Music and photography have always shared a special relationship—when an iconic musician is portrayed by a first-rate photographer, the result is often transformative and transcendent, and a classic pop culture image is born. Music Box gathers more than 340 such legendary photographs of musicians—covering the stars of jazz, blues, rock and roll, soul, and all of their contemporary offshoots.
Music Box is arranged in thematic chapters that look at the music scene from a witty and fresh perspective, collecting photographs such as Philippe Halsman’s seminal portrait of Louis Armstrong, Jim Marshall’s vision of Jimi Hendrix kneeling over his burning guitar, Annie Leibovitz’s anthemic shot of Bruce Springsteen leaping in front of the American flag, and many more. It is an amazing collection of memorable photographs in an irresistible package.

Gino Castaldo is the chief music critic for La Repubblica and editor in chief of Musica. He is the author of several books about popular music and teaches at the University of Rome.