Gino Castaldo
Il romanzo della canzone italiana

'We risk forgetting it, now that the new millennium travels fast among disembodied virtual sounds. But wasn't the 20th century perhaps the century of the song? If we tried to line up a few thousand songs one after the other, in chronological order, we would obtain the most exhaustive, colorful, truthful novel of the 20th century, at least the one that best recounts its sentimental education. (quote from the book)

Thanks to an extraordinary combination of social and cultural circumstances, the history of modern Italian song has a precise beginning. It is the evening of February 1, 1958.

Modugno sings Nel blu dipinto di blu and suddenly an evolutionary leap occurs. Italians realize that everything is about to change, and the song turns the page: an incredible and unique adventure begins that lasts to our days, passing through the sensitivity of the first Genoese singer-songwriters, discovering the joys of summer and the adolescence of rock’n’roll, growing through the rebellion of beat groups, maturing in the revolution promoted by De André, Guccini, Battisti, and in the renaissance which between the seventies and eighties will bring the musical culture of our country to its greatest splendors. Until the innovations that touch the threshold of 2000.

It is an intense and profound story in which we can read the joys, emotions, characters, aspirations, and contradictions of our cultural identity.' (Cover notes)

With this book Gino Castaldo, famous journalist and music critic (and host with Ema Stokholma of a program on Radio Rai ['Back to back']), takes us on an exciting journey, from the origins of our song (from the Neapolitan of the 1800s and early 1900s) until the end of the first millennium, the year 2000 in fact.

And with a playlist at the end of each chapter to better understand each period.

Not to be missed.