About this Book

"For nearly sixty years, since the arrival of the long-playing record in 1948, the album has provided the soundtrack of our lives. Self-confessed music obsessive, Travis Elborough, explores the way in which particular albums are deeply embedded in cultural history, revered as works of art or so ubiquitous as to be almost invisible. Musical movements have come and gone but the album has been constant, from the challenges of free jazz to the aural wallpaper of easy listening via the omnipresence of The Beatles, the absurdities of prog and the supposed iconoclasm of punk." "But these days, the format that survived the invention of the cassette, the Walkman and the CD is an endangered species. In the age of the iPod when we can download an infinite number of single tracks and need never listen to a whole album ever again, does the concept of the album still mean anything? This book is a brilliant piece of popular history, an idiosyncratic tribute to a much-loved part of our shared consciousness and a celebration of the joy of records."--BOOK JACKET.