Major Labels

A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres

By: Kelefa Sanneh

Narrated by: Kelefa Sanneh

One of Oprah Daily's 20 Favorite Books of 2021 • Selected as one of Pitchfork's Best Music Books of the Year

“One of the best books of its kind in decades.” (The Wall Street Journal)

An epic achievement and a huge delight, the entire history of popular music over the past 50 years refracted through the big genres that have defined and dominated it: rock, R&B, country, punk, hip-hop, dance music, and pop

Kelefa Sanneh, one of the essential voices of our time on music and culture, has made a deep study of how popular music unites and divides us, charting the way genres become communities. In Major Labels, Sanneh distills a career’s worth of knowledge about music and musicians into a brilliant and omnivorous reckoning with popular music - as an art form (actually, a bunch of art forms), as a cultural and economic force, and as a tool that we use to build our identities. He explains the history of slow jams, the genius of Shania Twain, and why rappers are always getting in trouble.

Sanneh shows how these genres have been defined by the tension between mainstream and outsider, between authenticity and phoniness, between good and bad, right and wrong. Throughout, race is a powerful touchstone: Just as there have always been Black audiences and White audiences, with more or less overlap depending on the moment, there has been Black music and White music, constantly mixing and separating. Sanneh debunks cherished myths, reappraises beloved heroes, and upends familiar ideas of musical greatness, arguing that sometimes, the best popular music isn’t transcendent. Songs express our grudges as well as our hopes, and they are motivated by greed as well as idealism; music is a powerful tool for human connection, but also for human antagonism. This is a book about the music everyone loves, the music everyone hates, and the decades-long argument over which is which. The opposite of a modest proposal, Major Labels pays in full.

©2021 Kelefa Sanneh (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

Vox's Top Fall Books Not to Miss • A holiday gift guide pick from The Boston Globe, Mental Floss, and Paste

“Major Labels [is] ecumenical and all-embracing. . . . [Sanneh] has a subtle and flexible style, and great powers of distillation. . . . The best thing about Sanneh may be that he subtly makes you question your beliefs.”—New York Times

“Sanneh brings a contagious zeal for genres and cross-fertilizations to artists and records that are now playlists for an increasingly diverse America.”—Oprah Daily

“Mr. Sanneh, a staff writer for the New Yorker, gets high marks both for his encyclopedic knowledge and his breadth of taste. He also writes like an angel, making Major Labels one of the best books of its kind in decades.”—Wall Street Journal

A must for music lovers

a great analysis and history of trends in music, not really about specific bands or people but the trends, ideas and cultures around them

Pure Pleasure Cultural History

I was surprised upon finishing this listen that it was 19 hours long. The time slipped right by as I found myself absorbed in this book's brisk histories. What they lack in comprehensive depth they make up for in clarity and pacing. The chapters on genres I knew little about were as interesting as the ones on genres I know well (played those chapters at double speed). I found myself pausing to call up Spotify to listen to various milestone recordings raised in the narrative. While listeners versed in the genres under discussion might notice some of the leaps that such a broad discussion has to make, skipping over crucial bands (no St. Etienne in the discussion of UK 90s dance culture bummed me out) that does not take away from the pleasure of this work -- its stranger-than-fiction origin stories and the music it will point the listener to along the way.

Humbling

I can’t tell which of the genres would be the least favorite of the author. The genres that I knew well were covered as completely as I would have wished them to be. By extension, those that I knew less about seemed equally dense, and as carefully detailed. As I am a music fanatic with 8,000 vinyl records; decades of club, wedding, and radio DJing experience; and managed a record store for many years, I still only felt confident in two or three of the genres. As such, I am humbled and amazed at how much time must have been spent working through all seven genres. Bravo, and my sincerest thanks!

Kelefa never disappoints...

...even when you disagree with him. A great writer, thinker, and my favorite music critic!

Flawless!

such an amazing book filled with fun information and incredibly, no biases. This is a must read for anyone that loves music

Music lover?

As someone who classifies himself as eclectic when it comes to their musical likes and don’t likes. I found this book to be incredibly interesting. The music historian in me that loves the history of music was like a giddy child reading this book.

I found myself taking way longer than I should’ve to get through this book but every time he mentioned bands, I had forgotten about. I would go into my streaming library and pull up their catalogs and listen to some old tunes. don’t even appreciate him, turning me onto new artist that I had not even heard of.
I do have a couple of things I did take some issues with and wish I could ask the author about. My first issue is in his rap genre. He does not cover West Coast rap as much as I think he should. It is very East Coast biased and as someone who lives on the West Coast I appreciate the history but I think he missed a lot of what happened on our side of the US.
My second issue comes in the pop of genre when there is only a feeding mention of Michael Jackson “the king of Pop “as someone to me who defined pop music. I would just want to hear the author spots on my two takes.
I highly recommend this book to any music fan or anyone you know who loves music I cannot stop recommending this book to anyone I talk to about music or about audiobooks .

the overview of modern music history everyone needs to listen to.

this book gave me an education that I had, through needless neglect and unwillful sheltering, never received growing up. the author's work was erudite and informative without being dryly academic, and Riley humorous when appropriate. I would hardly recommend this book to anyone looking to either confirm, or broaden, their musical base of knowledge and opinion.

A fascinating experience

I was hooked from the very first sentence. This book was thoroughly researched, expansive, and engaging. The author did a brilliant job reading it as well.

my favorite listen in a long time

very fun and informative, especially in this format as I was tempted to pause at times and go listen to songs and artists being discussed.

Kelefa has a great critical style of presenting arguments and thoughts in a very casual and disarming way. I learned a lot about genres I had no interest in, some I still wont listen to but even then I found the information and stories behind those genres engaging to listen to.

this is a book ill be recommending to people for the foreseeable future.

Wildly Uneven and Overly Broad

The frustrating nature of the book is mostly due to Sanneh's attempt to write a history of American popular music in a single volume. While he tries on occasion, it is impossible to add much depth or detail when covering so much ground. Instead, the very design of the project pushes his writing into broad generalizations and passing references to major (and some minor) figures. There are some insightful moments here and there, but too few to justify the glowing praise for the book. Structurally, the book is a mess, with Sanneh seemingly confusing himself as he jumps back and forth chronologically and imposing awkward groupings by breaking up his chapters into a series of subtopics. Ultimately, the book works best when it deviates from trying to function as a history and instead focuses on Sanneh's evolving personal relationship with various genres. His chapters on punk and dance music have much more granular detail and compelling commentary than the rest of the book largely because of the author's personal investment in the genres. Still, both chapters have gaping holes and primarily stick to the eras in which Sanneh was an active listener. The chapters on pop and hip-hop have their moments, but it is clear that he has less of a personal investment. The other three chapters of the book, however, are mostly useless to anyone with even a passing knowledge of popular music. The rock chapter is laughably broad and undercooked, reading like a high school textbook. While he professes his love for the genre, it is clear that Sanneh only has a casual interest in country music and simply summarizes major talking points. The R&B chapter is the absolute low point of the book, with Sanneh showing that he is completely out of his depth by demonstrating almost zero knowledge about the genre. This chapter is embarrassing. Throughout the book, his writing often serves as a lit review, summarizing points made elsewhere which will be familiar to many readers. Perhaps this book is meant to be one stop shopping for the reader, saving them time from working through a beginner's bibliography of popular music criticism. He relies too heavily on certain voices, such as Nelson George, whom he labels as a "historian," which is both funny and telling of the limitations to be expected from Sanneh. Lastly, the book reinforces an old adage. Question: How do you know if someone went to Harvard? Answer: Wait two minutes and they'll work it into the conversation.