What’s the Big Deal: 30 Great Concept Albums
by Bill Kopp / Available NOW / HoZac Books
As long as there has been music, the form has been used as a vehicle for storytelling. Artists who have something to say often find that putting it into music is the ideal means of communicating thoughts and feelings to others. And the concept-album form is a logical extension of that storytelling impulse, often writ large. It allows the writer to tackle bigger themes, more involved story lines, more finely textured characters and ideas. In the pages of What’s the Big Idea, author Bill Kopp explores 30 remarkable concept albums, drawing on new, firsthand interviews with the artists behind their creation.
Read more at 30conceptalbums.com
Disturbing the Peace: 415 Records and the Rise of New Wave
by Bill Kopp / Published 2022 / HoZac Books
San Francisco-based 415 Records was a groundbreaking independent record label founded by Howie Klein and Chris Knab. The label released punk and new wave singles, EPs and albums, and the label’s creative success attracted the attention of the major labels. Published by HoZac Books, Bill Kopp’s book, Disturbing the Peace: 415 Records and the rise of New Wave, tells the story of that label’s rise and fall, and chronicles the stories of the nearly 30 bands that released music on 415 Records.
Order direct from the publisher HERE
Reinventing Pink Floyd: From Syd Barrett to The Dark Side of the Moon
by Bill Kopp / Published 2018 / Rowman & Littlefield
When founding member Syd Barrett left Pink Floyd in early 1968, there was good reason to think that the band was over. Five years later, the band would release one of the most popular albums in the history of the recording medium, The Dark Side of the Moon. Reinventing Pink Floyd charts the creative path the band would navigate in the years leading up to that landmark album.