How the Beatles destroyed rock and roll. Alternative history of popular music. Wald E.

The book of Elijah Walda, a musician and a music historian, is an unusual and largely polemic view of the evolution of pop music. This is a detailed story about the trends and events of musical history from the end of the XIX century to the 1970s. The author clearly demonstrates that things seemingly obvious and arising directly from musical tasks, in fact, is a product of various conflicts: political, technological, labor and social. Wald sees the evolution of pop music as the history of appropriation and emasculation of rhythm created by black performers. He builds a paradoxical narrative, where the heroes are not familiar to all pop idols, but those conditions and contexts in which they appeared.

The book is addressed to a wide range of readers interested in history, sociology and cultural studies of pop music.