Finding trip-hop an awkward genre, indeed finding genre itself an awkward idea, this book might surprise in sort of taking a run-up at the subject multiple times in the light of several things trip-hop is adjacent to – "lovers' hip-hop", "abstract hip-hop", "illbient". Surprisingly, perhaps, the many over-lapping chronologies, like the act of climbing a mountain with three steps forward and one back, does eventually get us through the journey. It's not a brilliant journey – like any academic you can throw a strange fruit at these days it seems much more happy talking about race than anything else – but it is a useful summary of the days when a certain construct of dance music, defined by sampled-yet-organic-sounding drums, hip-hop-influenced samples and moods and feels, and probably a female songstress put on top, turned from edgy to omnipresent, only to pretty much never be thought about since.

The thing is I've only seen this series very recently, and so my exposure to it with only the "Death Metal" title and now this doesn't really indicate what has gone before – I saw a short list of forthcoming titles but not ones already out there. Death metal, I had it, was something you really should only be interested in for about three years, but here I don't know. It certainly was part of my record-buying history, even in small amounts, but this seems a greater affair, even if it did quickly go from organ donors to selling any and every track off "Play" to as many TV shows and car adverts as possible. So this book has an ill-defined niche sector of dance that burnt brightly for quite some time, and I dare say it, exists in more CD collections (ask your father) than does death metal. It's music that, even if it got watered down in a universal downtempo mish-mash, certainly seems to deserve a book discussing it. And though the bibliography suggests there are more than I would have imagined already, this little piece served me fine as the only one I'd need.

I listened to a lot of Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky. Thought I knew a lot about this genre as I consider it one of my favorite.
i was wrong and learned a lot reading this book. More groups, songs and records.
Informative, well researeched, and well written.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

In Trip-hop, RJ Wheaton presents a concise, detailed, playlist filled history of the genre.

Wheaton begins by discussing the genres development, international places of importance before presenting the major works or groups in a (roughly) chronological order. Like all of the book in the Genre series, there are copious recommendations of artists and songs divided out between the highly recommended to the more completist style lists.

As is not surprising with labels, but what trip-hop means has been highly debated with those assigned the name preferring others. Wheaton also takes time to explore the cultural dimensions and how the sound eventually reached a nadir as what had been exciting was commercialized.

These are perfect works for our digital age, allowing one to learn the full history of a style music, being able to access much of the featured content much easier then those who were creating it.

Trip-Hop - RJ Wheaton

I was curious to read this. I used to be into music and culture journalism and writing, now I mainly read fiction.

The 90's trip-hop era coincided with when I was most into buying music and bought all the hit albums from all the '90's mainstream artists' listed in the blurb.

I was reading this to learn, to compare with my own understanding and knowledge of the genre and to learn about the lasting impact and current influences.

Was trip-hop a genre or was it the influence if the Bristol sound? Was it rooted in experimental hiphop or something much broader?

This book is great for cataloging the artists, the sub-genres and the tracks, fantastic nowadays with YouTube, streaming, etc, and all the tracks just a click away.

I was less impressed by the journalism, the author's viewpoint felt excited but without much personal reflection. I've read lots of the artist quotes previously. I would have liked more about the cultural buzz.

I don't usually read academic music books but it was worth a read and well put together, I could see this book being useful for anyone wanting to get a better understanding of the expansive variety of the genre.


Thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Academic.