The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock

by Michael Heatley

This is the ultimate guide to the most popular form of music, which at its widest interpretation covers a spectrum of genres, from rock 'n' roll and soul to pop and funk. Divided into eras from Roots, through the Sixties to the Nineties, learn about the development of rock in the Sounds and Sources discussions before being introduced to the key artists of the time and their legacies. This book contains A-Z sections of artists and information on instruments, along with evocative photographs that complete the experience. Whether your a fan of Elvis or the Sex Pistols this is the book for you.

Genres: Music, Reference, Nonfiction

448 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Michael Heatley is the author or editor of over thirty biographies, including Backstreet Boys: The Unofficial Book, Bon Jovi: In Their Own Words and Rolf Harris: The Most Talented Man In The World. In 1995, he wrote the liner notes to Rolf's best-selling album Rolf Rules OK!

Since 1977 he has written more than a hundred music, sport and TV books.

He has written for magazines including Privileged View (for viewers of UK Gold and UK Living), 442 and Fultime (Fulham FC), Music Week, Billboard, Goldmine (US record collecting magazine), Radio Times, Daily Record and the Mail on Sunday color supplement.

In addition, Michael runs a fanzine in honor of legendary Welsh psychedelic rock band Man called The Welsh Connection which is circulated to a small but fervent fanbase on a bi-monthly basis.

Reviews

[Roberto Zaracho · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book amazed me about the quantity of bands and artists that I didn't know. This book with good accuracy describes every relevant band since the origins of rock. For every decade it talks about the lifestyle of that time with a lot of important details besides music. A lot of great compressed biographies in it.
Mainly I appreciate this book so much because it showed me hundreds of artists and bands from the past that were awesome and I didn't know about. And with my curiosity and my spotify combined, I've got to know and enjoyed a lot of bands and they got added to my playlists.
It's a sunshine of musical wisdom for me. Highly recommend it. Love the design of every page and section too. Awesome graphics and images.

[Terry Hinkley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative book. A lot of bands and performers included that I have never heard of that had very little influence. Also left out numerous bands that did. As for Canadian content the author chose mostly individual performers which was good but only mentioned Rush, Steppenwolf, The Band and BTO in that Category. No Guess Who? They were not one hit wonders. Also Trooper, Triumph, April Wine, The Stampeders to name just a few who had numerous hits both here and Stateside. I still liked the book because it steered me to songs I had forgotten and was able to download to my collection.

[Jodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love love love this book. I bought two. One for my library, and one for my coffee table. Will recommend to any and every fan ever.

[Jamie Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This thing is heavy.

[Stormy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of pictures, easy to find artists.

[Vincenzo Ridente · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is awesome it's got a lot of pictures and it's very easy to find the artist your looking for and I especially like the section on one hit wonders

[Ian Bowen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is awesome!

[Rich · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first I thought this was a great reference piece, but as I began going through it, I started noticing more and more omissions that have finally left me to ask how they decided who to include.

Perhaps it's because the publishers are British, and they leaned more heavily on British and European tastes. Whatever criteria they used there were a lot of omissions that have led me to conclude that this is a mediocre encyclopedia. Especially for one that claims to be definitive.


In this edition, the musically irrelevant band Hootie and Blowfish is given more column space than either Bruce Springsteen or Stevie Ray Vaughn. How the hell does that happen? Springsteen continues as a musically relevant force, and even though he is dead, Stevie Ray Vaughn had such an impact on the revival of blues that this is a huge problem for me. (Ironically this same publishing house released the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes and that devotes three pages to SRV.) Hootie and company also get more space than Van Morrison.

Next how is it that one hit wonder bands such as Johnny Hates Jazz or Frankies Goes to Hollywood are included in the main body of the work where as performers such as Three Dog Night (a huge international pheonomenom in the 1970s), Styx, Jimmy Buffett, and Blue Oyster Cult, with much longer recording histories and album sales. While these bands may not have had the huge followings in Europe, but their overall staying power, hits on the charts, and album sales merit inclusion, whereas one-hit wonder bands such as FGTH and JHJ should have gone into the one hit wonder section.

Some info, but too many omissions to be fully credible as a "definitive" encyclopedia.

[Tom O'Grady · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an ok starting point for many themes in rock over the years. The photos are nice, the layout is good, and the connection of music through the decades and genres of rock rings fairly clear.

I feel that next steps for the next edition of this book are to first of all, look at one of the most influential bands in Canadian history, The Tragically Hip. For this band to be unmentioned in this book is bizarre to say the least. Another might be to explore the impact of: "Metal", "Hair Bands", "Southern Rock", more thoroughly and perhaps loosening the reins on some of the flash in the pan British / Euro bands, that one could argue were not that impactful in the history of rock.

The one hit wonders section certainly brought back many fond memories of exact moments in time, cemented, by these pesky tunes.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gives the decade in a nutshell, devotes several pages to the usual suspects from each era, then tries to summarize many influential bands with no more than a paragraph. Complete in the sense that it lists just about every band that recorded during a given decade, but with no entry for 99% of them. Lots of fine pictures, again of the usual big names, a few photos of the more popular bands. Cute end chapter on one-hit-wonders. But for actual facts, stick to the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia or Trouser Press or many text-heavy album ratings guides, that do at least as good a job summarizing careers.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

While books like these are an excellent starting point for those unfamiliar with Rock and its history, and almost always contain (as this one does) great photographs of the artists covered, they are simply not essential for people who really know rock music. These books are simply to general for someone looking for a serious study. Still, this is a quality release; it's just I've seen all this info before, in more encyclopediac forms.

[Lei · Rating 3 out of 5]

okay encyclopedia. prefer wikipedia. Gives you a good look at history

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good starter book for my 13 year old to learn about rock. It would only be better if it included a CD with snippets of songs.

[Alex Wj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing book for the best people of the world

[Dolores · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive enough, great photography, fun and enjoyable reading.