MusicHound

MusicHound (often stylized as musicHound) was a compiler of genre-specific music guides published in the United States by Visible Ink Press between 1996 and 2002. After publishing eleven album guides, the MusicHound series was sold to London-based Music Sales Group,[1] whose company Omnibus Press had originally distributed the books outside America. The series' founding editor was Gary Graff,[2] formerly a music critic with the Detroit Free Press.[1]

Subtitled "The Essential Album Guide", each publication typically contained entries providing an overview of an artist's career and dividing their work into categories such as "what to buy", "what's next", "what to avoid" and "worth searching for".[3] Among the MusicHound album guides were titles dedicated to rock, blues, classical, jazz, world music, swing, and soundtrack recordings. Further to the canine analogy in the series title, albums were graded according to a "bone" rating system: five bones constituting the highest score, down to a bold-rendered "woof!", signifying "dog food".[4]

Graff has said that he had envisioned the books as buyer's guides, specifically: "something akin to a good record store clerk or that fellow shopper you meet while you're looking through the racks and with whom you strike up a spontaneous conversation".[1] Gale-owned Visible Ink also published a series of VideoHound film guides, beginning with 1991's Golden Movie Retriever.[5]

  1. ^ a b c Ward, Steven. "Losin' His Mind in Detroit Rock City: An Interview with Gary Graff". rockcritics.com. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  2. ^ Weingarten, Emily (October 17, 2006). "Interview Record (Gary Graff)". University of Michigan School of Music. Archived from the original on December 15, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  3. ^ Jordan, Miles (July–August 1999). "Jazz Reviews: MusicHound Blues: The Essential Album Guide". JazzTimes. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  4. ^ Graff and Durchholz, p. xiii.
  5. ^ Gale, Thomson (1991). VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever 1991. ISBN 978-0-8103-9404-9. Retrieved July 19, 2024.