W45 obrtaja: Priče o pesmama is a book by Serbian rock musician, journalist and writer Dejan Cukić. It was published in 2007 and compiled mostly from his articles previously published in Politikin Zabavnik magazine. The book features biographies of forty-five music artists, as well as the history of popular music through stories about forty-five songs.
W1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories and Secrets Behind Them is a compendium of notable popular recordings collected by Australian rock journalist and critic Toby Creswell. The book was initially published in 2005 by Hardie Grant Books and subsequently published in the United States by Thunder's Mouth Press in 2006. It is not a collection of songs, but of the stories behind what Creswell considers are the great songs of all time – from George Gershwin to Missy Elliott, from Bob Dylan to Alicia Keys, from Frank Sinatra to The Offspring, from Leonard Cohen to Pulp. The book also features over 400 photographs and album covers.
WAfter the Ball: Pop Music from Rag to Rock is a book by Ian Whitcomb, published in 1972, covering the history of pop music from the start of the twentieth century until the 1960s, including the brief period when Whitcomb himself became a pop star.
WBe My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, Or, My Life as a Fabulous Ronette is a memoir by Ronnie Spector written with Vince Waldron.
WBoys in the Trees: A Memoir is a memoir by Carly Simon.
WChristgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s is a music reference book by American music journalist and essayist Robert Christgau. It was published in October 2000 by St. Martin's Press's Griffin imprint and collects approximately 3,800 capsule album reviews, originally written by Christgau during the 1990s for his "Consumer Guide" column in The Village Voice. Text from his other writings for the Voice, Rolling Stone, Spin, and Playboy from this period is also featured. The book is the third in a series of influential "Consumer Guide" collections, following Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981) and Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990).
WChristgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies is a music reference book by American music journalist and essayist Robert Christgau. It was first published in October 1981 by Ticknor & Fields. The book compiles approximately 3,000 of Christgau's capsule album reviews, most of which were originally written for his "Consumer Guide" column in The Village Voice throughout the 1970s. The entries feature annotated details about each record's release and cover a variety of genres related to rock music.
WChristgau's Record Guide: The '80s is a music reference book by American music journalist and essayist Robert Christgau. It was published in October 1990 by Pantheon Books as a follow-up to Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981).
WDave Barry's Book of Bad Songs is a 1997 humor book written by Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry, chronicling the results of his bad song survey. The survey started when he wrote a column about a particular bad song, and he got such a response that in addition to a follow-up column, he decided to write an entire book about the results of the survey.
WEmpire of Dirt: The Aesthetics and Rituals of British Indie Music is a 2006 book by Wendy Fonarow.
WFile Under Popular: Theoretical and Critical Writings on Music is a collection of seven essays on the political theory of popular music written by English percussionist, lyricist and music theorist, Chris Cutler. The essays were written between 1978 and 1983, four of them in response to requests and the rest unprompted. Two of the essays were first published in two German publications, and two were originally presented by Cutler at two international symposia on popular music. The book was first published in 1985 in London by November Books, the publishing wing of Cutler's independent record label, Recommended Records. It was also published in Polish, German and Japanese.
WHow Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient Zero of Piracy is a non-fiction book by journalist Stephen Witt. The book chronicles the invention of the MP3 format for audio information, detailing the efforts by researchers such as Karlheinz Brandenburg, Bernhard Grill and Harald Popp to analyze human hearing and successfully compress songs in a form that can be easily transmitted. Witt also documents the rise of the warez scene and spread of copyright-infringing efforts online while detailing the campaigns by music industry executives such as Doug Morris to adapt to changing technology.
WHow Music Works is a non-fiction book by David Byrne, a musician, writer, and public figure best known for his work with the group Talking Heads. He discusses the form and influence of music in a non-linear narrative fashion, using a variety of experiences from his career to create something part autobiography and part music theory. The book was published through McSweeney's on September 12, 2012, and was named as one of Amazon.com's "Best Books of the Month" in that same month. It has received mainly positive reviews.
WLove for Sale: Pop Music in America is a 2016 book by The Nation music critic David Hajdu, in which he chronicles the 100-plus year history of pop music in the United States. The book features previously published material as well as interviews, including an interview with legendary folk singer Dave Van Ronk. Chronologically, Love for Sale takes the reader from the origins of ragtime in the 19th century through to the present era of streaming music. The author also sequential discusses the rise of tapes, CDs, and MP3s. The title of the book is derived from the 1930 Cole Porter song of the same name.
WThe Manual is a 1988 book by "The Timelords", better known as The KLF. It is a step-by-step guide to achieving a No.1 single with no money or musical skills, and a case study of the duo's UK novelty pop No. 1 "Doctorin' the Tardis".
WMean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal is a non-fiction book written by former Metal Maniacs magazine editor Jeff Wagner. The book was illustrated by Voivod drummer Michel "Away" Langevin and has a foreword by Porcupine Tree frontman Steven Wilson. Mean Deviation was published in December 2010 by Bazillion Points under supervision of Ian Christe.
WThe Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation is a book covering the history of the made-for-TV rock band, The Monkees. Written by Andrew Sandoval, it fully details the band's recording sessions, filming dates and public appearances from 1965-1970. Also included is an extensive listing of session musicians who worked on The Monkees' recordings.
WA Natural Woman: A Memoir is a 2012 memoir by musician Carole King.
WSwitched on Pop: How Popular Music Works, and Why it Matters is a 2019 nonfiction book written by Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan with illustrations provided by Iris Gottlieb. The book covers pop music from a musicological perspective. The book gets its title from the podcast Switched on Pop which is co-hosted by Harding and Sloan and similarly analyzes pop music in a more academic style.
WTakin' Back My Name: The Confessions of Ike Turner is a 1999 autobiography by American musician Ike Turner with British writer Nigel Cawthorne.
WThe Virgin Book of British Hit Singles is a charts reference book published in October 2008. It replaces the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums, after the Guinness company withdrew interest in chart reference books at the same time their contract was due to expire. The last edition was published in 2006 covering all chart hits between 1952-2005. Two years later Virgin took over the contract from The Official Charts Company to publish the re-branded version of the book as The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles without the album charts information.
WWannabe: How the Spice Girls Reinvented Pop Fame is a biography of the Spice Girls, published in 2004 and written by David Sinclair.