All Music Guide to Rock

Though the editors leave out bands, here and there, and give skimpy reviews for groups they don't care for (like ELO), they are a continuing source of help when I'm trying to find unfamiliar bands to check out. Their analysis of genres is thorough.

It's got some errors and it's more than a little out-dated now, but my dog-eared copy has sent me down more than one musical rabbit-hole over the years.

An exhaustive reference of pop, rock and soul CD's in print, each artist is listed with a short biography and discography, with a star system for album quality and symbols (confusing ones, though) denoting the most representative CD's of the artist's ouvre. This book was mighty handy in helping me compose a "must-have" list of CD's last year.

Most trustworthy of all books in this genre!!

The online version is more comprehensive.