I recommend "Outlaw Blues" by Paul Williams, the man resposible for 
Crawdaddy.It's a collection of his articles and includes a harrowing account 
of  the"Pet Sounds" story.Essential to any serious music fan, especially a 
Brian Wilson fan.
  Gene

>From: matty karas <mkaras@mindspring.com>
>Reply-To: audities@smoe.org
>To: audities@smoe.org
>CC: arthur.jipson@notes.udayton.edu
>Subject: Re: Teaching a class on Pop Music
>Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 13:59:42 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
>
>jeff chang's just-published (and deservedly celebrated) "can't stop won't 
>stop" will go down as an absolutely essential hip-hop history, which in 
>turn makes it an absolutely essential history of modern pop.
>
>fredric dannen's "hitmen" remains the definitive book on the sordid 
>business of promoting records and making hits. even though the book is 15 
>years old and a lot of the details have changed, the general principles are 
>exactly the same.
>
>chuck klosterman's hair-metal memoir "fargo rock city" is a fascinating 
>(and quite funny) look at how music that's not supposed to matter to 
>ordinary people actually does matter to them, very much, which makes it an 
>essential pop document itself.
>
>as for recent changes in the industry, i might recommend lawrence lessig's 
>"the future of ideas," which isn't about music at all, but rather about the 
>ongoing clash of copyright and creativity, which to me is essential to an 
>understanding of the music biz today.
>
>m@tty
>
>
>