Who's Who in the Popular Music

If you were to co-edit a concise edition Who's Who in the Popular Music, which artists from over the last 50 years or so would you include and who would you leave out. and remember you cant fit in everybody, so some of your faves might have to be left out!!! :o

atchd article: Stephen Glover on The Press

Your guide to who's missing

The other day I bought the recently published Who's Who in the Media, thinking it might be useful in my line of business. Published by Guardian Books, it describes itself as "an essential guide to the most powerful movers and shakers in the media". Naturally, I was pleased to see my name included, though the entry had not been submitted by me.

Pleasure however turned to disbelief as I read on. The huge number of omissions was baffling in a book claiming to be a guide. Carolyn McCall, chief executive of Guardian Media, is included, as is her counterpart at News International, Les Hinton. But my new hero, Murdoch MacLennan, chief executive of the Telegraph Media Group, is omitted, as are Ivan Fallon, chief executive of Independent News and Media, publisher of this paper, and Guy Zitter, managing director of the Daily Mail.

Among journalists, inclusions and omissions are no less wayward. There is an entry for The Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins, but not for Polly Toynbee of the same parish. The interviewer Lynn Barber is included, but not Allison Pearson or Julie Burchill. Martin Newland earns a mention as an ex-editor of The Daily Telegraph, but his much longer-serving predecessors, Charles Moore and Max Hastings, still distinguished columnists, are omitted. Richard Ingrams has an entry, but Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye for 20 years, does not.

And so on. Among many other inexplicable omissions are Andreas Whittam Smith, Boris Johnson, Frank Johnson, William Rees-Mogg, Tom Bower, Peter McKay and Richard Littlejohn. I am less familiar with the worlds of television and radio and new media, supposedly also covered by the guide, but I bet their entries are far from comprehensive.

This book is junk. Don't on any account shell out £19.99 for it. If it is jealous of its reputation, The Guardian will withdraw it from sale.