Bill’s first book, Reinventing Pink Floyd, was published by Rowman & Littlefield in February 2018. His second book, Disturbing the Peace: 415 Records and the Dawn of New Wave, was published in 2021 by HoZac Books.

Depending on one’s interest, one is either amazed and entertained or bored to tears with Bill Kopp’s encyclopedic knowledge of the popular music of the last fifty years. A rock/pop music historian, he has amassed a collection of way more than 6,000+ albums, nearly half of those on vinyl.

“Even when I was a kid, I knew I wanted to be a Rock Journalist™. People who have seen the film adaptation of Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity say that John Cusack’s character reminds them of me. I don’t know if that’s meant as a compliment or not.”

In addition to Musoscribe (this site), Bill is a contributing editor at Goldmine. He writes often for altweeklies Mountain Xpress (Asheville NC) and Metro Silicon Valley (San Jose). He also writes and/or has written for GRAMMY.com, No Depression, Trouser Press, Electronic Music, Ugly Things, WNC Magazine, City Paper (Pittsburgh), Flagpole (Athens), Creative Loafing (Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Charlotte), New City (Chicago), Style Weekly (Richmond VA), Colorado Springs Independent, SF Weekly (San Francisco), SF Standard (San Francisco), The Laurel of Asheville, Brooklyn Paper, Good Times (Santa Cruz CA), Salt Lake City Weekly, Mature Living (Toledo), Bass Guitar (UK), Shindig! Magazine (UK), Record Collector (UK), San Diego Reader, Electronic Musician, Electronic Sound (UK), Living Blues, Prog Magazine (UK), 60sgaragebands.com, the long-defunct print magazine Skope (where he ran things as Editor-in-Chief for two years), Billboard, Stomp and Stammer, Best Classic Bands, Capital at Play, Edible Asheville, Rock and Roll Globe, Tangents Magazine and Jambase.org, among many others. In the past he has also worked as a copy editor for Spill Magazine (Toronto) and as the Jazz Desk Editor and Prog Editor at BLURT.

 

Bill has written liner notes for more than 30 CD reissues of albums by Brotherhood (a Paul Revere and the Raiders spinoff group), heavy rock giants Iron Butterfly, progressive rock keyboardist Rick Wakeman, Bobby Lance, Diamond Rio, The Ventures, Edgar Winter, Larry Coryell, Survivor, Ben Folds, Dan Fogelberg, Dave Mason and many others. He’s also authored liner note essays for four reissue albums by jazz legend Julian “Cannonball” Adderley.

Bill has interviewed and written features on more than a thousand musical artists. He’s reported on the Bonnaroo, Moogfest, Hopscotch, YepRoc 15, Dig!, Ponderosa Stomp, Big Ears, Americana Music Association, Mountain Oasis, Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival, Asheville Electro Music Fest, San Jose Jazz Fests, Transfigurations, Lollapalooza and Echo Project festivals, and written about consumer products including the Microsoft Zune, Rock Band: The Game and (huff, puff…) many others.

He has also authored press kits and/or news releases for World Party, Gov’t Mule, Gin Blossoms, Holly Golightly, Cary Grace, Billy Jonas and others, and wrote several artist biographical entries for the Amoeba Records website. He’s a frequent guest on AshevilleFM and assorted podcasts. After an acclaimed series of lectures, in 2022 he launched Music to Your Ears, a monthly live-and-in-person discussion series focusing on classic albums. He also hosts the monthly Music Movie Mondays series at Grail Moviehouse, and is a frequent guest on music-focused radio programs and podcasts. In Spring 2023 he is co-teaching a history of Rock ‘n’ Roll at UNC Asheville’s College for Seniors.

He lives in a nearly century-old house in Asheville, NC with his wife, an impossibly cute little dog, that mountain of vinyl, and way, way, way too many synthesizers and guitars.

And, like everyone else, he’s everywhere:

Note: You can find him on his personal Facebook page as well, but while there’s plenty of musical content to be found there, there’s also plenty of personal and political content (with accompanying strong opinions with which you’ll either agree or disagree) that may well be of less interest.