MICHAELANGELO MATOS is the author of The Underground Is Massive: How Electronic Dance Music Conquered America (Dey Street, 2015) and Sign 'O' the Times (Bloomsbury, 2004). He contributes regularly to Mix-mag and the New Yorker and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
"Can't Slow Down reads like a "We Are the World"-style celebrity
mega-single in book form. It is a delightfully jam-packed group bio
that brings together characters from Morrissey to Cyndi Lauper,
Michael Jackson to Sade. All jostle for their star turns in this
ingeniously structured account of pop music's watershed year.
Wearing a massive amount of research lightly and displaying his
gift for both the industry "big picture" and the (at times
hilarious) artist thumbnail sketch, Matos proves himself to be
among the most entertaining and erudite chroniclers of contemporary
American popular music."--Emily J. Lordi, author of The Meaning of
Soul
"At last-the whole glorious saga of the 1984 pop explosion. Can't
Slow Down has the full untold story of how rockers and rappers and
dance-floor rebels came together to invent the future, changing how
music has sounded ever since. Michaelangelo Matos tells this epic
tale in all its detail-it's a definitive scholarly history, but he
also turns it into a thriller and a love story, with an infectious
joy that practically dances off the page. A pure delight."--Rob
Sheffield, author of Dreaming theBeatles
"Imagine a time when people bought millions of CDs, pop musicians
had the larger-than-life allure of movie stars, and nearly every
genre, from Top 40 to hip-hop to indie, was thriving. That year was
1984, and Michaelangelo Matos' rollicking and deeply researched
Can't Slow Down hurls you back to a time when pop music wasn't just
thriving; it welcomed anyone and everyone to revel in its crossover
dreams."--David Browne, author of Fire and Rain: The Beatles,
Simon& Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY and the Lost Story of 1970
"Through rigorous research and engaging storytelling, Michaelangelo
Matos offers a comprehensive look at a breakthrough year in pop
music. By giving equal weight to major and lesser-known cultural
signposts, Can't Slow Down is an insightful read for even the
staunchest music fan."--Marcus J. Moore, author of The Butterfly
Effect: How Kendrick LamarIgnited the Soul of Black America
A Rolling Stone-Kirkus Best Music Book of 2020 Pitchfork, Best
Music Books of 2020 Variety, Best Music Books of 2020 Amazon, Best
Books of December 2020 (Biographies & Memoir) Chicago Review of
Books, "10 Must Read Books of December (2020)" Inside Hook, "9
Books You Should Be Reading This December" Boston Globe, "Fall
Music Books Roundup" Forbes, "2020 Music Book Roundup"
"[A] carefully researched and remarkably ambitious work that
immediately takes a place on the shelf of indispensable books about
music in the 1980s." --Slate
"[A] savvy, effervescent, and definitive document of a pivotal time
in pop."--Kirkus Reviews
"[A] warm trip down musical memory lane." --Houston Press
"[The] definitive account of pop music in the mid-1980s."--The HYPE
Magazine
"[This book is] suffused with such entertaining and illuminating
vignettes, and unlike a lot of music books, it doesn't trade gossip
or legends... it sets an awfully high bar for future books on '80s
music that will hopefully follow."--Washington Examiner
"A phenomenal piece of research."--And It Don't Stop
"Compared to other music periods, the 1980s have been
short-shrifted when it comes to critical studies. But with Matos'
book... that period's exciting music and times have been now
depicted in an important and accurate historical
light."--Forbes
"Drawn from a wealth of archival material, including oral history
transcripts, books, and magazines, Matos' in-depth look encompasses
that landmark year's hits, stars, and trends and the cultural,
social, and financial conditions that helped change the face of
popular music. This robust volume provides an abundance of material
here for music fans, especially those fascinated by 1980s pop
culture, to savor."--Booklist
"Informed and witty... [with] volumes of information and
perspectives even for those of us who were there."--Variety
"Music fans who miss, or missed, the long party that was mainstream
music in the mid-'80s will be skillfully taken back to fast
times."--Arts Fuse
"Phenomenal... [and] detail-rich."--Mother Jones
"Pop fans with an appetite for nostalgia will find much to
like."--Library Journal
"The book feels like an ensemble television show, prioritizing
shifting perspectives over a tightly-organized narrative. It's
informative, entertaining, and fully immersive."--Pitchfork
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