This is definitely not about '80s pop but it's a brilliant book:
(My book review from a "50-Book Challenge" thread)
Evening In The Palace Of Reason by James Gaines
This was excellent! 
That rare gem of well-written and profoundly researched historical fiction based on known facts as well as letters by/to the principal characters, in the spirit of This Thing Of Darkness. It is the story of Frederick the Great and Johann Sebastian Bach, parallel but separate for the most part, then coming together for one brief evening when Bach was invited to Frederick's palace and given the challenge of an "impossible" theme (which you can listen to in the first seconds of the link below) to improvise a fugue on. Bach not only improvised the fugue on the spot (which is magic, as far as I'm concerned) but followed up on it some weeks later with the hour-long collection of improvisations for solo harpsichord, trio flute-violin-harpsichord etc called the Musical Offering with such incredible masterpieces as the Canon in Fugue that starts at 48:08 and the Ricercar that starts at 59:05.
However, this is not only the story of a monarch and a musical genius. It is also the story of the period's conflict between religious faith (represented by J S Bach) and Godless confidence in self-determination (represented by Frederick), a war that continues to our day without a clear winner. The author is brilliant where he describes how Frederick the Great was forged by his psychopath father, his constant fear for his life as a child and teenager, his very probable homosexuality and love of music suppressed by his father.
I have read quite a few books on Bach and other Baroque musicians, but have to say that this was by far the most interesting and well-written. I definitely recommend it to everyone here, even if you are not terribly interested in music history, for there really is something for everyone in this book.