A succinct survey of Western popular music since the advent of sound recordings. Exhaustive in its coverage of musical genres and styles, including chapters on jazz, the blues, country & western, the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, R&B, 1950s rock 'n' roll (and countless offshoots such as rockabilly, doo-wop, novelty songs, instrumentals, girl groups, teen idols, et al.), the British Invasion, the American Renaissance (most notably, soul, the California Sound, and folk rock), and the seemingly infinite variety of hybrids occurring since the late 1960s: progressive rock, disco, punk/new wave, alternative rock, rap/hip-hop, and much more. Representative recordings are noted for each discussed style. The author taught a University pop music survey course over the past 20 years.