Musical books: the reasons (in my opinion) of a decline

As you may know, I have been dealing for some years of the reviews of the books of musical argument for Rockol (you can find them here).

In recent years, the amount of books somehow connected to music has increased significantly: let’s say that roughly one come out every month (and my esteem is downwards, since not all the publishing houses send them to me).

This had led me, in 2021, to establish and organize the Cartacanta prize, assigned to a book of musical argument by Italian author chosen by a specialized jury; For the award, biographies and autobiographies, critical essays and historical reports were taken into consideration, but also works of fiction set in the world of music or written by musicians, published and distributed in Italy. Thanks to the collaboration of a competent commission (Marta Blumi Tripodi, Enrico Casarini and John Vignola) for four subsequent editions we rewarded deserving works. The first edition of the prize was won by Carlo Boccadoro with “Bach/Prince, parallel lives” (Einaudi); the second from Marco Ongaro with “The meaning for the word of Serge Gainsbourg” (Caissa Italia); the third by Francesco Donadio with “Freewheelin ‘in Rome” (Arcana Edizioni); The fourth from “What I will do when I grow up” by Gino Paoli with Daniele Bresciani (Bompiani).

For 2025, however, I decided to suspend the assignment of the prize. The cause is simple: among all the books received this year – I speak of those of an Italian author – I did not seem to be able to identify someone who really deserved to be rewarded for the originality of the subject, or for the quality of the research, or for that of writing, or for that of iconography. This does not mean that, among the books I have received, there is none of anyone interesting, of well written, made with good graphic quality; But nobody, in my and our opinion, could aspire to that very high vote (from 9 up) that in recent years has been our commission criterion.

Which, in my opinion, betrays a not very comforting drift. The feeling, supported by the fact that I read in full every book I receive (at least two per week), is that an increase in the amount of publications does not correspond (indeed) an increase in quality.

Already three times, in only 2025, I gave up reviewing a book to not have to write too much bad. And I don’t only speak of self -produced books, or published by small non -specialized publishers; I also talk about books printed and distributed by important, large and prestigious publishing houses.

I spoke about it with the members of the prize commission and with a friend and colleague who has a long and deep knowledge of the sector, Riccardo Bertoncelli, long curator of necklace for joints. And we agreed that, unfortunately, this situation is the consequence of two concomitant causes.

The first: there are not (I always talk about books written by Italian authors, the Italian editions of international books are another story, also not without critical issues – particularly regarding the translations) owners or curators of publishing houses that have a clear and clear vision of what may interest the market. In most cases, we limit ourselves to publishing “signed” books (and almost never written in first person – which perhaps is not bad) by popular or fashion names in current music (how many rapper books! Which then, as Tony Effe has recently admitted, are written by a Ghostwriter with which the protagonist and signatory of the book chatted two/three hours), published with the hope that the popularity of the name is sufficient to sell copies – Which often and unfortunately happens.

The second: in the vast majority of cases (and the meritorious exceptions are very few) there are no longer, in publishing houses, two fundamental professional figures: the capable editor – what reasoning and discusses with the author in order to improve the final drafting of the work – and the careful editor, the one that prevents the book from containing errors, inaccuracies or real breakdowns (in this regard, I invite you to read, This review).

And in short: for this year, the Cartacanta prize will not be awarded. The hope is that 2024/2025 was an unbridled year, and that in 2026 we can return to rewarding a quality work.