Everybody knows the hits of 1984-pop music's greatest year. From "Thriller" to "Purple Rain," "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" to "Like a Virgin," "Hello" to "Against All Odds," "Sister Christian" to "Love Is a Battlefield," "What's Love Got to Do with It" to "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," they continue to dominate advertising, karaoke nights, and the soundtracks for film classics (Boogie Nights) and TV hits (Stranger Things). But the story of that thrilling, turbulent time, an era when Top 40 radio was both the leading edge of popular culture and a moral battleground, has never been told with the full detail it deserves-until now.

Can't Slow Down is the definitive portrait of the exploding world of mid-eighties pop and the time it defined, from Cold War anxiety to the home-computer revolution. Big acts like Michael Jackson (Thriller), Prince (Purple Rain), Madonna (Like a Virgin), Bruce Springsteen (Born in the U.S.A.), and George Michael (Wham!'s Make It Big) rubbed shoulders with the fermenting scenes of hip-hop, indie rock, and club music.

Rigorously researched, mapping the entire terrain of American pop, with crucial side trips to the UK and Jamaica, from the biz to the stars to the upstarts and beyond, Can't Slow Down is a vivid trip to a thrilling, turbulent time when pop was remaking itself, and the culture at large, one hit at a time. Let's go crazy!

About the Author
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 Mixmag and The New Yorker and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.


Book Information
ISBN 9780306903373
Author Michaelangelo Matos
Format Hardback
Page Count 480
Imprint Da Capo Press Inc
Publisher Hachette Books
Weight(grams) 720g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 158mm * 46mm