A History of Rock and Dance Music

From the Guitar to the Laptop

 by Piero Scaruffi

Purchase the Book

About the author | Short Version | Alphabetical index | A Listening Companion | Other music pages
History of Avantgarde music | History of Jazz music | History of Pop music
Database of biographies
Versione Italiana | Version Espanola | Polish version | Russian version (in progress)
Other books by piero scaruffi: A History of Jazz Music 1900-2000 | A History of Popular Music

TM, ®, Copyright © 2009 Piero Scaruffi. All rights reserved.

Note of 2018: Rocco Stilo has been researching the recording dates of all the albums mentioned in my book. The chapters that are marked with a star (*) use a new format for the date of an album: (recording date - release date). A question mark means that, alas, we weren't able to find the correct date. Inigo Astiazaran Garay has been doublechecking everything else. Please email me if you can help with missing dates.

Table of Contents

Preface

  1. From Subculture to Counterculture (roughly 1951-1966)
    1. Background: The 20th Century (*)
    2. Rock'n'Roll 1951-57 (*)
    3. Before the Flood 1957-1962 (*)
    4. Trouble in Paradise 1961-1964 (*)
    5. The Flood 1964-1965 (*)
    6. Paradise Reborn 1963-1965 (*)
    7. The Counterculture 1965-66 (*)
    8. Minimalism and Electronics (*)
  2. The Classics (roughly 1966-1969)
    1. The Late 1960s: The Democratization of Politics (*)
    2. Psychedelia 1965-68 (*)
    3. The Age of the Revivals 1966-69 (*)
    4. Solo Careers 1967-69 (*)
    5. Electronics and Rock 1968-70 (*)
    6. Progressive-rock 1968-72 (*)
    7. Canterbury 1968-73 (*)
    8. Kosmische Musik 1969-72 (*)
    9. Hard-rock 1969-73 (*)
  3. The Seventies (roughly 1970-75)
    1. The Early 1970s: A Crisis of Confidence (*)
    2. Psychedelic Madness 1970-74 (*)
    3. Re-alignment 1970-74 (*)
    4. Singer-songwriters 1970-74 (*)
    5. Decadence 1969-76 (*)
    6. Sound 1973-78 (*)
    7. The Auteurs 1975-82 (*)
    8. Disco-music 1975-80 (*)
  4. Punk and New Wave (roughly 1976-88)
    1. The 1980s: The Last Gasps of the Cold War (*)
    2. The New Wave (*)
    3. Punk-rock (*)
    4. The Blank Generation (*)
    5. American Graffiti (*)
    6. British Graffiti (*)
    7. Dance Music for Punks (*)
    8. Gothic Rock (*)
    9. Industrial Music (*)
    10. Hardcore (*)
    11. College-pop (*)
    12. The New Wave of Pop and Synth-pop (*)
    13. Neo-progressive (*)
    14. Noise-rock (*)
    15. Psychedelic Underground and Dream-pop (*)
    16. The Golden Age of Heavy Metal (*)
    17. Singer-songwriters of the 1980s (*)
    18. Cow-punks and Roots-rock of the 1980s (*)
    19. DJs, Rappers, Ravers (*)
    20. The New Age and World-music (*)
    21. Shoegazing and Space-pop (*)
    22. Extreme Hardcore (*)
    23. Industrial-metal (*)
    24. Punk Crossovers (*)
    25. Between Acid-rock and Industrial Music (*)
    26. Between Noise-rock and Post-rock (*)
    27. From Computer Music to Collage (*)
  5. The Indie Revolution (roughly 1989-1994)
    1. The Early 1990s: After the Cold War (*)
    2. Female Rock (*)
    3. Post-rock (*)
    4. Noisier than Rock (*)
    5. Progressive Sounds (*)
    6. Psychedelic Songwriting (*)
    7. Garage Music for the Generation X (*)
    8. Lo-fi pop (*)
    9. Between Individualism and Populism (*)
    10. The Second Coming of Industrial Music (*)
    11. Slo-core (*)
    12. Dance-music in the Age of House (*)
    13. Foxcore (*)
    14. Brit and non-Brit pop (*)
    15. Alt-pop (*)
    16. Grunge (*)
    17. The Golden Age of Hip-hop Music (*)
    18. Roots-rock in the Age of Alt-country (*)
    19. The Age of Emocore (*)
    20. From Grindcore to Stoner-rock (*)
    21. Gothic Rock (*)
    22. Post-ambient Music (*)
    23. Concrete Avantgarde (*)
  6. The Cyber Age (roughly 1995-2001)
    1. The Late 1990s: Globalization
    2. Drum'n'Bass (*)
    3. Trip-hop (*)
    4. Post-post-rock
    5. Ambience
    6. Africa
    7. Glitch Music and Digital Minimalism
    8. Exuberance
    9. Transcendence
    10. Violence
    11. Confusion
    12. Depression
    13. Doom
    14. Hip-hop Music
    15. Digital Avantgarde
  7. The Digital Age (roughly 2001-08)
    1. The 2000s: Decade of Fear
    2. DJs and Rappers
    3. Bards and Dreamers
    4. Tunesmiths
    5. Populists
    6. Intellectuals
    7. Clubbers
    8. Rockers
    9. Trippers
  8. Appendix
    1. Appendix: Chronology of Events
    2. Appendix: Best rock albums
    3. Appendix: Best albums of the 1960s
    4. Appendix: Best albums of the early 1970s
    5. Appendix: Best albums of the 1980s
    6. Appendix: Best albums of the 1990s
    7. Appendix: Best albums of the 2000s
    8. Appendix: Highest scoring artists
    9. Alphabetical index
    10. Appendix: Chronology of the USA
    11. Appendix: Chronology of Britain
    12. Appendix: History of German rock
    13. Appendix: History of Japanese rock
    14. Appendix: History of Italian rock
    15. Appendix: History of French rock
    16. Appendix: History of Scandinavian rock
    17. Appendix: History of Trap Music
    18. Appendix: History of Reggaeton
    19. Appendix: History of Chillwave and Vaporwave
    20. Appendix: History of Future Bass
    21. Appendix: History of Trop-house
  9. Other genres

TM, ®, Copyright © 2009 Piero Scaruffi. All rights reserved.

Since 2009 Rocco Stilo has embarked on an ambitious project to add the recording dates to the release dates of the albums mentioned in this history of rock music.