Music is an intrinsic part of everyday life, and yet the history of its development from single notes to multi-layered orchestration can seem bewilderingly specialised and complex.
In his dynamic tour through 40,000 years of music, from prehistoric instruments to modern-day pop, Howard Goodall does away with stuffy biographies, unhelpful labels and tired terminology. Instead he leads us through the story of music as it happened, idea by idea, so that each musical innovation – harmony, notation, sung theatre, the orchestra, dance music, recording, broadcasting – strikes us with its original force. He focuses on what changed when and why, picking out the discoveries that revolutionised man-made sound and bringing to life musical visionaries from the little-known Pérotin to the colossus of Wagner. Along the way, he also gives refreshingly clear descriptions of what music is and how it works: what scales are all about, why some chords sound discordant and what all post-war pop songs have in common.
The story of music is the story of our urge to invent, connect, rebel – and entertain. Howard Goodall’s beautifully clear and compelling account is both a hymn to human endeavour and a groundbreaking map of our musical journey.

Zum 50-jährigen Jubiläum von Pink Floyd erscheint dieses erste offizielle Buch einer der größten Bands aller Zeiten. In Zusammenarbeit mit den Bandmitgliedern Roger Waters, Nick Mason und David Gilmour entstanden, aufwändig und in weiten Teilen exklusiv illustriert, dokumentiert dieser einmalige Bildband den immensen Einfluss der Gruppe auf die zeitgenössische Musik und Kunst.
Eine ausführliche Retrospektive beschäftigt sich mit der Bandgeschichte und präsentiert chronologisch alle 15 Alben, inklusive der kompletten Artworks und Designs sowie zahlreiche bisher unveröffentlichter Fotos und Dokumente. Die Texte von renommierten Autoren setzen sich ausführlich mit dem Phänomen Pink Floyd auseinander - von der Mythologie hinter den musikalischen Ideen über das Experimentieren mit Technologie und neuen Sounds bis zu den aufwändigen Live-Inszenierungen und anti-autoritären Songtexten.

Music is an intrinsic part of everyday life, and yet the history of its development from single notes to multi-layered orchestration can seem bewilderingly complex.
In his dynamic tour through 40,000 years of music, from prehistoric instruments to modern-day pop, Howard Goodall leads us through the story of music as it happened, idea by idea, so that each musical innovation—harmony, notation, sung theatre, the orchestra, dance music, recording—strikes us with its original force. Along the way, he also gives refreshingly clear descriptions of what music is and how it works: what scales are all about, why some chords sound discordant, and what all post-war pop songs have in common.
The story of music is the story of our urge to invent, connect, rebel—and entertain. Howard Goodall's beautifully clear and compelling account is both a hymn to human endeavor and a groundbreaking map of our musical journey.