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oohsarracuda's review
4.0
This book needed a better editor (multiple uses of "of" instead of "have" - "should of" "would of" - and "it's" instead of "its") but Hopper is such a good writer. Even when she's writing about things/people I could not care less about, I'm still into it, because she's such a good writer. Reading in bed, I laughed so hard at "tape-hiss horn of plenty Sebadoh" that I was afraid I'd wake my husband up.
chelseamartinez's review
3.0
There's a point about 80% through this collection where one of the pieces has the author remarking on the pieces she's been paid for in the past year; too many short and ultra-short "takes" and not enough long reads to be satisfying. And as a reader I felt the same way... the longer pieces were the best ones. But it's also a reminder that to survive as a music writer at all these days must be a struggle.
As for the shorter profiles, I haven't read music writing in ages! I remember, reading these pieces, particularly the ones about the author as a young person, about how invigorating it was to read Rolling Stone and zines et al. as a teenager and feel connected to a nebulous group of new music lovers... it might simply be that I'm out of practice reading the genre, but its probably that I can't technically still count myself in that group, that I missed that feeling reading these pieces. My favorites here though were those about Kendrick Lamar and Lana del Rey
As for the shorter profiles, I haven't read music writing in ages! I remember, reading these pieces, particularly the ones about the author as a young person, about how invigorating it was to read Rolling Stone and zines et al. as a teenager and feel connected to a nebulous group of new music lovers... it might simply be that I'm out of practice reading the genre, but its probably that I can't technically still count myself in that group, that I missed that feeling reading these pieces. My favorites here though were those about Kendrick Lamar and Lana del Rey
claryisreading's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
3.0
so not an essay collection girlie but some of these were really cool!
deanna_etc's review
4.0
Thank goodness for this visibility. It was inspiring to read her work, and made me want to get back into music journalism again. It was pretty disappointing to see so many grammatical errors, though (starting with the acknowledgement page!). Come on, editors. But really, I enjoyed the pieces included in this compilation, and found myself wanting to read more on certain topics.
hashtag_alison's review
2.0
I was really excited for this book based on the title alone, but it turned out to not really be my bag. Most of her articles (before I stopped reading) were about Kurt Cobain’s death, or being a girl who was into punk as a kid, or about why is everyone still talking about Lana del Rey who cares if she got cosmetic surgery or whatever.
I mean it was fairly interesting, but not enough for me to keep going. I may have also been expecting it to have more of an academic turn than it did, but I guess that’s not very rock and roll.
I mean it was fairly interesting, but not enough for me to keep going. I may have also been expecting it to have more of an academic turn than it did, but I guess that’s not very rock and roll.
plunkettb's review against another edition
5.0
So good. Scathing but joyful. As a feminist who considers rock music an important part of my life, I found this to be essential reading. I started with the material on some familiar/favorite artists (hello, Superchunk) and then moved on from there. In addition to conveying a thoughtful (and for me very educational) appreciation of some great artists/albums/performances, the book provides an incisive look at some seriously toxic aspects of our culture. Even the Afterword, on its own, is infuriating, entertaining and inspiring.
annmariereads's review against another edition
4.0
Music fans, you’re going to want to check this one out. I mean, just scan through the vast table of contents and try not to get excited about every single essay.