num_pages: 201
description: Jessica Hopper's music criticism has earned her a reputation as a firebrand a keen observer and fearless critic not just of music but the culture around it. With this volume spanning from her punk fanzine roots to her landmark piece on R. Kelly's past The First Collection leaves no doubt why The New York Times has called Hopper's work influential. Not merely a selection of two decades of Hopper's most engaging thoughtful and humorous writing this book documents the last 20 years of American music making and the shifting landscape of music consumption. The book journeys through the truths of Riot Grrrl's empowering insurgence decamps to Gary IN on the eve of Michael Jackson's death explodes the grunge-era mythologies of Nirvana and Courtney Love and examines emo's rise. Through this vast range of album reviews essays columns interviews and oral histories Hopper chronicles what it is to be truly obsessed with music. The pieces in The First Collection send us digging deep into our record collections searching to re-hear what we loved and hated makes us reconsider the art trash and politics Hopper illuminates helping us to make sense of what matters to us most.
language: None
title: The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic
publisher: Featherproof Books