The Accidental Evolution of Rock 'n' Roll: A Misguided Tour Through Popular Music

By Chuck Eddy

Book Overview

History, jokebook, buying guide, book of lists, and treatise all rolled into one, The Accidental Evolution of Rock'n'Roll is most of all a joyride through the wildest music ever made. Whether discussing Def Leppard or Nirvana, Vanilla Ice or Public Enemy, Donna Summer or Bob Dylan, Chuck Eddy is an unparalleled master at deciphering unknown tongues and disentangling musical accidents. In this lavishly and hilariously illustrated book, he reveals the roots of rap, disco, power ballads, bubblegum, suburban country, and noise-rock; why selling out is good and honesty is never what it seems; the similarities between disco and garage rock and between reggae and heavy metal; whether songs can ever really "mean" anything; what math rock has in common with amputation rock and orgasm rock; and much, much more. By eventually encompassing the whole wacky world of popular music, this book is destined to change it forever.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306807416
• ISBN13: 9780306807411
• Release Date: March 1997
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 436 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

academics and intellectuals will be served out back

Eddy's writing itself is rocknroll, and some readers just can't handle that. If you're looking for footnotes and pseudo-erudite analyses, go to school. This one's for rockers. Read while listening to Ragged Glory, etc.

He's Da Bomb!

In a book that reads like casual couch conversations between you and your best bud, Chuck Eddy points out the recurring patterns that make up rock and roll's big and not so big hits. Everything from train songs to sound effects to all sorts of nonsensical bits appear and paint a very interesting picture of modern pop. His prose is perfect for pop fans who love all sorts of music; they'll get both the in-jokes and the hidden subtexts. This book is loadz o' fun! A breath of fresh air when compared to the stuffed-shirt "New York Times Critic" approach of so many pop music writers. Long Live Eddy!

Another slice o' genius from the anti-critic critic

Only two books published -- three if you count the updated and revised edition of _Stairway to Hell_, which you also need -- and Chuck Eddy clearly is just about the only worthwhile rock critic out there at all. The first review in this list says it all, but to add to it a bit more -- when it comes to challenging some of the stupidest preconceptions about enjoying music, especially the two real problems (making up your mind before actually listening to the music and staying locked in predetermined 'genre' categories), Chuck is The Man. More worthwhile than the collected works of _Rolling Stone_, _Spin_ and _Q_ combined, and a damn sight funnier than all of them as well.

If real people wrote rock crit books, they'd be like this.

Chuck Eddy is a hoot. An intellectual hoot, and a hoot you may have to read two or three times to get, but a hoot nonetheless. If real people wrote rock crit books, they'd be like this. But Chuck isn't real. He's that nerd from high school who turned out to be smarter, funnier and cooler than everyone else. The thing I like best about this book (with the possible exception of the cover) is that he doesn't hand the thesis to you on a silver platter. He makes you work for it. And if you don't get it, you'll be doomed to a life of reading reviews in Rolling Stone and thinking that they're good--and that they aren't bought with record company money. If I had to fault the book at any level, it does get a little "samey" from time to time, but then some brilliant Eddy-ism will pop up and you'll be laughing...or running to your stereo to hear something you'd missed. And the cover is just too brilliant! But then, I'm biased...