go on, I'll bite: Why should the music industry be any different to the banking sector, or car manufacturers? The UK government has decided to spend it's way out of the recession and they're not too worried where the money's going to come from - that'll be somebody elses problem after the next election...

I can totally recommend Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything". Not only a good introduction to an enormous number of scientific fields, but also backed with a huge list of the reference material.