Great book about music, but would have been better as a blog. I enjoyed reading about the different bands, songs and videos and had to repeatedly put the book down and go listen to the song online. A blog with embedded mp3s and videos over a year would be an excellent way to read this book. That being said, it was thoroughly enjoyable and pretty funny as well. Klosterman is excellent at cutting through hype and delivering a well-balanced, if slightly biased review of pop culture. I highly recommend his other books as well. ( )

Klosterman's first and maybe most innocent/vulnerable. the autio-biographical edge towards music is what made him great, and this is where it all started. doesn't have quite the same character his later work does but its a great basis/structure. a smart man. a cultural man. a relevant writer that will be remembered as who was important in the 00's for cultural analysis accessible to the masses and more. ( )

Klosterman's aim is to write the first serious critical appraisal of the most maligned musical genre ever - from a fan's perspective. As he explains in his intro:

"If someone wrote an essay insisting Thin Lizzy provided the backbone for his teen experience in the mid 1970s, every rock critic in America would nod their heads in agreement. A serious discussion on the metaphorical significance of Jailbreak would be totally acceptable. I just happen to think the same dialogue can be had about Slippery When Wet."

Having set out his stall, Klosterman goes on to examine the history of a music which traces its roots back to both Black Sabbath and T-Rex (in America it was popularly known as 'glam metal') and ask why it proved so popular with teenage boys (and girls!) across the world. Along the way he tackles sexism, bad perms, satanic influences and teenage suicide, the rise of the pop video, and just what it was like to be a teenage metalhead.

Read the full review at my blog. ( )

I think most heavy metal music is terrible, but it is to Klosterman's credit that Fargo Rock City is beyond entertaining. This is a very funny book about our interests and obsessions and how we feed off of them to get through boring patches of our lives--in that, Klosterman touches on something that we can all understand and identify with. ( )

Solid, but not as good as his other books.

I liked his comparison of Heavy Metal and Pro Wrestling... (as well as his analysis of Ted Nugent fans) ( )