Author Description

Here is rock music as both social phenomenon and artistic achievement. In discussing its social aspects, Robert Christgau investigates rock music's appeal to its audience. In examining its achievement, he evaluates its worth as art and as invention.Among much else, Christgau looks at the beginnings of rock, the extra-musical themes that are bound up in it (especially sexism and politics), the significance of individual artists, and the meaning of current trends. The result is a book that ranges from the days of flower power to the new androgyny and covers an extraordinary variety of performers, among them Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Grand Funk Railroad, Bette Midler, and the New York Dolls. [from back cover]