Nothing is Real, David Hepworth
Nothing is Real, David Hepworth
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Nothing is Real
The Beatles Were Underrated And Other Sweeping Statements About Pop

Author: David Hepworth

Narrator: David Hepworth

Unabridged: 6 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/01/2018

Categories: Nonfiction, Music, Rock


Synopsis

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Nothing is Real: The Beatles Were Underrated and Other Sweeping Statements About Pop, written and read by David Hepworth.

Pop music’s a simple pleasure. Is it catchy? Can you dance to it? Do you fancy the singer?

What’s fascinating about pop is our relationship with it. This relationship gets more complicated the longer it goes on. It’s been going on now for 50 years.

David Hepworth is interested in the human side of pop. He’s interested in how people make the stuff and, more importantly, what it means to us.

In this wide-ranging collection of essays, he shows how it is possible to take music seriously and, at the same time, not drain the life out of it. From the legacy of the Beatles to the dramatic decline of the record shop, from top tips for bands starting out to the bewildering nomenclature of musical genres, with characteristic insight and humour, he explores the highways and byways of this vast multiverse where Nothing Is Real and yet it is, emphatically and intrinsically so. Along the way he asks some essential questions about music and about life: is it all about the drummer; are band managers misunderstood; and is it appropriate to play ‘Angels’ at funerals?

As Pope John Paul II said ‘of all the unimportant things, football is the most important’. David Hepworth believes the same to be true of music and this selection of his best writing, covering the music of last fifty years, shows you precisely why.

About David Hepworth

David Hepworth is a music journalist, writer, and publishing industry analyst who has launched several successful British magazines. He presented the definitive BBC rock music program Whistle Test and anchored the coverage of Live Aid in '85. He has won Editor and Writer of the Year awards from the Professional Publishers Association and the Mark Boxer Award from the British Society of Magazine Editors. He is the radio columnist for the Guardian and a media correspondent for the newspaper, and the author of Never a Dull Moment.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Peter on May 29, 2023

David Hepworth is a music journalist of some repute in the UK. He's responsible for launching several popular magazines over the last 40 years, including Q and Mojo. But he's arguably most famous for being one of the presenters at Live Aid, encouraging Bob Geldof to turn the air blue in his efforts......more

Goodreads review by Samuel on December 10, 2018

My favourite line is ‘The drum solo is the auditory equivalent of being unable to find the exit from a multi-storey car park’......more

Goodreads review by Patrick on March 14, 2019

[3.5] I have to admit I might have given this an extra half-star if it wasn't for a sense of having heard, or read, quite a lot of this book's contents before. Anyone who reads Dave Hepworth's blog, 'What is he on about now?', or listens to the podcast he co-hosts with Mark Ellen, will be familiar w......more

Goodreads review by Simon on August 01, 2019

I've seen a few complaints about this book being little more than a collection of The Word essays strung together. I don't have any problem with that having forgotten the few issues I read many years ago. I was more disappointed at how flimsy the articles were. It's a short read - I finished it in u......more

Goodreads review by Joseph on July 19, 2019

This collection of pieces about pop music is an enjoyable read, written by someone who can be considered an expert on the subject having spent his career working in and writing about the music industry (He was one of the co-presenters of Live Aid, who was on air trying to give the viewers informatio......more