The definitive history of independent music - updated and revised In his usual opinionated but deeply knowledgeable way, Martin C Strong has chronicled the careers of those musicians who positioned themselves outside the mainstream of conventional 'pop'. From the Americans like The Velvet Undergound and Captain Beefheart who offered something different to the flower power'n'peace of the 60s, through the filth and fury of punk, to the acid house culture that spawned the Happy Mondays and Primal Scream, and onto the ascension of American grunge and Nirvana, this provides another dizzying feat of research. For those with more discerning tastes there really is no alternative.