''The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century'' is a 2007 nonfiction book by the American music critic Alex Ross, first published by

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...

. It recounts the history of European and American music, starting in 1900, and highlights many examples. According to '' Grove Music Online'', the book was intended to "open musical discourse to the broader educated public". It received widespread critical praise in the U.S. and Europe, garnering a

National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism The National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, established in 1975, is an annual American literary award A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded literary piece or body of work. It i ...

, a

Guardian First Book Award The Guardian First Book Award was a literary award presented by ''The Guardian'' newspaper. It annually recognised one book by a new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or Guardian Fiction Prize that the newspap ...

, a , and the 2011 . ''The Rest is Noise'' was also on the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' list of the ten best books of 2007 and was a finalist for the

Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction The Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are awarded annually for the "Letters, Drama, and Music" category. The award is given to a nonfiction book written by an American author and published duri ...

. The book was shortlisted for the 2008

Samuel Johnson Prize The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize, is an annual British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award. With its ...

for nonfiction.

References

External links

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Book summary from goodreads
Music books 2007 non-fiction books {{music-publication-stub