What do you think?
Rate this book
I Pod Also Bin Ich: Soundtrack Zum Leben
Dylan Jones takes the reader on an incredible journey through his lifelong musical infatuation - a thirty-year binge of glam rock, punk, disco, and rap that coalesced with the iPod's miraculous ability to put all of a person's meticulously hoarded songs in one place. Along the way, Jones offers a tantalizing behind-the-scenes look at the genesis of the iPod. From its original conception by Steve Jobs to the landmark design of Jonathan Ive, the innovative designer who has become a legend in his own time, the history of the iPod has never been so entertainingly told.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
7 people are currently reading
81 people want to read
About the author
Dylan Jones
23 books58 followersDylan Jones studied at Chelsea School Of Art and then St. Martin’s School of Art. He is the award-winning editor of GQ magazine, a position he has held since 1999, and has won the British Society of Magazine Editors “Editor of the Year” award a record ten times. In 2013 he was also the recipient of the prestigious Mark Boxer Award.
Under his editorship the magazine has won over 50 awards.
A former editor at i-D, The Face, Arena, the Observer and the Sunday Times, he is the author of the New York Times best seller Jim Morrison: Dark Star, the much-translated iPod, Therefore I Am and Mr. Jones’ Rules, as well as the editor of the classic collection of music writing, Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy. He edited a collection of journalism from Arena - Sex, Power & Travel - and collaborated with David Cameron on Cameron on Cameron: Conversations with Dylan Jones (shortlisted for the Channel 4 Political Book of the Year).
He was the Chairman of the Prince’s Trust’s Fashion Rocks Monaco, is a board member of the Norman Mailer Writers Colony and a Trustee of the Hay Festival. He is also the chairman of London Fashion Week: Men’s, London’s first men’s fashion week, launched in 2012 at the behest of the British Fashion Council.
In 2010 he spent a week in Afghanistan with the Armed Forces, collaborating on a book with the photographer David Bailey: British Heroes in Afghanistan.
In 2012 he had three books published: The Biographical Dictionary of Music; When Ziggy Played Guitar: David Bowie and Four Minutes that Shook the World, and the official book of U2’s 360 Tour, published in October. Since then he has published
The Eighties: One Day One Decade, a book about the 1980s told through the prism of Live Aid, Elvis Has Left The Building: The Day The King Died, Mr. Mojo, London Rules, a polemic about the greatest city in the world, Manxiety and London Sartorial.
In June 2013 he was awarded an OBE for services to publishing and the fashion industry. In 2014 he was made an Honorary Professor of Glasgow Caledonian University.
Under his editorship the magazine has won over 50 awards.
A former editor at i-D, The Face, Arena, the Observer and the Sunday Times, he is the author of the New York Times best seller Jim Morrison: Dark Star, the much-translated iPod, Therefore I Am and Mr. Jones’ Rules, as well as the editor of the classic collection of music writing, Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy. He edited a collection of journalism from Arena - Sex, Power & Travel - and collaborated with David Cameron on Cameron on Cameron: Conversations with Dylan Jones (shortlisted for the Channel 4 Political Book of the Year).
He was the Chairman of the Prince’s Trust’s Fashion Rocks Monaco, is a board member of the Norman Mailer Writers Colony and a Trustee of the Hay Festival. He is also the chairman of London Fashion Week: Men’s, London’s first men’s fashion week, launched in 2012 at the behest of the British Fashion Council.
In 2010 he spent a week in Afghanistan with the Armed Forces, collaborating on a book with the photographer David Bailey: British Heroes in Afghanistan.
In 2012 he had three books published: The Biographical Dictionary of Music; When Ziggy Played Guitar: David Bowie and Four Minutes that Shook the World, and the official book of U2’s 360 Tour, published in October. Since then he has published
The Eighties: One Day One Decade, a book about the 1980s told through the prism of Live Aid, Elvis Has Left The Building: The Day The King Died, Mr. Mojo, London Rules, a polemic about the greatest city in the world, Manxiety and London Sartorial.
In June 2013 he was awarded an OBE for services to publishing and the fashion industry. In 2014 he was made an Honorary Professor of Glasgow Caledonian University.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 12, 2007
Dylan Jones's book is less about the iPod as a consumer product than it is about the iPod as a tool that can change the way people approach, listen to, and think about music. His descriptions of how he uploaded, cataloged, and made his way through the music of his past -- as well as how that process made him feel -- is delightful. A must read for any music lover, as well as any Apple fan.
March 14, 2022
4 for the music chapters/3.5 for the iPod ones
April 19, 2019
I really wanted to love this book. Music is my obsession, my iPod is my most valuable possession, and i obsess about making playlists. But i just found this dry, boring and hard to get through. It only gets two stars for all the lists in it (even the ones i don't agree with).
September 17, 2025
Music man
I picked up this book in an Oxfam shop a couple of weeks ago and - breaking all my rules about new books - had already read large parts of it before I got home. Published in 2005, it's a brisk retelling of the history of Apple and the iPod, interspersed with an account of the author's changing musical tastes and how they were affected by the iPod. The former is something we all know quite a lot about now (although this was more novel twelve years ago), and the latter is something you'd only find interesting if you could relate to the way he feels about music, and the liberation offered by the iconic portable music player ("playing away, letting my machine whisk me away and sweep me through the farthermost reaches of my mind, taking me through my past, my present, and, by dint of random juxtaposition, my future too" [p252]).
As it turns out, I can, so enjoyed reading about his personal musical encounters, although I was less interested in his descriptions of encounters with musicians (e.g. Bryan Ferry admiring his trousers on p45) which look more like name-dropping, and his writing about changing London styles and fashions in the 1970s and 80s, which left me cold. On the other hand, his musical tastes are handily delineated in appendices which take up nearly a quarter of the book: although some of these are lazily assembled by cutting and pasting from his iTunes playlists (e.g. the last song on his Sinatra playlist is something entitled "Zing Went The Strings Of M..." [p316]), others are more considered: I was particularly interested in his lists of "100 best jazz albums" and "the Chill-out lounge on Planet Relaxo".
Although the book's origins in magazine articles was occasionally revealed by some degree of repetition (the number of times he refers to Altec Lansing speakers made me start to wonder if they'd sponsored the book), the author's enthusiasm for his subject and the redemptive power of music makes this a pleasantly interesting read.
Originally reviewed 14 November 2017
I picked up this book in an Oxfam shop a couple of weeks ago and - breaking all my rules about new books - had already read large parts of it before I got home. Published in 2005, it's a brisk retelling of the history of Apple and the iPod, interspersed with an account of the author's changing musical tastes and how they were affected by the iPod. The former is something we all know quite a lot about now (although this was more novel twelve years ago), and the latter is something you'd only find interesting if you could relate to the way he feels about music, and the liberation offered by the iconic portable music player ("playing away, letting my machine whisk me away and sweep me through the farthermost reaches of my mind, taking me through my past, my present, and, by dint of random juxtaposition, my future too" [p252]).
As it turns out, I can, so enjoyed reading about his personal musical encounters, although I was less interested in his descriptions of encounters with musicians (e.g. Bryan Ferry admiring his trousers on p45) which look more like name-dropping, and his writing about changing London styles and fashions in the 1970s and 80s, which left me cold. On the other hand, his musical tastes are handily delineated in appendices which take up nearly a quarter of the book: although some of these are lazily assembled by cutting and pasting from his iTunes playlists (e.g. the last song on his Sinatra playlist is something entitled "Zing Went The Strings Of M..." [p316]), others are more considered: I was particularly interested in his lists of "100 best jazz albums" and "the Chill-out lounge on Planet Relaxo".
Although the book's origins in magazine articles was occasionally revealed by some degree of repetition (the number of times he refers to Altec Lansing speakers made me start to wonder if they'd sponsored the book), the author's enthusiasm for his subject and the redemptive power of music makes this a pleasantly interesting read.
Originally reviewed 14 November 2017
August 30, 2009
Loved it! Definitely my kind of book! The only thing that stopped it getting 5 stars was the jazz bit. Sorry, but I've yet to "get" jazz, apart from the odd bit of stuff that crosses over into classical, like "Rhapsody In Blue" by Gershwin. Other than rock & pop, it's classical music that I also have plenty of on my iPod but there wasn't much in the way of classical appreciation from Dylan Jones on his iPod or in his book. However, on the popular music front, he and I had a fair chunk of music in common, despite the fact that he's a good 12 years older than I am!
May 8, 2010
This book is not so much about the iPod, but about music, how the device changes the music listening experience, and also the author's personal journey through music and pop culture. If music is a big part of your life, this book is enjoyable and you can probably find the compulsive music collector and listener in the pages to be familiar.
Read
August 11, 2011An interesting meditation on how new music technology has given us the ability to create soundtracks to our lives. The writer's love of music is infectious,and he really captures music's ability to reconnect us with key events in our lives.A definite must read for the playlist obsessed. if you enjoyed this,you'd probably like 31 Songs by Nick Hornby and 1001 Songs by Toby Creswell.
November 18, 2008
I don't know if I loved this book because I am an iPod junkie, or whether I just enjoyed his contemplations on the technology. I loved his listing of musthave songs at the end, even if I didn't agree with all of them.
December 5, 2009
Reviewed by Jesse, 16yrs
One music editor’s journey through countless song files on his I pod. There sending him countless memories in his past as well as giving readers a glimpse of apple computers vision.
One music editor’s journey through countless song files on his I pod. There sending him countless memories in his past as well as giving readers a glimpse of apple computers vision.
December 13, 2010
This is one of the greatest books on music surely ever written. Not just reviews of songs and genres, it's also about how uploading old songs onto his i-Pod made him look back and re-evaluate the music and times of his life. A really lovely book.
Currently reading
January 9, 2008enjoying very much!
September 15, 2008
The search for the ultimate playlist, will be forever i guess!!!
August 19, 2010
An interesting novel about the impact the iPod has had on the music industry and the way we listen to and buy music.
December 9, 2011
fighetto e presuntuoso. Il mondo raccolto in un pugno di Gb. Contento lui.
November 2, 2014
Very enjoyable even if Dylan does like U2 and Coldplay.
December 12, 2012
This old book is OK but the author really just wanted to show off his knowledge for music.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews