Everything We Do is Music (Ebook)

Elizabeth Alker

A panoramic exploration of the ways in which pop and rock were transformed by the pioneering visionaries of classical music.

Format
Ebook
ISBN
9780571370207
Date Published
26.08.2025

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Summary

WINNER OF THE RPS STORYTELLING AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PENDERYN MUSIC PRIZE
A FINANCIAL TIMES AND IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

‘Revelation after revelation . . . I love music more for reading it.’ Guy Garvey
‘Alker joins the dots by following myriad musical ley lines. A fascinating journey into sound.’ Mark Radcliffe
‘Reveals so much about the hidden connections between the sounds we love . . . A must read.’ Sara Mohr-Pietsch

A panoramic exploration of the ways in which pop and rock were transformed by the pioneering visionaries of classical music.

The worlds of pop and rock owe a much greater debt to the classical canon than we realise. A direct and fascinating lineage draws from the experimentalism of Pierre Henry to The Beatles’ ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, from Stockhausen to Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ and from Bruckner to Sonic Youth via Glenn Branca.

In Everything We Do is Music, Elizabeth Alker shines a light on the fertile ground that exists between the borders of classical music and pop. She showcases the innovators of the former and their fans and collaborators in the latter, and explores how together these artists challenged the notion that such musical worlds are mutually exclusive.

** Featuring interviews with Sir Paul McCartney, Steve Reich, Nils Frahm, Soweto Kinch, Jonny Greenwood, the Blessed Madonna and more. **

Critic Reviews

Alker’s passions and personal history really shine through as she delves down rabbit holes . . . A worthy successor to Alex Ross’s The Rest Is Noise.

Ben East, Observer

Critic Reviews

Revelation after revelation. Passionate and absolutely fascinating. I love music more for reading it.

Guy Garvey

Critic Reviews

A book that delights in music and sound of all kinds.

Steven Poole, Guardian

Critic Reviews

Alker tackles this book's vast remit with skill and empathy, equally adept at breaking down snobberies as she is joining the dots.

Andy Cowan, Mojo

Critic Reviews

Alker has achieved a scholarly and hugely impressive piece of work.

BBC Music Magazine

Critic Reviews

Elizabeth is uniquely positioned at the intersection between the worlds of classical and contemporary music and she draws together many complex threads so beautifully in this book.

Mary Anne Hobbs

ElizabethAlker

Elizabeth Alker is a presenter for BBC Radio 3, where she hosts Unclassified and the afternoon show, Classical Live. She joined the BBC as a researcher in 2005 and soon became a reporter and presenter for Radio 6 Music. Born to classically trained pianists, she grew up learning the clarinet, recorder and piano, and later worked as a talent scout for Universal Classics…

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ElizabethAlker

Elizabeth Alker