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Packed with more than 4,000 entries on artists and bands that have cracked its charts over four decades, the Billboard Music Guide CD-ROM is as comprehensive as any compendium covering pop culture is going to get. With a wealth of search tools to track the annual Top 200 albums and full weekly charts from recent years (the lists run through early 1995), as well as listings by artist, song, category and record label, the guide is as smartly designed as it is attractive. Terrific links add to the pleasure; it's little surprise, for example, that you can zip to the Village People from the Pet Shop Boys (who covered the former's "Go West"). The downside is Billboard's generally glowing reviews. As the bible of the music business, there's little of the qualitative reviewing found in Rolling Stone magazine or Spin. But with 38,000 album reviews, 8,000 album covers, 900 photos and - best of all - 985 audio clips lasting 15 seconds each, the disc is a blast. There's something criminal, though, about not counting the Beatles, Rolling Stones or Elvis among the 56 video clips running 20 seconds each. (Alice in Chains over the King? For shame.) For its generous audio samples and nod to many genres, this disc works quite nicely. |
