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Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us About the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves
- GenresMusicNonfiction
352 pages, Hardcover
Published November 13, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 3, 2025
ARC for review. To be published November 13, 2025.
LISTS! Show me a person who doesn’t like a good list and I’ll show you a joyless humbug who can’t acknowledge that it’s data that separates us from the animals (well, that and a nice bourbon.). Obviously I’m a big fan of books of lists (mostly st of them. I’m not going to get too excited about Top Ten British Engines Used in World War II Flying Machines, but hey.c if that’s your thing you just take yourself off and sit with your no-friends in the corner over there.
So, some of this book was good, other parts had a bit of a personality problem. The author creates his own “eras,” so his list is not divided into decades or anything like that, before he talks about the number one Billboard Hits of that era. I enjoyed that, plus his picks for “best,” “worst,” etc. I found myself agreeing with him on a lot, which was a bit surprising to me considering he’s twenty five years younger than me (oh, it stung a little to type that.)
However, then with each era he also selects something that changed to music industry that either began or become prominent during that era, for example payola, drum machines or Napster. It’s not like these aren’t worthy topics of discussion but they all seemed a bit far afield from the #1 hits/Billboard chart subject presented. Didn’t enjoy those parts of the book as much.
But, at the end of the day (era) it’s still a fun book of lists and any music fan from the 1960s to today will find something to like here. 3.5 stars
LISTS! Show me a person who doesn’t like a good list and I’ll show you a joyless humbug who can’t acknowledge that it’s data that separates us from the animals (well, that and a nice bourbon.). Obviously I’m a big fan of books of lists (mostly st of them. I’m not going to get too excited about Top Ten British Engines Used in World War II Flying Machines, but hey.c if that’s your thing you just take yourself off and sit with your no-friends in the corner over there.
So, some of this book was good, other parts had a bit of a personality problem. The author creates his own “eras,” so his list is not divided into decades or anything like that, before he talks about the number one Billboard Hits of that era. I enjoyed that, plus his picks for “best,” “worst,” etc. I found myself agreeing with him on a lot, which was a bit surprising to me considering he’s twenty five years younger than me (oh, it stung a little to type that.)
However, then with each era he also selects something that changed to music industry that either began or become prominent during that era, for example payola, drum machines or Napster. It’s not like these aren’t worthy topics of discussion but they all seemed a bit far afield from the #1 hits/Billboard chart subject presented. Didn’t enjoy those parts of the book as much.
But, at the end of the day (era) it’s still a fun book of lists and any music fan from the 1960s to today will find something to like here. 3.5 stars
December 26, 2025
Figure I should support myself 🤷
June 24, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book is a fascinating deep dive into the hidden patterns behind the music we love. Chris Dalla Riva blends data, storytelling, and music history in a way that feels both smart and accessible. It’s not just about songs—it’s about us, our tastes, and how they’ve evolved. A must-read for music lovers and anyone curious about the numbers shaping pop culture.
This book is a fascinating deep dive into the hidden patterns behind the music we love. Chris Dalla Riva blends data, storytelling, and music history in a way that feels both smart and accessible. It’s not just about songs—it’s about us, our tastes, and how they’ve evolved. A must-read for music lovers and anyone curious about the numbers shaping pop culture.
October 23, 2025
Bloomsbury Academic provided an early galley for review.
The author had me in the introduction when he said he was covering the number 1 hit songs from the Billboard Hot 100 from August 1958 to January of 2025. I am a big music and data nerd so this was going to definitely be a fun read for me.
Breaking the time periods up into chronological sections, Riva further presents songs in thematic groups that in turn are used to fuel fun threads of discussion. Some are obvious (songs about death, for example) while others are tied by minor threads (songs that led to copyright lawsuits, for example). It was always entertaining to see what topics a new era would spark.
Each chapter ends with a trio of highlights, a trio of lowlights, an argument starter, and some odds and ends. While I don't necessarily agree with where some of the songs fell, it is still fun to see how certain tunes resonate with other listeners (especially those who come from a different generation than myself).
For fans of popular music and the charts, this is one for your collection.
The author had me in the introduction when he said he was covering the number 1 hit songs from the Billboard Hot 100 from August 1958 to January of 2025. I am a big music and data nerd so this was going to definitely be a fun read for me.
Breaking the time periods up into chronological sections, Riva further presents songs in thematic groups that in turn are used to fuel fun threads of discussion. Some are obvious (songs about death, for example) while others are tied by minor threads (songs that led to copyright lawsuits, for example). It was always entertaining to see what topics a new era would spark.
Each chapter ends with a trio of highlights, a trio of lowlights, an argument starter, and some odds and ends. While I don't necessarily agree with where some of the songs fell, it is still fun to see how certain tunes resonate with other listeners (especially those who come from a different generation than myself).
For fans of popular music and the charts, this is one for your collection.
December 24, 2025
I love when nonfiction books make a topic accessible to readers who have little to no knowledge of the topic, and this book definitely did that. I am NOT a math or technologically minded person at all, but I never felt like I got lost in the content. It was so engaging and spanned so many eras of music that I ended up talking to my grandfather about his record collection, asking my mom about her favorite 70s movie tunes, and texting my friends about some of our favorite and least favorite current pop artists. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the comments and observations as well as adding to my own Spotify playlists. I highly recommend this book if you're the type of person who likes to laugh as they learn something new. Or if you enjoy a good bit of New Jersey lore sprinkled throughout your books.
December 9, 2025
Left me wanting more in all the best ways. So many fun tidbits and neato factoids. Do NOT skip the footnotes, as that’s some of the best stuff. There was soooo much left out (on purpose), that I’d like to see a part 2 about hits that only reached number 2. An intriguing and interesting snippet through music history as it collides between culture and capitalism. Highly recommend if you like music, trivia, and/or data crunching.
If I could’ve requested anything it would’ve been a chronological list at the end of each chapter of the hits, for convenience, even though it’s probably available via his website, among other sources.
Also probably worth a slow re-read while actually listening through the hits (playlists included via authors website).
If I could’ve requested anything it would’ve been a chronological list at the end of each chapter of the hits, for convenience, even though it’s probably available via his website, among other sources.
Also probably worth a slow re-read while actually listening through the hits (playlists included via authors website).
October 5, 2025
My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic for an advance copy of this book that brings together math and music, not in the usual way, but in way to try and understand why certain songs speak to us, how certain songs are an anathema to our ears, and how this information is used by increasingly desperate industry to sell to us.
I started taking a real interest in music when I was in high school. Math was something I really never paid attention to until well I needed to pay rent, buy groceries, and well survive in these United States. This might be a little untrue, just like the Billboard charts might not be as accurate as history would like them to be. I always loved to read about my favorite songs, and in the pre-Internet days this way by looking at Billboard books, charts, and really anything that gave me information. I loved music, but can't sing, nor play a note, so I took my interest into everything else surrounding the music. Wanting to know chart positions, what else was out, who played on it, and why did this song mean so much to me, while to others it was ehh. I grew up with radio, so became used to Top 40 and playlists that seemed little different no matter what station. After reading this book, I begin to understand that math is not just as important to music as reading the notes, but in understanding much of entertainment history. Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves by writer and TikToker Chris Dalla Riva is a look at the big songs, the bad songs, the songs that want more into the conversation and a look at musical love, taste and history as shown by the numbers they left behind.
The book covers music from genre, performers, producers the music industry and Spotify. Dalla Riva starts his history with the Billboard Hot 100 which was supposed to be an accurate way to see what the big songs of the times were. This turned out to be not so accurate, as the person compiling the songs, was quick to change numbers, and in fact lost his job over it. Throughout the book, Dalla Riva looks at how music history might have been changed, if the numbers presented were accurate. The book looks at musical controversies, about songs being kept off of Billboard Country charts, for not being country enough. How many African-American entertainers hated the fact that songs were placed in musical ghettos, like the R&B charts, not showing their real selling number and power. There are plenty of charts covering the role of women in music, the number of words in songs, and fact that music works in a loud quiet loud kind of way. The smooth sounds of rock in the 70's leading to the metal years of the 80's.
There is a lot of bases covered in this book. Dalla Riva looks at producers, and how modern songs need more producers to cover different aspects of the song, bridge, chorus and hook. How Spotify adds their own music to make money on royalties, along with the history of copyright and royalties. At the end of each chapter Dalla Riva has a section on songs that fit the theme, songs that should be forgotten and songs that should be thought of more. Plus a section for music nerds to have fights over. For music nerds love their fights.
A very good mix of reporting, trivia, a bit of gossip and strong numbers that makes on look at music differently. I knew little about the controversial aspect of the charts, especially that much was falsified, as Dalla Riva shows with his writing. Plus I learned much about the music that I knew and found quite a bit I want to listen to for the first time. A very good book for music fans, both casual, and obsessional.
I started taking a real interest in music when I was in high school. Math was something I really never paid attention to until well I needed to pay rent, buy groceries, and well survive in these United States. This might be a little untrue, just like the Billboard charts might not be as accurate as history would like them to be. I always loved to read about my favorite songs, and in the pre-Internet days this way by looking at Billboard books, charts, and really anything that gave me information. I loved music, but can't sing, nor play a note, so I took my interest into everything else surrounding the music. Wanting to know chart positions, what else was out, who played on it, and why did this song mean so much to me, while to others it was ehh. I grew up with radio, so became used to Top 40 and playlists that seemed little different no matter what station. After reading this book, I begin to understand that math is not just as important to music as reading the notes, but in understanding much of entertainment history. Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves by writer and TikToker Chris Dalla Riva is a look at the big songs, the bad songs, the songs that want more into the conversation and a look at musical love, taste and history as shown by the numbers they left behind.
The book covers music from genre, performers, producers the music industry and Spotify. Dalla Riva starts his history with the Billboard Hot 100 which was supposed to be an accurate way to see what the big songs of the times were. This turned out to be not so accurate, as the person compiling the songs, was quick to change numbers, and in fact lost his job over it. Throughout the book, Dalla Riva looks at how music history might have been changed, if the numbers presented were accurate. The book looks at musical controversies, about songs being kept off of Billboard Country charts, for not being country enough. How many African-American entertainers hated the fact that songs were placed in musical ghettos, like the R&B charts, not showing their real selling number and power. There are plenty of charts covering the role of women in music, the number of words in songs, and fact that music works in a loud quiet loud kind of way. The smooth sounds of rock in the 70's leading to the metal years of the 80's.
There is a lot of bases covered in this book. Dalla Riva looks at producers, and how modern songs need more producers to cover different aspects of the song, bridge, chorus and hook. How Spotify adds their own music to make money on royalties, along with the history of copyright and royalties. At the end of each chapter Dalla Riva has a section on songs that fit the theme, songs that should be forgotten and songs that should be thought of more. Plus a section for music nerds to have fights over. For music nerds love their fights.
A very good mix of reporting, trivia, a bit of gossip and strong numbers that makes on look at music differently. I knew little about the controversial aspect of the charts, especially that much was falsified, as Dalla Riva shows with his writing. Plus I learned much about the music that I knew and found quite a bit I want to listen to for the first time. A very good book for music fans, both casual, and obsessional.
November 16, 2025
A fun breakdown of pop music history, replete with charts and fun little diversions--when and how did surf music and disco fall off the charts, and how do we measure that? ARE we actually minting fewer pop stars than we used to? And are there more roles for women in production and credits than there used to be? Each chapter is structured in an engaging way that pops into a story midstream and then widens to fun larger questions, with brief explanatory footnotes and fun graphics (I kept wanting more detail on the statistical measures he's using) laying out how we'd measure whether or not songs now sound more like one another, whether or not song titles are getting shorter, how music sounds in general, and so on.
Sometimes these data-analytics books can read like an alien, or an AI, is trying to grasp something of which it has no real emotional understanding, so while the numbers offer an interesting defamiliarized angle of view, they also miss what people like about the thing. Consider basketball if it's all dunks and threes, or three-true-outcomes, and nothing else, baseball. So it's nice that he conveys real love of music. As fan, critic, professional student of music and musician, Dalla Riva takes a refreshing variety of approaches: he can talk about how songs sound and feel, but also about how various kinds of electronic adjuncts work, why drum machines offered certain rhythms and beats when they did, or how new modes of songwriting and credit assignment (track-and-hook vs words/music) depart from and build on the technological means of making music. His attention to the financial side of writing and recording (and especially the struggle for writing credit) captures how much we need to think about how the commercial aspects of a commodified form help determine the shapes that form takes.
There's not much of an overall theory, which I guess is a bit of a drawback. I guess the meta-point is that there's a lot more pop music he likes than he expected (so I guess it's poptimistic, in a roundabout way), and maybe that pop music has always been more diverse than people think (he notes that, contrary to our sense that the Beatles and rock made things more artistic/varied/creative, late-50s/early-60s charts contain multifarious one-offs and weirdnesses, including instrumentals, foreign-language songs that would never go big now, and so on); he's very much genre-agnostic, so there's no sense that one time was better than any other.
A fun, engaging angle from which to view pop history. Minus one spirit point for a table where the word "received" is misspelled. Come on.
Sometimes these data-analytics books can read like an alien, or an AI, is trying to grasp something of which it has no real emotional understanding, so while the numbers offer an interesting defamiliarized angle of view, they also miss what people like about the thing. Consider basketball if it's all dunks and threes, or three-true-outcomes, and nothing else, baseball. So it's nice that he conveys real love of music. As fan, critic, professional student of music and musician, Dalla Riva takes a refreshing variety of approaches: he can talk about how songs sound and feel, but also about how various kinds of electronic adjuncts work, why drum machines offered certain rhythms and beats when they did, or how new modes of songwriting and credit assignment (track-and-hook vs words/music) depart from and build on the technological means of making music. His attention to the financial side of writing and recording (and especially the struggle for writing credit) captures how much we need to think about how the commercial aspects of a commodified form help determine the shapes that form takes.
There's not much of an overall theory, which I guess is a bit of a drawback. I guess the meta-point is that there's a lot more pop music he likes than he expected (so I guess it's poptimistic, in a roundabout way), and maybe that pop music has always been more diverse than people think (he notes that, contrary to our sense that the Beatles and rock made things more artistic/varied/creative, late-50s/early-60s charts contain multifarious one-offs and weirdnesses, including instrumentals, foreign-language songs that would never go big now, and so on); he's very much genre-agnostic, so there's no sense that one time was better than any other.
A fun, engaging angle from which to view pop history. Minus one spirit point for a table where the word "received" is misspelled. Come on.
November 10, 2025
I’m convinced some of our most skilled writers are data journalists, whether self-taught or otherwise. They combine delightful prose with incisive analysis. A whole book of it? Perfect!
Despite being musically inept (I hope one day that’ll no longer be the case) I adore it. The culture, the history, the…impassioned opinions. So when I see the author of one of my favorite newsletters listened to every number one hit from 1958 through today and wrote about it, the result is a music history book that reads like a late-night conversation with an expert pattern recognizer.
The facts are delightfully weird: hit songs in the late 1950s were regularly about death, a US vice president wrote a number one hit, and the key change died around 2003. As you can see, what I love most is his use of numbers to tell stories. The writing never gets boring.
Perfect for anyone who wants company as they fall down a musical rabbit hole.
I received an early copy courtesy of the publishers via Netgalley. All opinions are mine alone.
Despite being musically inept (I hope one day that’ll no longer be the case) I adore it. The culture, the history, the…impassioned opinions. So when I see the author of one of my favorite newsletters listened to every number one hit from 1958 through today and wrote about it, the result is a music history book that reads like a late-night conversation with an expert pattern recognizer.
The facts are delightfully weird: hit songs in the late 1950s were regularly about death, a US vice president wrote a number one hit, and the key change died around 2003. As you can see, what I love most is his use of numbers to tell stories. The writing never gets boring.
Perfect for anyone who wants company as they fall down a musical rabbit hole.
I received an early copy courtesy of the publishers via Netgalley. All opinions are mine alone.
October 9, 2025
This book is written in an engaging and approachable style. The author notes that he writes a newsletter, and it has that tone. It focusses not just on the individual songs, but uses them to examine wider trends in American popular music. Things that are really interesting, fashions and fads in music, how they relate to various other cultural phenomena. Uncharted Territory is not just a book about music, it's a book about people, change and the times we live in. Mainly I would recommend this because it's very accessible. It's well laid out, has a friendly writing style and charts and illustrations that are both useful and attractive.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
October 30, 2025
This is a review of an ARC from NetGalley.
In a series of essays, Riva analyzes the Number One songs on the Billboard Hot 100, starting in 1958. Moving chronologically through the charts, he uses the data to look at how Americans listen to music, how we make music, and how we talk about music. Some of the essays are linked to the years he's analyzing (the rise of Surf music for example) but others are launching pads to talk about a host of topics. Artfully designed charts and graphs help illustrate his points, and each chapter ends with highlights and lowlights of individual time periods. Super fun for music fans and anyone who loves trivia!
In a series of essays, Riva analyzes the Number One songs on the Billboard Hot 100, starting in 1958. Moving chronologically through the charts, he uses the data to look at how Americans listen to music, how we make music, and how we talk about music. Some of the essays are linked to the years he's analyzing (the rise of Surf music for example) but others are launching pads to talk about a host of topics. Artfully designed charts and graphs help illustrate his points, and each chapter ends with highlights and lowlights of individual time periods. Super fun for music fans and anyone who loves trivia!
November 11, 2025
Thank you to Edelweiss, the author, and the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!
This book feels like it was written for me - a deep dive into the combo of music and math! There is a rundown of all the Billboard #1 hits since the 1950s, including lots of charts showing patterns over time. You can really tell that the author did his research and utilized Spotify to its fullest capacity to make an interesting read.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in music history!
This book feels like it was written for me - a deep dive into the combo of music and math! There is a rundown of all the Billboard #1 hits since the 1950s, including lots of charts showing patterns over time. You can really tell that the author did his research and utilized Spotify to its fullest capacity to make an interesting read.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in music history!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews