Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Reading the other reviews on this page, one might well be confused: Some complain about Chuck Eddy's weak grasp of his subject matter, others delight in the obscurity of his numerous references. So what is it?
Well, all of these reviews are accurate. Chuck slings names all over the place, and shows laudable contempt for genre classification (sure, he spends a lot of time on Debbie Gibson, but not everyone would compare her to, say, Von Lmo). But if you're actually going to him for information, you'll be disappointed, as there seem to be very few albums Chuck has actually LISTENED to. References abound, but are restricted to trite observations about song titles; in fact, he doesn't even make observations so much as group songs by some common word in their names. He doesn't seem to have any grasp of his subject matter because he doesn't seem to have grasped the notion that those plastic things inside album covers play music if you put them in a special machine.
Rock criticism has always been pretty grim, being dominated by hacks who prefer to deconstruct song lyrics than listen to the music. (Just look at the praise lavished on Bob Dylan's "poetics" over the years, qualified by blushing "admissions" that "he's really not a great singer": If only these people realized that Dylan's VOICE epitomizes the rock aesthetic, his stoner ramblings being mere frills!) Chuck Eddy, while relatively unpretentious, represents the absolute lowest form of this tendency.
This book is truly abysmal.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Accidental Evolution Of Rock'n'roll: A Misguided Tour Through Popular Music
History, jokebook, buying guide, book of lists, and treatise all rolled into one, The Accidental Evolution of Rock'n'Roll is most of all a joyride through the wildest music ever made. Whether discussing Def Leppard or Nirvana, Vanilla Ice or Public Enemy, Donna Summer or Bob Dylan, Chuck Eddy is an unparalleled master at deciphering unknown tongues and disentangling musical accidents. In this lavishly and hilariously illustrated book, he reveals the roots of rap, disco, power ballads, bubblegum, suburban country, and noise-rock; why selling out is good and honesty is never what it seems; the similarities between disco and garage rock and between reggae and heavy metal; whether songs can ever really "mean" anything; what math rock has in common with amputation rock and orgasm rock; and much, much more. By eventually encompassing the whole wacky world of popular music, this book is destined to change it forever.
0 comments:
Post a Comment