An incredibly detailed and comprehensive history on the development of electronic music from the early composers to the minimalists and into the rock age (innovators, psychedelia, German, Synth, Indie, and Individualists), and ends with House, Techno, and 21st Century Ambience. This is essential reading for anyone interested in electronic music or the history of music in the 20th Century in general. I would make this required reading if I were teaching a class on electronic music, though it’s definitely much more interesting than a standard textbook.

It’s labeled as a Teen book though I think most people can understand what it’s like going through high school. It’s a very interesting book and I can definitely relate, though I remember spending all my time studying in high school and not actually having a social life. I really enjoyed this book. It’s written in a series of letters by a freshman in high school to a person he doesn’t actually know, but has heard is a good person “who listens and understands and doesn’t try to sleep with that person at the party” that they could have. That phrase is actually repeated a few times throughout the book, and I find it kind of cutely innocent. Well, this high school kid has a teacher who’s always giving him books to read and write essays about, extra work since he thinks he’s very gifted. But that’s not what the book is all about, it seems to focus more on the relationships between his family and friends. It does seem like it is written by a teenager, which makes it easy to understand and probably more interesting.