Uncharted Territory - by Chris Dalla Riva (Hardcover)

About the Book

This insightful and surprising history based on data and numbers will reframe everything you thought you knew about popular music over the last 6 decades.

Book Synopsis

Popular music history collides with data analytics, charts, and numbers in this insightful and surprising look at the greatest hits and musicians, fads, forgotten artists, and much more. Data analyst and musician Chris Dalla Riva reframes everything you thought you knew about music.

Did you know that hit songs in the late 1950s were regularly about gruesome death? That a US vice president wrote a number one hit? That while TikTok has spawned countless hits, it's made artists more anonymous than ever before? That pop songs have shaped race relations in the United States? That the key change died around 2003? And that's just the beginning.

Coupling hard data with engaging anecdotes, Uncharted Territory is both a takedown and celebration of popular music and provides new ways to think about your favorite songs, genres, and artists from the last 6 decades using unexpected statistics and playful visualizations. This entertaining history is filled with the most popular musicians of all time from The Beatles and The Bee Gees to Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, and beyond. Whether you danced the twist or the dougie at your senior prom, you're sure to never listen to music again in the same way.

Review Quotes

"Just the ticket for those who love music and numbers." --Booklist

"Unapologetically funny, opinionated, and data-driven." --Significance: The Royal Statistical Society

"Dalla Riva mixes data analysis with music criticism in this scrupulous debut analysis of popular music trends from the 1950s to the present ... Data-minded music fans will relish this deep dive." --Publishers Weekly

"It's easy to forget that sitting around and talking music with friends is about as fun as it gets. Chris Dalla Riva captures the feeling of spirited in-person discourse about records in book form. He brings to the table a raft of knowledge bolstered by deep analysis of relevant data, so you'll learn something new on every page. But he also realizes that numbers in music are more useful for starting conversations rather than ending them, so you'll walk away remembering his ideas and opinions rather than stats." --Mark Richardson, rock and pop music critic, Wall Street Journal; former Editor-in-Chief, Pitchfork

"Chris Dalla Riva's beautiful mind navigates the intersection of culture and data, making us appreciate art by looking and listening again and again." --Will Page, author of Tarzan Economics and former Chief Economist of Spotify

"Chris Dalla Riva has written a fascinating, rollicking journey through musical history. By tracing the rise and fall of trends at the top of the charts, Dalla Riva holds a mirror to our cultural evolution allowing us to better understand ourselves based on the music we're obsessed with. The book is a data-stuffed musical delight that could only be done by Chris Dalla Riva." --Walt Hickey, Pulitzer Prize Winner; Author of You Are What You Watch: How Movies and TV Affect Everything

"This book shines a light on the choices, patterns, and instincts behind the hits we love and the songs we write. It reminds me why I fell in love with songwriting in the first place and gives me new ways to think about how I approach my own writing." --Evan Bogart, award-winning songwriter and CEO of Seeker Music

About the Author

Chris Dalla Riva lives at the intersection of music and data. Playing in bands and recording music since his teenage years, Dalla Riva is currently a Senior Product Manager at Audiomack where he focuses on data analytics and personalization. He writes the popular newsletter Can't Get Much Higher and has had his work featured by The Economist, Business Insider, The Wall Street Journal, the London School of Economics, and NPR, among many others. He currently lives in Hoboken, New Jersey with his four guitars. Tiktok: @cdallarivamusic / cantgetmuchhigher.com.