A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist uses data, facts, and science to
deliver hilarious, fascinating answers to some of the most famous
questions in pop music history.
"Is there life on Mars? Where have all the flowers gone? Pop songs can
pose excellent questions and James Ball has given them the answers they
deserve."--The Times (UK)
Some of the most famous questions of our time have come to us in pop
songs. "What is love?" "How soon is now?" "How do you solve a problem
like Maria?" But do you know the answers?
Breaking down lyrics from Bob Dylan, Queen, Rihanna, the Ting Tings,
Billy Joel, and a variety of other genre- and decade-spanning artists
with colorful graphs and Venn diagrams, Pop Science reveals the exact
points where lowbrow pop culture and the highest science and philosophy
meet. By revealing the economic status of doggies in windows, what war
is good for, and what becomes of the brokenhearted, James Ball uncovers
what we have always known--that pop music is the key to life itself.