Reverb is a series of books on the cultural history of popular music, published by Reaktion Books and distributed in North America by the University of Chicago Press. The series was established in 2010 by Reaktion Books and series editor, John Scanlan. Each of the books in the series offers a new perspective on the connections between music, particular artists and performers, musical cultures and the times and places they emerge from.

To date fifteen volumes of the series are in print and around two dozen titles have been commissioned. Recent successes include Seth Bovey’s acclaimed Five Years Ahead of My Time: Garage Rock from the 1950s to the Present (Shindig! magazine’s book of the year, 2019) and Mark Doyle’s widely-praised The Kinks: Songs of the Semi-Detached.

Prospective authors who are interested in writing a book for the series should look at this Information for Authors page at the Reaktion Books website for guidance on what to include in a proposal.

It is also a good idea to look at the details of the books already published in the series – which can be found here – and the approach they have taken to their subject. In addition to those titles already published, we have commissioned a number of others on the following subjects:

Icelandic Pop
Dance Music Culture
Hauntology
The Crooner
Iggy Pop
Kraftwerk

If the subject you are interested in writing about falls outside of the scope of subjects we have already published and/or commissioned, we would be interested in looking at your proposal.

If you would like to discuss an idea for a book, please email the series editor, John Scanlan, at:

reverb.series AT gmail.com