Everything We Do is Music

How 20th-Century Classical Music Shaped Pop

By: Elizabeth Alker

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Paperback | 13 August 2026

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Paperback

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19.6 x 12.9 x 2.3

Paperback

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WINNER OF THE RPS STORYTELLING AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PENDERYN MUSIC PRIZE
A FINANCIAL TIMES AND IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

''Revelation after revelation . . . I love music more for reading it.'' Guy Garvey
''Alker joins the dots by following myriad musical ley lines. A fascinating journey into sound.'' Mark Radcliffe
''Reveals so much about the hidden connections between the sounds we love . . . A must read.'' Sara Mohr-Pietsch

A panoramic exploration of the ways in which pop and rock were transformed by the pioneering visionaries of classical music.

The worlds of pop and rock owe a much greater debt to the classical canon than we realise. A direct and fascinating lineage draws from the experimentalism of Pierre Henry to The Beatles' 'Tomorrow Never Knows', from Stockhausen to Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' and from Bruckner to Sonic Youth via Glenn Branca.

In Everything We Do is Music, Elizabeth Alker shines a light on the fertile ground that exists between the borders of classical music and pop. She showcases the innovators of the former and their fans and collaborators in the latter, and explores how together these artists challenged the notion that such musical worlds are mutually exclusive.

** Featuring interviews with Sir Paul McCartney, Steve Reich, Nils Frahm, Soweto Kinch, Jonny Greenwood, the Blessed Madonna and more. **

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