Author: Franco Fabbri

Titolo: Around the Clock

Subtitle: Una breve storia della popular music

Publisher: UTET

Year: 2008

Price: 14,50

Pages: 247

"Una breve storia della popular music". Franco Fabbri makes it clear from the subtitle: this is not a history of rock, but of popular music in general. From Tin Pan Alley to techno music. And it's just one of the many possible histories, drawn up with a precise purpose: to provide an accessible, not overly specialist text for his students in the contemporary media music course.

Those expecting from Fabbri -- musicologist and former guitarist of Stormy Six -- the wealth of "technical" detail and formal analysis that filled "L'ascolto tabù" and his autobiography "Album Bianco" may well be disappointed. The focus here is instead on the dense web of relationships between music, technology and society, which Fabbri reconstructs with precision and intelligence in his usual light, transparent style.

"Around The Clock" runs to some thirty chapters, each devoted to a phase in the history of mass music, from the birth of the phonograph to the age of peer-to-peer. Technological development is the thread running through the essay, and the book's greatest merit lies in clearly highlighting the links between musical forms and the opportunities offered by distribution systems.

Fabbri pays particular attention to Italian music and society, with excellent chapters on music under fascism, on the Cantacronache movement, on beat music, and on the singer-songwriter phenomenon. There are also numerous excursions into the music of South America, the Mediterranean region and the rest of continental Europe, which help steer the book away from the usual Anglo-American-centred perspective.

Memorable, ça va sans dire, is the chapter on progressive rock, which reflects the passion and firsthand experience gained during his years with Stormy Six. Fabbri indeed seems to be at his best when dealing with phenomena he lived "on the front line" (especially the Sixties and Seventies), while he seems to underestimate the importance of a handful of more recent movements and styles. Black music, electronic music and metal, in particular, receive less consideration than one might hope. Nevertheless, towards the end of the book there is a very sharp comparison between the social functions of rock and hip-hop in the post-Cold War world, proving that Fabbri can still land solid points even in territory less familiar to him.

A few puzzling omissions -- David Bowie and Kraftwerk above all -- are easily forgiven once one understands that the book's aim is neither to evaluate artists and their music (Fabbri avoids passing judgement as much as possible), nor to trace a path of stylistic influences between one and another. Rather, the goal is to trace the evolution of the relationship between mass society and those popular musical forms that are its direct expression. It's no surprise, then, that among the most illuminating pages are those on the summer hits of the early Sixties and on the Sanremo Festival, while the indie universe gets no more than a few lines.

Besides, Fabbri makes it clear from the outset: this is only one of the many possible histories. It may not be the best, nor the most definitive, but it certainly deserves to be read by anyone interested in seeing rock and popular music, for once, as an expression first and foremost of society rather than of the genius of artists.

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22/09/2025