For lovers of both music and photography, this is a wonderful and lovingly-collated addition to your collection, says Amy Davies
For over 75 years, Atlantic Records has been shaping popular culture through the musicians it has pioneered. Founded in 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and two fellow music fans, the New York based studios broke new ground by embracing and championing a huge range of different genres. That included many types of black music, including R&B, soul, jazz and hip-hop, as well as from other genres such as rock, pop, dance and more.
This book has taken four years to put together, and as is often the case from Taschen, it’s an absolute beast. You might look at the price and think it sounds expensive, but for the size, print quality and pagination, it’s actually pretty well priced.
Many of the images in the book have been published here for the first time. There’s just about every musical name you could think of – soul pioneers like Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles sit side by side with era-defining pop artists such as the Bee Gees and Abba.
Rock fans can be satisfied with images of Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones, and it’s brought right up to date by artists such as Charli XCX and Bruno Mars.
And if you thought the musical names were legendary, there are also some huge photography stars on display here too. There are shots from the likes of Annie Leibovitz, Jim Marshall, Lee Friedlander, Anton Corbijn, Albert Watson and David LaChapelle.
Essays from some well-established music writers, as well as from pop star Bruno Mars, are also included, to help us to put it all into context and to take you on a trip down memory lane too.
If you’re a big music lover, this is a wonderful treat. You can really feel that this volume has been put together with joy, too. Even for those with a more passing interest in music photography there is so much to enjoy – I loved it.
Related Reading:
