'Entertaining and insightful . . . Thorne's prose is a pleasure to read' ★★★★ MOJO
'A juicy account of great rivalries' OBSERVER

When an artist becomes truly famous, there is almost no one on earth who can understand how their world has changed forever. Perhaps only a young pretender who wants to rule the charts together, or a rival who wants to bring them down from their throne, knows how they feel and how to get into their heads. Someone who wants to invite them onto their TV show, act with them in a movie, make some money by filming a commercial together, duet on a song, or have a secret affair. Or any combination of the above.

Famous examines seven moments in music when stars from pop, rock and hip-hop have come together and how the resulting reverberations impacted everything from the culture at large to the decisions of world leaders. The book sheds thrilling new light on the fascinating stories of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, Paul McCartney and Diana Ross, Lou Reed and Paul Simon, Chuck Berry and Keith Richards, David Bowie and Tina Turner, Madonna and Tupac Shakur and Ye and Taylor Swift.

"Entertaining and insightful . . . Thorne's prose is a pleasure to read, his footnotes alone more substantial and entertaining than many books" - MOJO

"Famous may initially seem like a left turn for a writer who spent seven years writing a very long book about Prince. But that lifelong source of fascination's simultaneous occupancy of a series of key intersections - between black and white, rock and pop, male and female, jazz and funk - actually made his vast oeuvre the perfect training ground for this project. With five out of Thorne's seven chosen encounters continuing the conversation between whiteness and blackness which is pop's defining dialogue, Famous is a rigorously entertaining and fearlessly gossipy theoretical analysis of a septet of celebrity interfaces" - BEN THOMPSON

"By focusing on the connections and interactions between some of the biggest stars of music over the last sixty years, Matt Thorne moves us away from the reverent contemplation of "individual genius" and opens up the conversation into a subtle analysis of popular culture itself - how it works, what it means, how it affects us and how it affects its most famous protagonists" - WILL ASHON

"Famous is nothing less than a new path through pop cultural history. I found surprises and revelations on every page. The pairings he chooses are sometimes expected (Sinatra and Elvis) but often startling (Paul McCartney and Diana Ross). Throughout, Thorne's knowledge and love of the music, and his respect for the women and men who produce it, shines through" - TOBY LITT

"A juicy account of great rivalries" - OBSERVER, Nonfiction books to look out for in 2026

"This study of influence and animosity in the history of popular music is eccentric, passionate, sometimes confounding and always engrossing'" - THE TIMES