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Everything We Do Is Music

How 20th-Century Classical Music Shaped Pop

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Everything We Do Is Music

By: Elizabeth Alker
Narrated by: Elizabeth Alker
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About this listen

The worlds of pop and rock owe a much greater debt to the classical canon than we realise. A direct and fascinating lineage draws from the experimentalism of Pierre Henry to The Beatles' 'Tomorrow Never Knows', from Stockhausen to Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' and from Bruckner to Sonic Youth via Glenn Branca.

In Everything We Do is Music, Elizabeth Alker highlights the innovators of classical music and their fans and collaborators in pop who challenged the notion that such musical worlds were mutually exclusive. Alker shines a light on the rich tapestry that exists between their borders through exclusive interviews with Sir Paul McCartney, Steve Reich, La Monte Young, Nils Frahm, The Blessed Madonna, Jonny Greenwood, Soweto Kinch and Jean-Michel Jarre among others.

©2025 Faber & Faber (P)2025 Faber & Faber Art History & Criticism Music
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Elizabeth’s wonderful way with words describes a web of musical artistry that spans the world, a back-and-forth between composers in the classical world and the realm of rock and pop. If you like alternative music or adventurous classical, you’ll find the connections in this book thrilling.

I made a playlist on TIDAL under the same name as the book if you’d like to follow along.

David / Held By Trees

Fascinating Adventure in Sound

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Fantastic detail and insight but needs to be illustrated with music snippets. Would make a brilliant radio series with the music tracks.

Needs music to illustrate

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