Yet another best-of music book…

This is a re-print of a book first published as 1001 Songs: The Great Songs Of All Time in 2005, but with one important change, and two key additions.

The first clever thing the author and publisher have agreed on is to present the songs in chronological order.

As for the additions, firstly the book has been topped up with songs that appropriately fill the gap between 2005 and 2015 (and, yes, both Taylor Swift and Kanye West feature). Secondly, it has been slapped with the logo of the popular TV show RocKwiz.

The latter tactic is a pertinent one, particularly in an age where song lists are about as ubiquitous as music itself. You simply need to type the words “top songs of” into Google and a barrage of best-of lists crop up. So the RocKwiz tie-in is a necessary one to get a broader base of music fans interested.

Unlike official song lists by the likes of ARIA and Billboard, RocKwiz Decades (nee: The Great Songs…) avoids listing mere mass-movers on the charts and rather highlights more of the underdog gems that ought to have fared better.

Sure, important money-spinners have been included – but these are songs that represent a phenomenon as a whole rather than ingenuity in song-writing or musical composition. For example, the inclusion of One Direction’s One Thing focuses on one boy-band’s success via cunning reality TV programming more than actual talent itself.

By exploring lesser-known music (put it this way: songs every music critic knows but that Joe Bloggs from the suburbs may take three more years to get into), the book acts as a library of nice, diverse musical taste. From ABBA and Arctic Monkeys, through Madness and Madonna, to Warren Zevon and ZZ Top, the gamut of musical styles (and credibility) is covered.

I won’t focus on the fact that some previous inclusions have suspiciously gone missing, suffice to say RocKwiz Decades has something for everyone and will sit well on a shelf next to your old CDs. Or at least prop up your digital radio nicely.  Antonino Tati

‘RocKwiz Decades’ by Toby Creswell is published through Hardie Grant Books, RRP $34.95.