Songs play an important role in our lives, and many associate them with special moments. Our albums keep company for longer periods, as many of the ones we loved we listened to dozens of times on the various sound systems we had at different times.

The first long-playing record was released in October 1948 and offered us the chance to listen to 23 minutes of music on each side. Today, a CD's duration approaches 80 minutes, and we are probably at the end of the album era in the sense we have understood it over the past 55 years.

Albums first appeared during a time when large orchestras dominated in the 1940s, and in the following decade, records featuring artists from rhythm and blues, renowned singers (Sinatra, Bennett, etc.), and of course rock 'n' roll were released.

The 1960s is undoubtedly the most musically exciting decade, with most of today's music having its beginnings in this period, which is also the most interesting not only in music but in other art forms as well.

The last four decades have given the world many musical moments, most of which are evolutions of what happened between 1948 and 1968.

This edition, which took several years to complete, contains our efforts to document everything that stood out since the release of the first long-playing record. It is, of course, impossible to comprehensively cover all music genres within the limited space of a book.

Therefore, we have not extensively covered soundtracks, collections, jazz, folk, traditional ethnic music, artists from countries other than the USA and Great Britain, etc. Our future plans include covering other musical areas in more detail to make our offer more comprehensive.

The number of records included in this edition exceeds 2004.

Author: PETRIDIS YANNIS, ZOYGRIS KONSTAS

Language: ENGLISH

Pages: 576

Year of publication: 2005