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December 21, 2024


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BOOK: Music Hound's
R&B: The Essentials Album Guide

By: [email protected]

Any serious music collector would agree, it's not the easiest task to narrow it down to the bare essentials. Music Hound's "R&B: The Essentials Album Guide" helps the reader with this...somewhat. There have been several different books that list the names of most artists along with summaries of their achievements, but none that help to find the best possible music. Although that may have been the intended purpose here, the book falls short in doing so. On one hand, this book does include most of the classics in R&B, Soul, Funk, and Hip Hop along with a few that might not appear in a more general guide. But, on the other hand, there are far too many examples of weak pop stars who manage to sneak in.

More high points are the information that it provides and foreword by Kurtis Blow and Huey Lewis. One giant low point, however, is the poor representation of Hip Hop by way of both the ratings and summaries. Misinformation is a small yet evident factor in portions of the book, especially within the Hip Hop sections. For example, there is a part which lists each artist's influences along with who they have influenced. This portion seems to be only guessed at for the most part, rather than being actual fact.

All in all, this book could be something to check into. Even though the writers' tastes might not be something to pay attention to, there is certainly an abundance of good information(careers summaries, album info., record company info., producer info., books, magazines, radio stations, web addresses, etc...), Not to mention the free seven song CD, which could make this a worthwhile purchase.

INFORMATION:

Music Hound's "R&B The Essential Albums Guide"
price-$24.95
1-800-776-6265
Visible Ink Press
835 Penobscot Building
Detroit, MI 48226-4094

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