From the author's Preface: "Blue Smoke" is a history of New Zealand popular music in the days before rock 'n roll. I felt there was a gap, not in the market but in our understanding: how we got from Alfred Hill's 'Waiata Poi' to Rim D. Paul's 'Poi Poi Twist' seemed to be a mystery. For my purposes, 'popular music' is a genre, not a description. Also popular in this period - the mid-twentieth century - were brass bands, bagpipers and choirs. But they are hardly mentioned in this book, which looks at the evolution of modern popular music as an industry: the changes in musical fashions, technology and social mores.