{"product_id":"rock-a-mainstream-alternative-history-of-alternative-mainstream-music","title":"Rock*: A Mainstream Alternative History of Alternative Mainstream Music","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBiographical Note\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eChuck Klosterman\u003c\/b\u003e is the bestselling author of ten nonfiction books (including \n\u003ci\u003eFootball\u003c\/i\u003e; \n\u003ci\u003eThe Nineties\u003c\/i\u003e; \n\u003ci\u003eBut What If We're Wrong?\u003c\/i\u003e; and \n\u003ci\u003eSex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs\u003c\/i\u003e), two novels ( \n\u003ci\u003eDowntown Owl\u003c\/i\u003e and \n\u003ci\u003eThe Visible Man\u003c\/i\u003e), and the short story collection \n\u003ci\u003eRaised in Captivity\u003c\/i\u003e. His debut book, \n\u003ci\u003eFargo Rock City\u003c\/i\u003e, won the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. He has written for \n\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eGQ\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eEsquire\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eSpin\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eThe Believer\u003c\/i\u003e, and ESPN. Klosterman served as the Ethicist for \n\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e for three years and was a founder of the website Grantland with Bill Simmons. He was raised in North Dakota and now lives in Portland, Oregon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Gather round, rock fans, and enjoy...a poke at both the sneering condescension of the music snob and the dubious enthusiasms of the music-listening public. Astonishing here is the steadiness of Klosterman's hand: Even rock nerds will find themselves googling to learn whether some reported bit of rock excess is the author's invention or actually happened.... Ingenious. Hilarious.\"\u003c\/p\u003e-- \n\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"[Chuck Klosterman] rewrites the story of American rock in this explosive, funhouse-mirror alternative history.... Klosterman's Nabokovesque framing of this false history is drenched in irony and tongue-in-cheek reversals of music history. It's also a master class of subtle worldbuilding, with Klosterman slowly, tantalizingly rendering an alien cultural landscape in vignettes ranging from the absurd to the macabre. Beyond its irreverence and humor, the narrative raises timely questions about culture, critiquing the fickleness of the media market and its 'common sense' judgments about art, which Klosterman implies are always just a historical accident or two away from being reversed, and challenging readers to question their own tastes. This twisted, ironic tribute will delight, surprise, and provoke rock fans.\"\u003c\/p\u003e-- \n\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublishers Weekly (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eKaleidoscopic culture critic Chuck Klosterman rewrites the history of reality, built off a question that has never been asked or (in all likelihood) even considered: What if Phillip K. Dick's \u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Man in the High Castle\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e was actually about rock music? \u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The Velvet Underground \u0026amp; Nico was released in the spring of 1967. For decades, the cliche has been that it initially only sold 10,000 copies, though everyone who bought it supposedly started a band. It is the definition of a record whose influence outstrips its mass popularity. But what if the opposite had transpired? What if instead of selling 10,000 copies, it had sold ... 10 million copies? What if it had sold 100 million copies? What would have happened if the Velvet Underground had inexplicably become the biggest group in the history of popular music, and everything about the rest of the 20th century was merely a footnote to that phenomenon? Whatever answer you imagine is an infinitesimal splinter, at least when compared to \n\u003ci\u003eRock*\u003c\/i\u003e. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Chuck Klosterman has generated a fictitious universe where almost everything is different, except for the songs. The songs remain the same--the difference is how they are heard and what they now mean. Lou Reed is a messiah, reversing the monoculture and dictating the outcome of presidential elections. The Beatles disappear, though they never break up. The Rolling Stones collapse while Led Zeppelin goes bankrupt. Punk rock fills stadiums, undermined only by insouciant radicals like Boston and Van Halen. Disco is destroyed. Hip-hop becomes country. The 1980s are defined by disposable pop icons (like G.G. Allin) and Christian revivalists (like Madonna). Lenny Kravitz lets love rule, Oasis collides with a wonderwall, and the terrorist attacks of 9\/11 are somehow blamed on the Strokes. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Presented like \n\u003ci\u003eThe Rolling Stone History of Rock \u0026amp; Roll \u003c\/i\u003eif written by Jorge Luis Borges and Patrick Bateman, \n\u003ci\u003eRock*\u003c\/i\u003e intermixes satiric contrarianism and Spinal Tap-ish absurdity with darker theories about what makes art popular, how success delineates perception, and the inescapable consensus of subjective history. It is not, nor does it claim to be, the greatest book ever written about rock and roll. But it's probably the last one that ever needs to be written.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"Da Capo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496208531734,"sku":"9780306837999","price":39.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9780306837999.jpg?v=1783057581","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/rock-a-mainstream-alternative-history-of-alternative-mainstream-music","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}