1000 Songs to change your life brings together a wide variety of writers and musicians, and invites them to dissect and discuss music in all its myriad forms. It doesn't attempt to proscribe a canon; nor does it try to rank the greatest songs in pop history. Instead, it's simply a book of enthusiasms: for everything from vintage American gospel music to morally dubious hip hop, classic rock to classical song-cycles, chart-topping singles to show-stopping Broadway hits. It's what might happen if you put all the worthwhile music on earth into one colossal audio player and set the dial to shuffle.