Music Is My Life: Soundtrack your mood with 80 artists for every occasion

By Author / Illustrator

Myles Tanzer, Ali Mac

Genre

Adventure

Publisher

Wide Eyed Editions

ISBN

9780711258365

Format

Hardback

Published

04-02-2020

Synopsis

Learn about music and emotion in this beautifully produced anthology for the whole family

With 80 artists, bands, and composers from all genres (including classical) there's something for every family member to love and recommend to the next generation. While away the hours, listening to artists and discovering new songs together.

Do you remember the first time you discovered an artist you really loved? Did they get you through a difficult time in your life? This book harnesses that feeling, by collecting together 80 of music's finest artists to guide young people through the good, bad and sad times. Whatever the feeling, these artists have been there and sung about it. Organised by mood, dip into the library to discover new artists from decades past to present day. Shout about it with Nirvana, love yourself with Lizzo, or cry it out with Adele.

Each entry contains biographical information on each artist, lists must-hear songs, and has accessible musical analysis from author and journalist Myles Tanzer. Every artist is captured in full-colour, rocking art by Ali Mac. With information at the front on how to soundtrack your mood, and information at the back on how to listen to and make your own music.

A pitch-perfect introduction to music appreciation for children

Reviews

Music Is My Life is a non-fiction book loosely in the vein of titles such as Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls - each page features an illustration and some text about a particular music artist or band. Author Myles Tanzer has raided his own music collection and selected 80 artists across 12 mood-themed sections - music to make you cry, fall in love to, rebel to, relax to, dance to, and so on. As well as Ali Mac's dynamic illustrations, each page features background information about the artists, a song or two for you to check out and explains why they fit the mood. I am an absolute music nerd (my pre-librarian career was managing a music shop) so I was hugely excited to receive this review copy. It is a gorgeous-looking tome with vibrant colours and illustrations. I love the eclectic mix of artists, which literally goes from Lizzo and Nirvana on one page to Beethoven and Yo-Yo Ma on the next! I found myself thinking about what my 80 artists would be - and how different my choices would be whether I was compiling it for myself or for others. My main problem with the book was that on a number of pages the colour choices made the text very difficult to read - small dark text on dark backgrounds had me straining my eyes fairly regularly. I also noticed a couple of small errors in the text (Blur are not from Sheffield, and David Bowie was not born in 1974!) which made me wonder how many errors there were that I didn't pick up on. Overall, I really enjoyed Music Is My Life - learning about new artists, reflecting on some of my own favourites and thinking differently about others. I recommend reading while listening to the book's Spotify playlist, too! Reviewed by Dan Katz / 112 Pages / ages 10+