# Origin Story

*A history of popular music, one genre at a time.* Thirty-one volumes, each the complete life of one genre — where it started, what technology made it possible, which records mattered, who got paid, and why it ended.

- Every volume: about 29,000 words, roughly 120 pages, five movements.
- **No song lyrics, series-wide**, checked by a program against the manuscript, the EPUB and the narration script before a volume ships.
- Numbered by the year the genre ignited, not by publication order.
- Sold direct as paperbacks, from $11.49 a copy on the ladder. All thirty-one for $299.00, with the ebook and audiobook of every volume included.

## Free reference on this site

- [A timeline of popular music](https://www.origin-story.academy/timeline.md) — 926 dated entries from all thirty-one volumes.
- [How the record business pays](https://www.origin-story.academy/the-money.md) — the mechanisms, answered by the chapters that explain them.
- [All thirty-one volumes](https://www.origin-story.academy/shop.md) — and each volume page carries its own opening, timeline and full source list.
- [How the series is made](https://www.origin-story.academy/the-desk.md)