As the demographic of Popular Music Studies shifts and broadens, with younger scholars beginning to publish monographs, there is a noticeable change in the type of artist, genre and timeframe covered. This demographic shift, coupled with the lengthy gestation period of academic publishing, means that, while there is reasonable coverage of individual artists from the 1990s onwards in journal articles and edited collection chapters, we are only just beginning to see serious book-length studies of key figures in popular music post-1990. Nicola Dibben's study of Björk Gudmundsdóttir – whose worldwide commercial success began with her 1993 album Debut – is a welcome addition to this growing body of literature.

For scholars such as Dibben who work in the area of popular music from the last two decades there is a particular challenge – and, of course, excitement – in research that focuses on artists who are often still working productively, frequently at the peak of their careers. The scope of the writing always needs to take into account that this will not be a ‘definitive’ work; often the artist is still releasing new and interesting music as the manuscript is being edited. Dibben draws attention to this in her introduction, arguing that, despite her relative youth, Björk's artistic innovation, agency and collaboration, coupled with her huge commercial success, warrant a book-length study. The fact that there will be more innovative work to come from Björk offers up interesting dilemmas in terms of structuring the research and leaving scope for further research post-publication. Dibben has chosen to avoid a chronological approach, which might be seen as an attempt to definitively cover all aspects of the time period up to publication. Instead, her discussion of Björk's work has an overarching thematic structure, where significant themes that recur in the work are taken together. Chapters on themes such as nationalism, technology, nature and emotion highlight key conceptual elements of Björk's output, and evidence her thoughtfulness as a composer. As Dibben argues:

This type of unified thematic structure lends itself particularly well to opening up dialogues between Björk's work which is documented here and her work which is still to come. The themes developed in Dibben's text – and the central argument of Björk's work as ‘unified’ which runs throughout the book – can clearly be brought to bear upon future work, in terms of convergence or perhaps even divergence. This structure also allows the monograph to be situated in dialogue with future research and – perhaps unconsciously – acknowledges that there are other themes within the work which are still to be explored.

Chapter 1 provides a biographical overview of the artist. Dibben then moves on in Chapter 2 to discuss the theme of ‘nationalism’, specifically with reference to Icelandic history and the concept of ‘nation’, where ‘Björk's artistic output is shaped in relation to the global imagination of Iceland and her enculturation within nationalist sentiment’ (p. 49). Chapters 3 and 4 deal with ‘nature’ and ‘technology’ respectively – two elements of a binary that has been integral to Björk's work. Again, Dibben uses the theme of unification to show how Björk's work moves across this divide, and ‘reconciles the tensions between Iceland's rural landscape ideology and its technological modernity’ (p. 99). Chapter 5 analyses Björk's ‘sound’, exploring the relationship between voice and other musical materials, and Chapter 6 reflects upon how this sound world relates to a specific notion of ‘emotion’ and authenticity. The final chapter draws together these discussions of the work within a broader context of her ‘contribution’.

Dibben's book works particularly well on two levels. Firstly, it provides a comprehensive introduction to a key contemporary artist. Not only does the book situate the work in a biographical context, with considerable detail in terms of factual information, but it also shows clearly the wider contribution that Björk's work has made to the industry of popular music. Dibben shows Björk as a collaborative composer, illuminating her specific, often unusual, modes of collaboration. In doing so, she locates Björk in a wider context of popular music production in the digital age, while also drawing attention to her innovative practices through this central theme of unification, arguing that ‘sonic and conceptual unity between apparently disparate materials and ideas […] can be understood as a means to act out cultural integration through musical sound and practice’ (p. 119). In the closing chapter Dibben makes explicit her aim of situating Björk's work more broadly within the music industry by focusing on the notion of ‘contribution’ and mapping out Björk's impact and significance, with a sense of her political and social musical vision.

Secondly, the book shows students a range of methodological approaches when engaging with contemporary popular music. As Dibben argues, previous publications on Björk have been journalistic in nature and in some ways much of the ‘survey’ literature on popular music post-1990 carries this trait. Dibben's study of Björk sits firmly in the musicological sphere, with a focus on the analysis of the music itself. Discussions of musical materials such as form, melodic contours, timbre, voice leading, choice of modes, the structure of instrumental loops, harmonic structures, and so on, are woven through each chapter, so that the music itself is at the core of this book. The formalist elements of the book are written in an accessible manner and students with a range of abilities will be able to engage with the concepts. Even more importantly, Dibben deliberately situates this musical analysis in a wider cultural context, with an impressive breadth of coverage and a range of ways of presenting this material. In her introduction she lays out the vast range of primary and secondary sources that she has consulted – recorded music, videos, websites, interviews, fanzines and so on – but also notes that she has interviewed musicians and record company staff ‘to better understand the processes and social networks behind Björk's artistic output’ (p. 3). This contextualisation, and understanding of the function of discourse, is crucial to the success of the musical analysis here. These detailed discussions of musical detail – for example, the discussion of timbre and vocal range in the chapter on ‘sound’ – sit firmly within a broader understanding of how Björk's work, and her public persona, is constructed within the music industry. Dibben evidences Björk's agency in the construction of her own image and sound world.

This study provides a thorough overview of the key themes in Björk's work, tackling an overlapping range of contexts and issues through a variety of methodological approaches. Despite being so detailed, this monograph provides a clear springboard for further research on Björk rather than closing down avenues in an attempt to be ‘definitive’. There are areas such as gender which Dibben is aware of and clearly points to, but which are outside the scope of this book, opening up possibilities for future research. Indeed, it will be interesting to see how Dibben's further work on Björk develops. This is particularly true for her current engagement with Björk's Biophilia project, which is concerned with the merging of science, technology and music. Björk's record label, One Little Indian, have brought Dibben on board with Biophilia, employing her as a musicologist whose role is to document the project, which clearly has exciting prospects for further research and dissemination.