- Born in Flames
- Howard Hampton
- Twenty years as an outsider scouring the underbelly of American culture has made Howard Hampton a uniquely hardnosed guide to the heart of pop darkness. Bridging the fatalistic, intensely charged space between Apocalypse Now Redux and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," his writing breaks down barriers of ignorance and arrogance that have segregated art forms from each other and from the world at large. Born in Flames is a headlong plunge into the passions and disruptive power of art.
- Hardcover 2007 / Paperback 2008
- Dead Elvis
- Greil Marcus
- As he listens in on the public conversation that recreates Elvis after death, Marcus tracks the path of Presley's resurrection. He grafts together scattered fragments of the eclectic dialogue--snatches of movies and music, books and newspapers, photographs, posters, cartoons--and amazes us with not only what America has been saying as it raises its late king, but also what this strange obsession with a dead Elvis can tell us about America itself.
- Paperback 1999
- Magic Circles
- Devin McKinney
- Delving into concerts and interviews, films and music, outtakes and bootlegs, Devin McKinney brings to bear the insights of history, aesthetics, sociology, psychology, and mythology to account for the depth and resonance of the Beatles' impact. His book is also a uniquely multifaceted appreciation of the group's artistic achievement, exploring their music as both timeless expression and visceral response to their historical moment.
- Hardcover 2003 / Paperback 2004
- The Sex Revolts
- Simon Reynolds
- Joy Press
- The first book to look at rock rebellion through the lens of gender, The Sex Revolts captures the paradox at rock's dark heart--the music is often most thrilling when it is most misogynistic and macho. And, looking at music made by female artists, the authors ask: must it always be this way? Provocative and passionately argued, the book walks the edgy line between a rock fan's excitement and a critic's awareness of the music's murky undercurrents.
- Paperback 1996 / Hardcover
- This Is Pop
- Eric Weisbard
- About the vast and diverse topic of pop music, scholars and critics, journalists and musicians have much to say, but rarely to each other. A crossover venture begun at Seattle's Experience Music Project, this book captures the academic and the critical, the musical and the literary in an impromptu dialogue that suggests the breadth and vitality of pop inquiry today. Robert Christgau and Gary Giddins, pivotal critics, encounter Simon Frith and Robert Walser, pioneers in the study of popular music. Musicians Carrie Brownstein and Sarah Dougher, both active in the riot grrl scene of the Pacific Northwest, examine how audience responses affect their craft. John Darnielle, of the Mountain Goats attends to the web postings of hair metal fans. This Is Pop illustrates what can happen when the best of scholarship, criticism, and pop's inherent unruliness intersect.
- Paperback 2004 / Hardcover 2004