{"id":2190133,"date":"2025-12-07T14:20:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T14:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2190133"},"modified":"2025-12-07T14:20:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T14:20:37","slug":"five-of-the-best-music-books-of-2025-best-books-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/five-of-the-best-music-books-of-2025-best-books-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Five of the best music books of 2025 | Best books of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/guardianbookshop.com\/mood-machine-9781399718844\/?utm_source=editoriallink&amp;amp;utm_medium=merch&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist<\/a><\/strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/guardianbookshop.com\/mood-machine-9781399718844\/?utm_source=editoriallink&amp;amp;utm_medium=merch&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article\" data-link-name=\"in body link\"> <\/a><br \/><em>Liz Pelly (Hodder &amp; Stoughton)<\/em><sub class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"> <\/sub><br \/>Enraging, thoroughly depressing, but entirely necessary, Mood Music offers a timely, forensically researched demolition of Spotify. In Pelly\u2019s account, the music streaming giant views music as a kind of nondescript sonic wallpaper, artists as an unnecessary encumbrance to the business of making more money and its target market not as music fans, but\u00a0mindless drones who don\u2019t really care what they\u2019re listening to, ripe for manipulation by its algorithm. Sharp business practices and evidence of its deleterious effect on the quality and variety of new music abound: the worst thing is that Pelly can\u2019t really come up with a viable alternative in a world where convenience trumps all.<\/p>\n<figure data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.NewsletterSignupBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-173mewl\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"#EmailSignup-skip-link-1\" class=\"dcr-jzxpee\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n<aside aria-label=\"newsletter promotion\" class=\"dcr-av5vqf\">\n<p class=\"dcr-1xjndtj\">Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you<\/p>\n<p><gu-island name=\"SecureSignup\" priority=\"feature\" deferuntil=\"visible\" props=\"{&quot;newsletterId&quot;:&quot;bookmarks&quot;,&quot;successDescription&quot;:&quot;Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you&quot;}\"\/><span class=\"dcr-1eusqlu\"><strong>Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on<!-- --> <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\">theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our<!-- --> <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/help\/privacy-policy\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\">Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google<!-- --> <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and<!-- --> <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/terms\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\">Terms of Service<\/a> <!-- -->apply.<\/span><\/aside>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-1\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-jzxpee\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<figure id=\"1d95d417-03d1-4781-8c4c-92852ffbe0c9\" data-spacefinder-role=\"thumbnail\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-13rnsx0\"\/>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/guardianbookshop.com\/men-of-a-certain-age-9781788705646\/?utm_source=editoriallink&amp;amp;utm_medium=merch&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Men of a Certain Age: My Encounters With Rock Royalty<\/a><\/strong><br \/><em>Kate Mossman<\/em><em> (Bonnier)<\/em><br \/>There\u2019s no doubt that Men of a Certain Age is a hard sell, a semi-autobiographical book in which the New Statesman\u2019s arts editor traces her obsession with often wildly unfashionable, ageing male artists \u2013 Queen\u2019s Roger Taylor, Bruce Hornsby, Steve Perry of Journey, Jon Bon Jovi among them \u2013 through a series of interviews variously absurd, insightful, hair-raising and weirdly touching. But it\u2019s elevated to unmissable status by Mossman\u2019s writing, which is so sparkling, witty and shrewd that your personal feelings about her subjects are rendered irrelevant amid the cocktail of self-awareness, affection and sharp analysis she brings to every encounter. In a world of music books retelling tired legends, Men of a\u00a0Certain Age offers that rare thing: an entirely original take on rock history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/guardianbookshop.com\/only-god-can-judge-me-9780063304574?utm_source=editoriallink&amp;utm_medium=merch&amp;utm_campaign=article\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur<\/a><\/strong><br \/><em>Jeff Pearlman<\/em><em> (HarperCollins)<\/em><br \/>Some posthumous accounts of rapper Tupac Shakur\u2019s life have tended towards the hagiographic: better known as a writer on sport than music, Jeff Pearlman has written an incisive biography that reveals someone infinitely more complicated and contradictory than either the \u201cthug\u201d he was wont to portray himself as, or the saintly figure of the 2003 documentary Tupac: Resurrection. It suggests the persona he projected was carefully constructed: the young Shakur was actually a sensitive, geeky ballet student, albeit one from a very turbulent background. But his aspirations to a career in hip-hop coincided with the dominance of gangsta rap and he altered his approach accordingly: the saga of the mask gradually eating the face makes for grimly compelling reading.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"093a21eb-13bc-41ca-b640-6371b924314f\" data-spacefinder-role=\"thumbnail\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-13rnsx0\"\/>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/guardianbookshop.com\/the-tremolo-diaries-9781917923002\/?utm_source=editoriallink&amp;utm_medium=merch&amp;utm_campaign=article?utm_source=editoriallink&amp;amp;utm_medium=merch&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">The Tremolo Diaries<\/a> <\/strong><br \/><em>Justin Currie<\/em><em> (Simon &amp; Schuster)<\/em><br \/>The Tremolo Diaries opens with Del Amitri\u2019s frontman in a dark place:\u00a0diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s disease, his partner in a care home following a stroke, his band bottom of the bill on a tour of the US \u2013 a\u00a0country they once looked set to break \u2013 alongside an artist whose music he loathes. What follows is an extraordinarily frank exploration of illness, depression and life in a band whose members know that, while hardly struggling, their commercial heyday has long passed. Currie is perceptive, funny, winningly cantankerous company, disinclined to\u00a0pull punches or graft a happy-ever-after narrative on to his story; you don\u2019t have to know a note of his music to find The Tremolo Diaries richly rewarding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/guardianbookshop.com\/love-and-fury-9781915841247\/?utm_source=editoriallink&amp;amp;utm_medium=merch&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Love and Fury: The\u00a0Extraordinary Life,\u00a0Death and Legacy\u00a0of\u00a0Joe\u00a0Meek<\/a> <\/strong><br \/><em>Darryl W Bullock<\/em><em> (Omnibus)<br \/><\/em>Darryl Bullock died at the\u00a0end of last year: the book he had just completed underlines what an authoritative chronicler of pop\u2019s LGBTQ+ history he was. His biography of groundbreaking producer Joe Meek returns him to the territory of 2021\u2019s fascinating The Velvet Mafia: The Gay Men Who Ran the Swinging Sixties, in\u00a0which Meek featured heavily. The tragic figure behind the Tornados\u2019 transatlantic chart-topper Telstar warrants deeper exploration not merely because he was a sonic genius but because he was so profoundly singular: openly gay, mentally unstable, mixed up with the Krays, obsessed with the occult and the extraterrestrial. Love and Fury proves that exhaustive research doesn\u2019t preclude page-turning drama.<\/p>\n<footer class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><span data-dcr-style=\"bullet\"\/> To browse all music books included in the Guardian and Observer\u2019s best books of 2025 visit <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/guardianbookshop.com\/search.php?tag=books-of-the-year-food-and-cookery&amp;utm_source=editoriallink&amp;utm_medium=merch&amp;utm_campaign=article\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">guardianbookshop.com<\/a>. Delivery charges may apply.<\/p>\n<\/footer>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.theguardian.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist Liz Pelly (Hodder &amp; Stoughton) Enraging, thoroughly depressing, but entirely necessary, Mood Music offers a timely, forensically researched demolition of Spotify. In Pelly\u2019s account, the music streaming giant views music as a kind of nondescript sonic wallpaper, artists as an unnecessary encumbrance [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2190134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2190133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Five-of-the-best-music-books-of-2025-Best.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2190133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2190135,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190133\/revisions\/2190135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2190134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2190133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2190133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2190133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}