Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year

I graduated college, met the man I was going to marry, and moved thousands of miles to live with him in 1984, so the music of that year is very near and dear to my heart. I had high hopes for this book, but was disappointed to find it wasn't much more than a summary of numerous articles written about the key artists of the year. Matos does set the beginning of each chapter at a specific events of the year, cataloging them in chronological order. But despite the stories (mostly well known) about artists like Prince, Madonna, Springsteen, Run DMC, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Van Halen, etc. etc., there's not really a through line, or a thesis that explains why 1984 was such a high water mark for many of these artists.

It took me several weeks to read this book and I don't feel like I learned much, although it did send me down the rabbit hole several times to find songs I had long forgotten. Recommended only for Boomers like myself who want to escape the dreary reality of 2021 for a while and remember when our biggest concern was whether MTV would play our favorite video before we fell asleep on the couch.