From the beginning of rock & roll to its evolution into pop, rap, punk, heavy metal, and beyond, RocKwiz Decades takes us on a journey through time – reviving and recalling the reasons why great songs live on.
Songs create the soundtrack for our lives: they inform, stimulate, tell us about ourselves, thrill us and make us glad to be alive. Some songs stay with us for three minutes; others a lifetime. Each has its own quality, its own story.
The songs of the sixties tell us of revolution and promise. The seventies speak of the striking contrast between punk and disco, or in other words: rebellion and hedonism. The eighties trumpet innovation and the nineties herald the arrival of mainstream hip hop.
How will critics in fifty years' time brand the songs of the early twenty-first century? As the era when the album died? The age of the anthem?
In this new edition of Toby Creswell's ultimate music companion, he tackles this question and more, delving into the songs that have been enriching, transformative or just earworms made for the minute. This is a book to treasure, a book of rediscovery, a book to open your ears. With dozens of forgotten gems and surprising discoveries, the writing is informed, opinionated and revelatory.
From Bacharach to Bon Iver, Cream to Crowded House, The Doors to Dr Dre, Frank Zappa to Fatboy Slim – no rolling stone is left unturned.
Toby Creswell wrote his first article in 1972. Since then, he has written extensively on music and popular culture, and his work has appeared in Australian and overseas publications that include Rolling Stone and Billboard. Toby is also the author of the books Too Much Ain't Enough, The Real Thing and Love Is In The Air and co-author of The 100 Best Australian Albums and The 100 Best Albums of All Time.
