An entertaining and authoritative examination of the intertwined histories of pop music and the visual arts. How Art Made Pop tells for the first time the worldwide history of art-school rock.

The individuals that populate How Art Made Pop may still have become successful musicians if they hadn't studied art, but the kind of musicians that they became, and the kind of music that they became interested in that was predominantly informed and modified by art school attendance. Where once these musicians would have considered themselves entertainers, they now became artists. And hence what they practiced – i.e. popular music – became an art form, not least because they said it was.

A remarkable and exhaustive study examining the intertwined histories of pop music and the visual arts, and exploring the exhilarating exchange between art schools and the pop stars that they nurtured (or, occasionally, expelled), How Art Made Pop encompasses the worldwide history of art school rock, and brings the story up to date, featuring a cast including John Lennon, Richard Hamilton and the Independent Group, The Who, The Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol, Zappa, Beefheart and West Coast psychedelic culture, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Roxy Music and Bruce Springsteen.

Mike Roberts is a musician, author and documentary producer.