This volume adds Germany to the growing list of edited volumes, in English, that offer comprehensive overviews of popular music (studies) in one country. As far as such books go, this one seems to stretch comprehensiveness to a certain maximum. With its 34 chapters, averaging five pages each, the book presents a panoramic overview of major topics and issues in the field of popular music in the German-speaking countries. However, with the exception of one chapter, on the history of German popular music industry (by Klaus Nathaus), the contributors here deal almost exclusively with popular music from the 1960s onwards. In this regard, the book is primarily about pop-rock phenomena, rather than the entire spectrum of popular music.

The rich field of pop-rock studies in German-speaking countries is only partially available to readers lacking knowledge of this language. This collection therefore functions as a double introduction. One gets acquainted not only with a series of central issues and phenomena in German pop-rock, but also with the wealth of research material published by German-writing scholars, encompassing musicology, sociology and media studies.

In order to present as much work as possible, the editors opted for a concept of short, concise chapters. In most cases, this works quite well, especially in pieces on specific genres, musicians or even songs such as the ones on Eurodisco (by Thomas Krettenauer), the band Modern Talking (by André Doehring) and the Berlin sound of techno (by Daniel Meteo and Sandra Passaro). However, chapters that cover broader issues, such as the review of Austropop (by Rosa Reitsamer), also do a fine job of introduction and explanation within this limited space. In some chapters, however, succinctness leaves one puzzled, rather than informed or enlightened about the topic. This is the case with the chapters on the emergence of Krautrock (by Jens Gerrit Papenburg) and on Kraftwerk (by Dirk Matejovsky) – certainly two topics that interest many readers around the world.

The empirically focused short chapters in this volume are preceded by three rather extended historical and theoretical introductory chapters. In the first one, the editors provide a review of methodological approaches and major institutions that guided popular music studies in Germany. Helmut Rösing than outlines the development of popular music studies in Germany amidst traditional musicology's rejection of such studies. Finally, Peter Wicke offers an insightful look at the development of popular music scholarship, first in East and then in unified Germany, focusing on the increased emphasis on the cultural study of music as sound. Taken together, these three chapters provide not only a historical and analytical framework for the chapters collected in this book, but also a snapshot of the conceptual and institutional history of popular music studies in general. It is a good read for any popular music scholar.

The abundance of material covered in this book hinders the possibility of doing justice to the entire book. Also, the brevity of most chapters does not provide a firm basis for elaborated discussions in the review. Still, I want to conclude this rather short review by devoting some words to Ralf von Appen's chapter on the Scorpions’ song ‘Wind of Change’. Centred on a brief musical analysis of the song, the chapter is marked by a personal tone of revelation regarding some qualities of the song. The chapter thus exemplifies the path from fandom to scholarship that characterizes the career of many researchers in popular music studies. A song one detests as a fan gains some appreciation once analysed through the prism of musicology and cultural sociology. In the case of this particular song, which became an unofficial anthem of German reunification in 1989–1990, and ‘the best selling song ever by any German musician’ (p. 89), the process even takes an added political and historical value.

To summarize then, although most chapters here might be considered as prolonged research vignettes rather than broad or detailed accounts, the book nevertheless provides an excellent, sort of ‘bird's eye’ view of popular music studies and pop-rock music in the German-speaking countries. It amounts to a recommended read for anyone interested in the study of pop-rock music in its globalized context, beyond the Anglo-American core.