The Rolling Stone Album Guide

The Rolling Stone Album Guide, first published in 1979 by Random House/Rolling Stone Press, serves as a comprehensive music review reference containing professional critiques from Rolling Stone magazine staff. The 631-page guide underwent multiple editions between 1979 and 2004, evolving from its original title "The Rolling Stone Record Guide." Dave Marsh edited the first edition and authored most of its reviews, with contributions from John Swenson and 34 other music critics. The guide organizes content by musical genre, listing artists alphabetically within each section and including chronological divisions for certain performers' careers. The book features a rating system for albums and includes black and white photographs of album covers that received five-star reviews. Its structure and approach drew inspiration from Leonard Maltin's TV movies guide and Robert Christgau's Village Voice review column, while utilizing Phonolog and Schwann's Records & Tape Guide as primary information sources. As a historical document, the guide captures the critical perspectives and musical values of the Rolling Stone staff during a transformative period in popular music. The series of editions tracks the evolution of popular music criticism and documents changing attitudes toward various artists and genres over time.

Readers view The Rolling Stone Album Guide as opinionated and inconsistent across its editions. Online discussions frequently mention frustration with Dave Marsh's perceived biases and harsh ratings of certain artists. What readers liked: - Comprehensive coverage of major artists through 1983 - Detailed historical context for albums - Clear writing style - Useful as a reference for record collecting What readers disliked: - Marsh's dismissive treatment of progressive rock, metal, and punk - Inconsistent rating system - Bias toward certain genres and against others - Missing many significant albums - Some factual errors Ratings: Amazon: 3.2/5 (21 reviews) Goodreads: 3.7/5 (89 ratings) Common reader comments highlight the book's usefulness as a historical snapshot but note its limitations. As one Amazon reviewer wrote: "Great resource but take the ratings with a grain of salt - Marsh clearly favors certain styles while unfairly dismissing others."

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Kill Your Idols: A New Generation of Rock Writers Reconsiders the Classics by Jim DeRogatis Music critics challenge conventional wisdom by critiquing albums that have been historically praised in rock journalism.

The NPR Guide to Building a Classical Music Library by Ted Libbey This reference work applies the album-by-album review format to classical music, with historical context and technical details for each recording.

The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD by Richard Cook and Brian Morton A systematic review of jazz recordings provides rating systems, historical information, and musical analysis for thousands of albums across jazz history.

🎵 The guide's 5-star rating system became influential in music criticism and was widely adopted by other publications and websites 📚 The first edition, published in 1979, took over three years to complete with input from more than 30 music critics 🎸 Editor Dave Marsh was one of the founding editors of Creem magazine and coined the term "punk rock" in 1971 📑 The book includes comprehensive reviews of over 10,000 albums spanning multiple genres from rock and jazz to country and R&B 🏆 Notable album entries receiving perfect five-star ratings include The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited," and James Brown's "Live at the Apollo"