Fearless appreciation of rock music since 2012
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Progressive rock emerged in the late 1960s when rock musicians were empowered to move away from the singles format and into the album era, and likewise, allowed to explore conceptual and instrumental boundaries. This artistic and commercial freedom resulted in…
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Top 50+ Alternative Rock Albums (According to Me)
Like many comparable types of rock music, alternative rock music went through phases or waves of emergence, peak saturation, and ultimate decline. Our task is to parse and evaluate the best albums from the period, which isn’t easy. It begs…
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What Is Progressive Rock? The Ultimate Explainer
Frank Zappa said that “progressive rock is anything that doesn’t sound like regular rock [music].” By regular rock music, he meant all rock music that gets played on the radio and MTV. When asked if he thought Genesis was progressive…
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What Is Alternative Rock? The Ultimate Explainer
Alternative rock functions less as a singular aesthetic and more as a sprawling ideological umbrella that sheltered the fringes of guitar music for nearly two decades. It emerged as a direct rebuttal to the polished, synthesized sheen of 1980s pop…
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Rock Genres Beginning With U–Z
Ten months, 370+ rock genres, and roughly 100,000 words later, the alphabetical odyssey has reached a destination. Rock Genres Explained arrives at a comfortable place to rest, though it’s not the end. New genres will continue to emerge from the…
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Rock Genres Beginning With T
As we move through the list of rock genres, we arrive at a letter that represents some of the most intense and distinct movements in musical history. The letter T represents a fascinating crossroads for the Rock Genres Explained series.…
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Rock Genres Beginning With S (Sp–Sy)
As far as rock genres go, the letter S often signifies a profound shift in focus, home to subgenres defined equally by attitude and sound. This is where rock genres get surgical. We move past general categories and focus on…
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Rock Genres Beginning With S (Sa–So)
We’re getting near the end of the Rock Genres Explained series and I’m vaguely relieved to see a glimmer of hope at the terminus. I have never so deeply underestimated a project from conception to completion. What I thought would…
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Discovery of the Week: Harry Nilsson | All Time Greatest Hits
Discovery of the Week is a weekly series that digs through a box of 40 well-traveled CDs I’ve carried across the ocean for nearly two decades. Each disc has its own history—where I found it, why I kept it, and…
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Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not (1997–1998)
If this is your first exposure to my journey through 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not, I highly, no, strongly recommend that you browse the introduction before reading any further. However, I know that many of you…
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25 Songs About Chicago
Chicago is my hometown. Born on the West Side and raised in the suburbs of DuPage County, I spent the first 30 years of my life in the Windy City, including a five-year stretch on the North Side (Bucktown). I…
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Discovery of the Week: Pure… Hard Rock | 4-CD Set
Discovery of the Week is a weekly series that digs through a box of 40 well-traveled CDs I’ve carried across the ocean for nearly two decades. Each disc has its own history—where I found it, why I kept it, and…
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Rock Genres Beginning With R
The rock genre universe is constantly expanding from global rhythms and synchronized noise to political manifestos and cosplay pride parades. For the next installment of our Rock Genres Explained series, we’re diving deep into the letter ‘R’, which marks an…
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Rejected! Songs That Didn’t Make the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Original motion picture soundtracks (OSTs) can be wildly inconsistent in terms of listening value and experience. Sometimes, they include (many of) the songs played in the movie, such as Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Purple Rain (1984). Others, like the…
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150+ Rock Memoirs: The Ultimate List
Have you ever wondered why there’s been a two-decade wave of rock star memoirs and autobiographies on the bookshelves and in our virtual bookstores? We’ve compiled the ultimate list of the best rock memoirs to demonstrate the incredible variety of…
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What’s With the Rock Star Memoir Boom?
Algorithms are funny things. I was searching Amazon for an album when I noticed a bunch of suggested products further down the page. I paused at Confess: The Autobiography by Rob Halford—mainly because it was news to me—but the books…
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Discovery of the Week: Noise Pop 2006 Sampler
Discovery of the Week is my ongoing dive into a battered box of 40 CDs that’s followed me around the world for almost 20 years. Every disc has a story attached—where it came from, why I bothered dragging it across…
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Rock Genres Beginning With Q
As the rock genres explainer rolls through the alphabetical list of rock genres, we come across one of the loneliest letters, Q, with only one genre: queercore. Not content with mediocrity, we went all out on an in-depth look into…
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Get Their Greatest Hits: 50+ Rock Bands Best Experienced Through Compilation Albums
Some rock bands are built for albums. They reward patience, headphones, liner notes, and the kind of long-distance devotion that only comes from growing up with their music. Other bands? They require a specialized type of curation. This post is…
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25 Songs About the Moon
The moon is one of the more popular themes in popular music. Songs about the moon (or moon-adjacent) are not quite in the “love” category of blanket coverage, but significantly more popular than, say, songs about Chicago, family, or Japan,…
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Rock Genres Beginning With P (Pr–Pu)
The second half of our rock genre explainer for the letter P features three of the most important genres of our lifetimes: progressive, psychedelic, and punk rock. And, as usual, the list of rock genres includes a few surprises. Let’s…
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Rock Genres Beginning With P (Pa–Po)
Buckle up for a wild ride as we tackle some of the most important rock genres that start with P in this first half of the letter’s installment. Our rock genre explainer doesn’t quit until rock bands stop coming up…
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Discovery of the Week: Guided by Voices | Human Amusements at Hourly Rates
Discovery of the Week is a weekly series that digs through a box of 40 well-traveled CDs I’ve carried across the ocean for nearly two decades. Each disc has its own history—where I found it, why I kept it, and…
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Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not (1995–1996)
I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since I started this Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not project. If this post is your introduction to the gambit, here’s a quick rundown of the timeline: In 2015, I took…
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Top 50 Rock Drummers of All Time (According to Me)
We’ve covered three of the Big Four positions in rock music—vocals, guitar, and bass—so it’s time to list the top rock drummers of all time (according to me). But before we get to the list, you deserve some backstory, and,…
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