Shanghainese Pops is unanimously considered by many to be the quintessential Chinese Pop music, although it is also variously described as ?decadent? and ?pornographic?. The mere mention of Shanghainese Pops, too, evokes in some the fascination and allure of Old Shanghai. The Age of Shanghainese Pops 1930-1970, attempts to put the true face on to the genre, telling its story through song sheets, magazine pictures, historical photographs, record covers and illustrations as well as analytical texts. All this comes together here as a colourful, panoramic and by and large firsthand picture of how East met West and how social and cultural elements have worked together to shape the genre in the most turbulent years of modern China. The Age of Shanghainese Pops is the first book of its kind in terms of comprehensiveness and thoroughness of analysis. Its narrative does not stop at the birth of the PRC in 1949, but goes on to cover Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s, where Shanghainese Pops continued to thrive and develop. The book comes also with a CD in which 24 songs representing different periods and styles are put together to give readers a more vivid impression of this very interesting phenomenon in popular culture.