Real Punks Don't Wear Black

Between middle school and the ivory tower lies the truth about pop music. This book samples thirty-plus years of rock critic Frank Kogan's commentary on music and culture: the Ying Yang Twins; The New York Dolls; Mariah Carey; Public Enemy. Disco; hip-hop; Europop; metal Arguments; stammers; soliloquies; puns. Kogan is a crucial figure among music critics for his contentious, perceptive writings that appear in the Village Voice and underground music publications. If you're after no more than backstage dish or a judgment on whether some song is ""good"" or ""bad,"" then look elsewhere. Kogan makes you ask questions: Our popular music is born in flight, chased in fear, and ever headed toward unattainable glory, he says. Why is this so? What fears, contagions, divisions are we ignoring that our music cannot? Kogan doesn't wait around for answers; he goes after them like Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy in 48 Hours. Picture no-nonsense Kogan forced to work with smart-aleck Kogan. They tear around suburbia, sniping at each other, speakers booming away, while you bounce around in the backseat. Remember, says Kogan, this is about you, too. Keep your mind alive, your hairstyle in flux, and your tongue sharpened. Whether you're a gutterpunk or a cultstud geek, you're a bigger part of the story than you may realize. It's your song that gets sung, your sound to create.