Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City

Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City is a book charting the history of popular music, by the music journalist and cultural commentator Paul Morley. Its style takes the form of a robotic Kylie Minogue traveling, with Morley, in a “cyber-car” towards a city of “sound and ideas”. The starting points for this history of popular music are Morley's favourite pieces at the time of writing: Kylie Minogue's electro-pop song “Can't Get You Out of My Head” and Alvin Lucier's experimental “I am sitting in a room”. From these musical compositions Morley reflects on the meanings of music in many forms: avant-garde and pop, iconic and obscure, mechanical and digital, commercial and creative, human and robotic.