Steven Hyden

This Isn't Happening isn't just the story of how Radiohead's "Kid A" was the apex of their continuing multi-decade long career and how the album encapsulated our pre-millennium anxieties. It also serves as a springboard for thinking about the history of rock music, the Internet, and the chaos we have lived through the past 20 years. Hyden asks: How can powerful and enigmatic works of art such as the album "Kid A" seemingly become a designated classic yet remain fresh and relevant at the same time? In this book length exegesis on Kid A, Hyden paints Radiohead as prophets of the future and unwilling representatives and ambassadors of the dying artform of rock n' roll. If you're fascinated by the music of Radiohead, enjoy cultural analysis, and are a Gen-X/Millennial member who remembers exactly where you were when the Twin Towers collapsed, this is the book for you.

… (altro)

A fascinating personal look at the heyday of rock and roll, from the 1960s into the early 21st century. Hyden's basic argument is that rock and roll, or what he calls "classic rock," is a music genre that is basically dead. His takes on some of the the luminaries, (The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, David Bowie, Nirvana, Pearl Jam) are really interesting, and offered some insights I had never before considered. But perhaps the biggest insight is that the classic rock he so admires is just a genre or form, much like Motown, Disco, or Rockabilly, and is possibly just as dead as those genres.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narration was a bit stilted and halting in parts, making it feel like it was being read rather than told.… (altro)

This is much more of a fandom memoir than the critical history of the band I was expecting, and overall I thought it was one written without particular maturity or even much factual insight. Hayden spends a significant amount of the text psychoanalyzing individual members of the band and raising their personal dramas both individually and as a unit, though he specifically states that he never spoke with any of them for the writing of his book. He unnecessarily forces the content of his chapters to fit roughly into the contexts of different Pearl Jam songs, leading to some awkward redirection (and even misdirection, at times) to end each chapter with some acceptable relevance, but that relevance is questionable in some places. The grand lessons that Hayden assures us Pearl Jam are teaching us with their music are never truly believable, given that they are interpreted through the eyes and ears of an unabashed mega-fan, and the frequent intrusion of his personal experiences and philosophies about life and death, politics, and history disrupt the narrative, making it difficult to stay focused on the subject of the book: the band itself. Furthermore, I resent Hayden's treatment of the narratives surrounding Andrew Wood and Mother Love Bone, which comes off as pedestrian and uninformed, if not downright unpleasant. This is neither a true history nor a biography of Pearl Jam, but it does fulfill the role of a sometimes-specious memorial by a long-time admirer.… (altro)