover edition of the new release

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.

The bands, producers, labels and remixers of the diverse dance music culture are listed here in this reference book. Dates, career facts, discographies and star ratings are given, along with considered opinion on the prime movers and shakers in the business.

From boogie-woogie to bebop and beyond, the sounds and rhythms of Jazz is mercurial- always creative, seldom static, frequently cultish and often contentious. The latest edition of The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz is the essential companion to making an acquaintance with Jazz. It will inform you and it will not talk down to you. There are over 3,500 entries detailing every artist who has had an impact on the development of jazz since it headed out from New Orleans and spread to New York, London, Paris, Montreux, Munich and way beyond. Here are all the legends whose genius is evoked in a single name - Ella, Duke, Satchimo, Bird, Miles, Trane, the Hawk, Monk and Diz - together with all the younger talent - Brad mehidau, jacky terrasson, Nicholas Payton and the youngest phenomenon of them all, Norah Jones. They line up with modern-day giants of the genre such as John Schofield, Dave Holland, Joe Lovano and Keith Jarrett. All entries have a detailed album chronology, together with a five-star rating system.The text is non-pompous, non-judgemental yet friendly and constructive. All the text has been taken from the gigantic database of The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, first published in 1992. the EPM and its spin-off series swiftly and firmly established itself as the undisputed champion of all contemporary-music reference books.

A guide to the greatest shows and films in the history of the musical, as well as their stars, lyricists and composers. Over 1600 entries provide facts, figures and critical opinion on all aspects of the field.

This is a complete handbook of information and opinion about the history of R&B and soul music. Based on the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, the book contains over 1000 entries covering musicians, bands, songwriters, producers and record labels which have made a significant impact on the development of R&B and soul music. It brings together people such as Otis Reading and Aretha Franklin with the great Philly groups of the 1970s, the mainstream soul of Will Downing and Anita Baker and the modern generation of artists such as Mary J. Blige, Babyface and Toni Braxton. As well as headline acts, the book also covers performers who flourished briefly. Each entry offers information such as dates, career facts, discography and album ratings.

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.