BOB Stanley has been thinking and writing about pop since long before he started making it two decades ago, with cult favourites St Etienne.
Here, finally, is his grand work on the topic, a book as compendious and authoritative - yet openly, delightfully, infuriatingly subjective - as David Thomson's great books on film.
The intro takes us to the first British singles chart in 1952; the fade-out encompasses the rise of file sharing, the end of the twentieth century pop culture defined by scarcity and tribalism.
In between that are 730 pages encompassing everything from rockabilly and doo wop to rave and Britpop.
Every reader will have their quibbles about some assertions, inclusions and omissions, but equally, everyone will find things here that they didn't know and songs they're glad to meet.
Movements, moments and decades in pop have had their chronicles, but the sheer scale and ambition make this astonishing tome unique.
Rating: 9/10
Review: Alex Sarll
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