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The New Music Record Guide
171 pages, Paperback
First published October 12, 1987
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June 28, 2011
Primer Precedents
I would place this Guide in the third wave of Rock Music Encyclopaedias.
The first was Lillian Roxon's groundbreaking "Rock Encyclopaedia.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48...
The second was "The Encyclopaedia of Rock" edited by Phil Hardy and Dave Laing.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61...
Earlier Editions
The first edition of this Guide came out in 1983, when it was called "The Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records".
It began as a "logical outgrowth of Trouser Press magazine" and was "an almost-successful attempt to review all of the significant albums with a direct connection to new wave music - records that either directly led to or resulted from the 1976-1977 upheaval spearheaded by the Sex Pistols, Clash, Ramones, Television, Blondie, etc."
From New Wave to New Music
This edition is the version that was printed in the UK in 1986 and updates the previous editions up until the Spring of that year.
By that time, the usefulness of the term "new wave" had all but evaporated, so that now (and even then) it is probably better applied to what the Fourth Edition describes in 1991 as a "derisive designation for watered-down bands who affected hip style but were bland enough for pop radio".
As a result, they dropped "new wave" from the title and substituted "new music".
So this edition is blurbed on the back cover as "the only major record guide dedicated to music outside the mainstream" and on the front cover as "the only music guide for the discriminating rock fan".
Alternative and Independent Music
It's interesting to observe from today's perspective the struggle to give a title to the kind of music the Guide was about.
I don't have the edition that came out in 1989, but by the time the Fourth Edition came out as the "Trouser Press Record Guide" in 1991, it described itself as "The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Music".
Just as there had once been a counterculture, now there was a mainstream and an alternative.
Only later would the mainstream corporate music companies try to subsume alternative music, so that it became possible to conceive of independent music that was created outside the dictates of the corporates.
By the time the fifth edition came out in 1991, the preface played simultaneously with "alternative" and "independent" badges.
On the back cover, it cites its reputation as "the bible of nonmainstream rock".
Interestingly, the online version now refers to "those highly opinionated review books of alternative rock".
It doesn't seem to matter any more whether the music is distributed by corporate or independent music companies.
Intelligent Style
I no longer consult this edition, because I would go to its successor and the website first:
http://www.trouserpress.com/index.php
However, for years after I first bought it, I spent hours delving into its corners, following links (in the days before they had a url behind them) and learning new stuff that I can't believe I didn't already know by osmosis.
The writing is opinionated and concise, not a word is wasted.
In fact, it's probably worth revisiting this edition occasionally just to see whether, as updates have occurred, anything had to be omitted for the sake of brevity (or possibly because an opinion or reviewer had changed).
A Taster
Ultimately, the best thing I can do is to give you a taste of the writing by quoting a few sentences about one of my favourite bands, Magazine:
"Singer/writer Howard Devoto left the Buzzcocks in an effort to move beyond punk and power pop and take rock music to new levels of complexity and sophistication without losing the recently regained energy of the form...
"They advanced a music of many styles and moods with lyrics full of obfuscation and a lush, many-faceted sound, still maintaining the rudimentary passion au courant in the music of 1978."
Maybe this style of writing is not to your taste.
People write differently these days.
But it still appeals to me, especially because it recognises that you can write about difficult and abstract subject matter without being so difficult and abstract that you can't understand it.
Or, worse still, writing so pretentiously that everybody and everything disappears up its own fundamental orifice, which did happen for a long time under the influence of post-modernism.
P.S. I still had to look up "au courant", but hey, I learned something new.
I would place this Guide in the third wave of Rock Music Encyclopaedias.
The first was Lillian Roxon's groundbreaking "Rock Encyclopaedia.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48...
The second was "The Encyclopaedia of Rock" edited by Phil Hardy and Dave Laing.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61...
Earlier Editions
The first edition of this Guide came out in 1983, when it was called "The Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records".
It began as a "logical outgrowth of Trouser Press magazine" and was "an almost-successful attempt to review all of the significant albums with a direct connection to new wave music - records that either directly led to or resulted from the 1976-1977 upheaval spearheaded by the Sex Pistols, Clash, Ramones, Television, Blondie, etc."
From New Wave to New Music
This edition is the version that was printed in the UK in 1986 and updates the previous editions up until the Spring of that year.
By that time, the usefulness of the term "new wave" had all but evaporated, so that now (and even then) it is probably better applied to what the Fourth Edition describes in 1991 as a "derisive designation for watered-down bands who affected hip style but were bland enough for pop radio".
As a result, they dropped "new wave" from the title and substituted "new music".
So this edition is blurbed on the back cover as "the only major record guide dedicated to music outside the mainstream" and on the front cover as "the only music guide for the discriminating rock fan".
Alternative and Independent Music
It's interesting to observe from today's perspective the struggle to give a title to the kind of music the Guide was about.
I don't have the edition that came out in 1989, but by the time the Fourth Edition came out as the "Trouser Press Record Guide" in 1991, it described itself as "The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Music".
Just as there had once been a counterculture, now there was a mainstream and an alternative.
Only later would the mainstream corporate music companies try to subsume alternative music, so that it became possible to conceive of independent music that was created outside the dictates of the corporates.
By the time the fifth edition came out in 1991, the preface played simultaneously with "alternative" and "independent" badges.
On the back cover, it cites its reputation as "the bible of nonmainstream rock".
Interestingly, the online version now refers to "those highly opinionated review books of alternative rock".
It doesn't seem to matter any more whether the music is distributed by corporate or independent music companies.
Intelligent Style
I no longer consult this edition, because I would go to its successor and the website first:
http://www.trouserpress.com/index.php
However, for years after I first bought it, I spent hours delving into its corners, following links (in the days before they had a url behind them) and learning new stuff that I can't believe I didn't already know by osmosis.
The writing is opinionated and concise, not a word is wasted.
In fact, it's probably worth revisiting this edition occasionally just to see whether, as updates have occurred, anything had to be omitted for the sake of brevity (or possibly because an opinion or reviewer had changed).
A Taster
Ultimately, the best thing I can do is to give you a taste of the writing by quoting a few sentences about one of my favourite bands, Magazine:
"Singer/writer Howard Devoto left the Buzzcocks in an effort to move beyond punk and power pop and take rock music to new levels of complexity and sophistication without losing the recently regained energy of the form...
"They advanced a music of many styles and moods with lyrics full of obfuscation and a lush, many-faceted sound, still maintaining the rudimentary passion au courant in the music of 1978."
Maybe this style of writing is not to your taste.
People write differently these days.
But it still appeals to me, especially because it recognises that you can write about difficult and abstract subject matter without being so difficult and abstract that you can't understand it.
Or, worse still, writing so pretentiously that everybody and everything disappears up its own fundamental orifice, which did happen for a long time under the influence of post-modernism.
P.S. I still had to look up "au courant", but hey, I learned something new.
Displaying 1 of 1 review