Alternative Rock : Third Ear - The Essential Listening Companion
This massive and inclusive reference work by best-selling rock music writer Thompson (Never Fade Away: The Kurt Cobain Story) fills a gap by providing a reasonably priced, useful, and informative guide to a highly popular musical subgenre alternative rock. In the historically fascinating introduction, Thompson provides a time line that traces the jelling of three factors in 1975 that led to a rock sound whose main rule is that there are no rules: the release of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, Patti Smith's Horses, and the blowup of the Sex Pistols. Noting that his goal "is not to chronicle every performer ever to be categorized as an 'alternative rock' act, but to isolate a sampling of those who have made the greatest contributions" to the form, he then launches into a fine selection of essays that define the music's complicated saga, both in the United Kingdom and America. This is followed by encyclopedic A-Z coverage of the artists whom Thompson considers the "alt" music scene's movers and shakers. Some may quibble about selection and other topics, but this writer knows his stuff and can organize and write well about it. The stories of such lesser-known groups as Black '47 and Disorder are handled with the same aplomb and deftness as the wildly popular Blondie (then) and Marilyn Manson (now). Libraries that pride themselves on well-rounded music and pop culture collections should purchase this third entry in the fine "Third Ear" series. David M. Turkalo, Suffolk Univ. Law Sch., Law Lib., BostonCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.