Thank you so much to St Martin's Press for the complimentary copy of this book!

This book is out now!

When I saw that there was a book coming out discussing the history of 2000s indie, I knew I had to read it!!! I was at the perfect age at the heart of this book, graduating high school and heading to college in the mid 2000s. I was one of those kids who desperately was trying to find a style. I was such a teenie bopper but I also was starting to listen to emo (more pop punk) but I just didn't have that scene kid look. And then here comes this new genre of music and guess what? I did not fit into this scene either as I did not have that hipster aesthetic. But man oh man did I love the music!

I had texted a friend shortly after I started listening to this whom I knew already read it and said how it would be a jumpscare hearing some of the acts that DeVille would mention. I couldn't even tell you why it gave me a startle when the acts he mentioned surely needed to be mentioned. But come on when was the last time you heard the name Rooney?!

I love that each section had a different playlist. I paired my reading with the audiobook but it quickly made me want to ditch the audiobook just so I could listen to the songs within each chapter. I also loved how DeVille not only talked about indie music but also the music & movies of the time that helped shaped the indie culture. I should not have been surprised but was surprised when the book in the beginning heavily discussed the importance of the teen drama "The OC" was on this music (thank you Seth Cohen) as well as movies incorporating indie music not only on the soundtrack but on screen. Love the little section on Michael Cera because he really was the moment in 2007. I also love how the internet played a role in the growth of indie music (also jumpscare at a Xanga mentioned which I often feel gets left out when talking about early internet culture).

There were things within the book that were new to me, there were items that I had forgotten and things I still remembered. I thought the pacing of the book was great and just amazed at how indie music had such a moment (and continues to do so) that musicians from all genres wanted a piece of it. It really goes to show how interconnected music can be and as Linda Martell says on Beyonce's Cowboy Carter album, "Genres are a funny little concept, aren't they?, In theory, they have a simple definition that's easy to understand, But in practice, well, some may feel confined." Musicians are constantly vibing off one another and always want to elevate their sound. DeVille's history really proved how indie music has always been on the radar even if it was not on the forefront. Also I loved how it all leads to Ms. Taylor Swift who used her platform to introduce her fans to Jack Antonoff and The National. Which also leads me to say I was surprised to see how Kanye West played a role to indie music (prior to all his unspeakable and outrageous antics).

I really enjoyed this book and love how it took me down memory lane. I highly recommend if you are lover of music, love of indie music and also a lover of pop culture.

I enjoyed learning about the different bands and how they have impacted modern music. Reading this was a nostalgic ride for me as my son is in the music industry. I highly recommend reading Such Great Heights if you are a fan of music and want to reminisce as I did. I hope it is made into a documentary for tv. Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read an e-arc copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

✨ The Vibes ✨
A nostalgic history of the indie music explosion

📖 Read if…
✨You had a hipster phase
✨You have a playlist for every situation
✨You like discussing the intersection of music and culture

Such Great Heights is a great pick for any and all music lovers. While it’s largely focused on how indie artists became mainstream acts, it does offer some perspective on the music industry as a whole, and how the business has evolved in the last 20 years or so. The book is organized by both chronology and theme, charting the evolution of different trends, and how one gave way to the next. It’s a great nonfiction pick that reads like a collection of well-reported articles, and you’ll want to have Spotify nearby to pull up all of the songs and artists mentioned.

My favorite part of this book was how Chris DeVille explored the role of TV shows like The OC and stores like Urban Outfitters, in bringing indie songs and artists into the mainstream. Music is something that is often linked with other pieces of art, culture, and consumerism, and getting to see exactly how that interconnectedness can have a tangible impact on music was fascinating.

As an added bonus, while I knew the book would be informative, I wasn’t expecting it to be so nostalgic. A great deal of the artists and music discussed in this book became popular in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and I have such distinct memories of listening to these songs in middle and high school. It was a nice walk down memory lane, and I ended up learning a lot about the business side of things (which I definitely wasn’t clued into in my teen years).

Such Great Heights is out now. Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the proverbial kitchen sink (complimentary) book covering the evolution of indie rock.

I tend to prefer a more inclusive definition rather than more specific parameters when it comes to musical genres, so I loved how many different interpretations of what constitutes indie rock are used here.

We get all the standard stuff, especially from the early 2000s, but also some content that is less standard when discussing this very subjectively defined genre. I loved that the author included things like Backpack Rap, Robyn’s comeback effort, Lorde, and Lana Del Rey.

Did I need another walk-through of the Jay-Z and Beyoncé at the Grizzly Bear show? No. But I’m a completist at heart so I get why things like this keep showing up. And in this book we also get loads of anecdotal content that does NOT show up in every discussion of indie rock, and that was another thing that made this an exceptionally good read.

What exactly is indie rock? By definition, indie is music that’s released from smaller, independent record labels. But really, the indie movement is more than that: it’s a vibe, it’s an energy, it’s a memory frozen in a very specific moment in time. Such Great Heights explores it all: from early days of late 90s garage bands to high visibility on The OC to the rise of social media and music streaming, indie rock has grown and changed and become something that defines an era.

Reading this book was like taking the sweetest stroll down memory lane. I remember the days of burning CDs, of spending hours upon hours organizing my iTunes library, of scouring the internet on message boards and MySpace looking for new indie music and for other people who loved it, too.

The book is organized into 12 chapters, and each one explores a different part of the indie era, and each chapter begins with a playlist that embodies that particular moment in time. I immediately went to Spotify and played all the music for each chapter, and wow, does DeVille make a mean mix.

Confession: I was less excited to read the chapters about the indie subgenres that I don’t listen to/don’t care about, but I’m glad that I did because every subgenre holds an important part of indie music history.

This is a deeply researched, thorough, fascinating, nostalgic exploration of indie rock. If the music in Garden State changed your life, this book is for you.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the gifted copy!

What a nostalgic ride! SUCH GREAT HEIGHTS is all about the takeoff of indie rock, and if you listened to Death Cab, Iron & Wine, The Killers, Vampire Weekend, watched The OC, or used Napster... you might just love this book, too.

This dives into the entire cultural shift behind the indie music explosion and how it got so popular - not just from the music or shows itself, but how it was popularized by MySpace, TV shows, MP3 downloads (legally and illegally), and more. While it isn't interview-heavy like WHERE ARE YOUR BOYS TONIGHT by Chris Payne, I thought the "definitive history" style was great for this genre.

I loved that there was a playlist for each chapter, and I ended up curating my own as I read the book

It's always been difficult for me to talk about music because it's such a vital part of who I am. Pavement and Guided by Voices were college to me. Liz Phair, Arcade Fire, The Strokes, The White Stripes, and hundreds of other bands who aren't mentioned anywhere other than my memories have all provided important moments in my life.

Chris DeVille peppers each chapter with a playlist as he delves into the history of indie rock, pop culture, social media and the current state of how we view media. It's a well-researched and well-thought-out history.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Such Great Heights by Chris DeVille was like opening a time capsule from my younger years. The indie music scene provided the most amazing soundtrack for my college years. Getting to relive the magic and hear how we got there was truly such an amazing ride.

So, what is Indie music, more specifically Indie Rock? Is it a stylistic shift in music from what’s the current and broadly accepted definition of Rock music? Is it music that’s destined to be heard by and appreciated by small audiences? And what future does it have? In “Such Great Heights” Chris DeVille, managing editor at Stereogum, explores the history and concept of Indie Rock, and how the music has cyclically moved towards mainstream, while new creations in the Indie Rock experience arrive to begin the cycle anew.

DeVille does this by examining the sources that fed into Indie Rock, as varied as Folk and Punk, and providing many examples of the music and groups who provided the first pieces of Indie Rock, and how they developed their particular sound. Part of this comes back when DeVille looks at the early 2000’s, and how groups that were “discovered” (as if they weren’t there all along!) were co-opted into the mainstream and lost a bit of what made them unique. Luckily, the Indie Rock Phoenix was at the ready, seeming to self- immolate while recreating itself anew. If Indie Rock is anything, it’s new.

Chris DeVille provides a fascinating history and analysis of Indie Rock.
Highly Recommended : five stars

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this title.

I've been a big fan of Chris' work for Stereogum for years and was delighted to see this title get announced. It's weird to read a history of a music scene you were aware of after it's happened, but this gets into exactly the level of how and why a lot of music from the mid-aughts to mid-10s became as big as it did, and covers a certain level of overall Pitchfork/Stereogum/blog culture as well in a way that's interesting. I love the playlists for each chapter and the way the book isn't strictly chronological, showing how all of these things were overlapping across genre and scenes.

Such Great Heights by Chris DeVille was an exhilarating read.
An intriguing history of twenty-first-century indie rock—from Iron & Wine and Death Cab for Cutie to Phoebe Bridgers and St. Vincent—and how the genre shifted the musical landscape and shaped a generation.
I truly enjoyed reading this book.

Thank You NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

This was a fascinating, surprising and fun read. Firstly, Chris DeVille clearly loves the music and his personal connection to it makes this book all the better. There is a layer of authenticity here that goes beyond just his years of experience writing about music in real time. From how the tv show "The OC" influenced the genre and public perception of it, the rise of social media and it's effect on how people share and interact with music through to the state of Indie today, this book covers so much ground. I love so many of the bands included in this book and I thought I knew a little something, but I kept learning more in each chapter. That kept me as glued to this as did the hope of hearing more about how bands I loved had over come the challenges of their eras.

This well researched and supported. It is a labor of love. It is critical and self aware. It is very much worth your time.

As an indie rock fan, I devoured Such Great Heights. What is Indie Rock? That question is answered in a well rounded, entertaining way. Being a young adult in Seattle, the music scene was popping. The beginning of this subculture started with Nirvana as a jumping off point then touched on pop culture which tickled me at the mention of OC, Grey's, and actors during that time and the indie music they inspired.

The extensive history was interesting, detailed and how it defined a generation. The early 2000's undisputably has its spot in music. The best part were the playlists at the beginning of each chapter. Although, it took me longer to read because I had to check out those bands I was unfamiliar with, and it was so fun.

I write this review wearing my new Death Cab for Cutie concert T (Plans 20th anniversary). I highly recommend Such Great Heights for Indie music fans, music in general fans, or to those for the historical aspect.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an early copy.

Chris DeVille's Such Great Heights: The Complete Cultural History of the Indie Rock Explosion arrives in the tradition of Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011 and Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008, but instead of focusing on a key location or specific sub genre (or sub sub genre?), DeVille takes on the much more amorphous 'indie rock' from the 1990s through to the (almost) present day.

Across 12 chapters, each taking their name from a key song, album or phrase, DeVille writes extended essays framed around a chapter playlist of key songs. As DeVille has worked for years at the online music magazine website Stereogum, this format should not come as a surprise. This model matches the book title itself, drawn from the Death Cab for Cutie side project, the Postal Service's, hit single. Much like in other musical histories, it is a repeated tale of initial underground torchbearers establishing a sound only for newer bands to take the key elements of the sound, add more pop tendencies, and find wider (often) commercial success.

Key moments are captured or form the central focus of some chapters such as the origins and dominance of Pitchfork, the impact of the tv series The O.C., the role of technologies in broadening both artist and audience reach and access or the rise (and sometimes fall) of key bands over 20 of which are featured in the cover.

DeVille goes beyond just the music however, looking at the cultures around the different sub genres, and expands the discussion beyond the initially mostly white male performers and audiences, especially in the 2010s as LGBTQIA+ artists gained more visibility and success.

Its a well created summation that helps me better see where the genre went after I'd moved away from it in the 2010s with a post college diminished available of time and resources. Like in more general history, most of the names and eras are only easily delineated and named after the fact (ex indie sleaze).

Music is still gate kept, but the gatekeepers have changed, like much in our contemporary world it is more financial, streaming is how must people now access music. As Deville argues, music is so much more readily available now, but it is harder for the majority of musicians to find anything approaching financial success. Indie still exists, and nostalgia fuels some of the trends, but much like rock, indie isn't dead, just different.

Recommended to readers of popular music, recent history, or the intersections of music and technology.

Big thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for sending me Chris DeVille’s new, comprehensive history detailing indie rock’s influence and evolution over the past 25 years, Such Great Heights: The Complete Cultural History of the Indie Rock Explosion. While I enjoyed reading this book, I didn’t always agree with DeVille’s takes about indie rock, especially regarding how and what to include in the indie rock bins. Nevertheless, DeVille makes some good arguments about how indie rock was propelled forward by the evolving nature of the internet and social media, among other events, which continued to expand the types of music that was made, as well as how people listened to and interacted with music. If anything, I found that this book continued in the tradition of some other great books about musical genres that traced their evolution and development by examining the historical context as well as the audience growth and appeal. Such Great Heights reminded me of books like Michael Azerrad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life, which examined the rise of college music or what others might classify as “alternative” music, and Stephen Blush’s American Hardcore, which traces the punk and specifically hardcore music that resulted through the networking of van touring, DIY shows, zines and tape trading. Similarly, Such Great Heights posits the role of technology, and specifically the development of web 2.0 and its interactivity with promoting more independent music, that is, music that wasn’t necessarily reliant on major label production and promotion. In addition, DeVille notes how mp3s, free and eventually those available for .99 cents, shifted the nature of the music business, since record labels no longer had to put up money for packaging and distribution. This enabled smaller, independent record labels like Merge Records to save money on costs and develop better revenue sharing with their bands. This also made independent labels more appealing to artists looking to maintain their artistic vision and integrity. Thus, like other shifts in musical genres, the indie movement benefited from this changes to the industry and technology. I appreciated that DeVille works to define indie music not necessarily by the style, but rather as “a vast network of bands, labels, concert venues, record stores, radio stations, and homemade zines, which largely existed apart from the major-label system…. It was less a genre than a culture: a loose coalition of outsiders, idealists, elitists, critics, creatives, college students, and so forth.” It’s sometimes hard to define a type of music that encompasses so many different styles, and is really more reflective of the other elements related to the music. As a result, DeVille’s book chronicles many of the bands and artists, but also spends a lot of time examining the blogs, magazines, journalists, and platforms that helped to propel indie music to such great heights.
Such Great Heights was a fun read for me because, to quote the frequently referenced James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, I was there when many of the bands in the early chapters started. It was completely fun to remember about the hype that The Strokes received in that summer before September 11th. Especially as a recent college graduate who struggled to find work and then struggled with working full-time, music from new bands like The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Rapture and established bands like Radiohead and The Dismemberment Plan really brought a lot of joy to my life at a particularly joyless time in America. I actually remember going to Spaceboy records in Philly right before Labor Day 2001 and picking up an EP by The Rapture (Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks) because I heard it on WPRB, and thought it was so fun and different sounding that a lot of the music available. I don’t think I had regular internet access at the time, so a lot of new music came from listening to college stations. I also remember seeing The Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Unitarian Church in February of 2002, after they released debut EP, but before they signed to a major label, and just being blown away by the sounds the three band members could make. In particular, Karen O was just so much fun to watch perform. Strangely enough, my son has gotten into the song “Maps”, and sometimes we watch older performances from the band. Regardless, it was fun to reminisce with DeVille in these sections of the book, since I remember how exciting this time was in discovering these bands, even though some of them, like Interpol and Radiohead, were signed to major labels, and weren’t necessarily “indie”. However, for DeVille, the genre was more about the style and not necessarily their status and affiliation. Also, I loved revisiting Dismemberment Plan and reading more about them. I only discovered this band through friends and a roommate in college, and they became a favorite of mine, especially for running. I still love when any of the songs from The Dismemberment Plan is Scared comes on during a run. As DeVille notes, the band has a kind of danceable, kinetic quality that wasn’t always a part of rock music in the 90s. Plus, they referenced Young MC and Rob Bass in their music, which was both funny and fun.
The next few chapters were also pretty fun and relevant, taking me back to a time when I had more disposable income and time to spare, when I could easily spend a few hours at the record store or splurge to go see a show on a weeknight. Although I had been a fan of Modest Mouse since my cousin made a mix with some songs in 2000, it was fun to recall how ubiquitous “Float On” was in the spring of 2004, remembering too how that song was a part of so many car trips in the early aughts; or how much the Franz Ferdinand debut was played on my walks to work or taking the subway home from night classes around that time; or how I somehow stumbled on the DFA sampler on iTunes after hearing LCD Soundsystem on WPRB. DeVille not only provides a detailed history of these bands and how they came about, but he also channels it through his own experience as a college student, musician, and music lover, sharing the joy and excitement in discovering “an alluring secret world”. Again, I loved this, since the music from this time has that kind of personal connection. There was so much in the early chapters that took me back to hanging out with friends, listening to music, and spending nights trying to find these songs on different file sharing sites or in later times, blogs.
I found the middle and later chapters enlightening, but also not as relatable since I was kind of losing my edge around the early 2010s, settling down and starting a family, my time for musical exploration was becoming contracting and in some ways fossilizing. It was actually funny to read about Odd Future and Tyler the Creator in Chapter 10 “Late Registration” since I was teaching an intro college course that year, and was seeing so many donut OF shirts. I was shocked, but also intrigued by this band and in particular by Tyler. I remember, too, getting into debates with a friend about the band. After reflecting a little more on my initial, visceral response to the band and wondering why so many white college students were interested in the band, it reminded me a lot of NWA, and how their kind of street knowledge scared so much of white, middle class America. Tyler’s Goblin album was both challenging and exciting, and I could tell that he was not only a creative force, but also seemed to be going through a lot of the kinds of struggles with identity that most adolescents experience. As DeVille notes, the themes and topics from OF were relevant to many kids, and was possibly one of the elements that made them so appealing to a larger demographic. This chapter also touched on how hip-hop and indie music formed a kind of creative bridge, expanding genres and opportunities to create new and unique sounds that wouldn’t have really happened in a pre-Judgement Night world. I also enjoyed Chapter 9’s focus on Chillwave and other kinds of psych-indie music that was evolving from the economic malaise of the early 2010s. I’m not sure if I completely agree that this music evolved from a desire to revert back to happier, analog nostalgia, but it was interesting to learn more about this style of music and see how it has led to the development of a kind of new ambient lo-fi genre. In fact, I was actually surprised to read about how much the worlds of hip-hop and indie rock cross pollinated around this time. Again, being on the outer edges of this book’s time period, I wasn’t as invested in some of these scenes and genres, so I learned a lot and was surprised about a lot.
DeVille’s writing is exciting and easy to follow; as he relates his own experiences to the music and shares his own accounts of shows and discovering the music for the first time, readers can also share in this joy and excitement. It’s one of the pleasures of this fun book. I didn’t realize how much music blogs and myspace helped to propel the popularity of indie music (along with films like Garden State and shows like The O.C.). Although the book focuses on music that was independent of major labels’ influence, DeVille explores how major labels, corporations, and tech companies all recognized the consumer potential for indie rock, and eventually sought to take advantage of its popularity, and how other artists that are on major labels were able to leverage indie artists to expand their popularity and audiences. That was the only disappointment in the book—that there was a lot of focus on major label artists, and how the attention from Pitchfork, Vice and other publications and platforms eventually moved the needle from indie to major labels. I guess that this kind of shift is also part of the story of indie music, and it was interesting to see how progressive major label artists were, sometimes, using their fame and influence to leverage more independent artists and possibly challenge their own audiences with new sounds and voices. Nevertheless, it does also seem like there’s another cynical and economic aspect to it. One thing that I also wondered about with this book was the continued explosion of different genres that have been subsumed by indie rock. In particular, the section on Chillwave was kind of funny to read about all the different variants. This also seems more like a way that algorithms and dedicated niche groups are involved, and that platforms can find a way to market to smaller, dedicated groups that allow them to feel a stronger connection to these genres. That is, I wonder whether some of the explosion of different genres is not necessarily the work of artistic vision, but rather savvy and targeted marketing by social media and streaming platforms. Maybe I’m getting too cynical as I’m losing my edge. Nevertheless, that’s what is so much fun about DeVille’s book—revisiting some of the most exciting and inventive times in recent music history. It’s a detailed trip down memory lane with some newer avenues to explore and learn about other bands and artists, at least for me. Highly recommended!
P.S. Glad to see Pavement and Sebadoh mentioned in the book, but sad that Archers of Loaf’s “Plumb Line” was not mentioned—one of the earlier and best mentions of Indie Rock.

This was a fantastic read, essential for any music fan. Loved how the author weaved his personal history with the wider narrative. Also loved the playlists, would stop after each chapter to play the songs which enhanced the reading experience greatly. A long overdue entry that is sure to become a standard.

4.5 - “Popular music was a way to figure out who we were, but also how we wanted to present ourselves to the world.”

Indie music sort of took over my life in the mid-aughts. They’re still some of my all-time favorite artists who’ve created some of my all-time favorite records. But this book so expertly tracks the rise of indie music and how it’s evolved over the years.

I’m fascinated by the way music changes and reinvents itself within genres, and Chris DeVille explores the indie music scene so expertly. He inserts his own experiences growing up during this time, recalling bands that were slightly before my time. It’s when he hits staples like Death Cab for Cutie, Iron & Wine, and the Shins does this book hit me in my nostalgia. This music permeated my entire personality. Reading about how they eventually blew up and entered the mainstream through The O.C. and Garden State is truly fascinating.

One of my favorite parts was the recounting of Arcade Fire’s improbable Album of the Year win in 2011. It’s like a core memory for me. Even though they were nominated and won, there was still tons of people on the internet who had no idea who they were. I also felt like this was DeVille’s love letter to this genre of music, including its offshoots. He dives into how poetic the lyrics could be and how different indie music sounded against everything else at the time. It puts indie front and center, celebrating its importance and influence.

While there are people who still probably don’t know some of these artists, their contributions are important to the overall musical landscape. It feels like this book wants to gives these artists their flowers, and it’s truly fascinating how indie music bled into EDM and rap and R&B. We tend to think of genres as static or that artists are confined to on niche, but this book shows how wide the range is and how each genre of music is intrinsically connected. This is a great read for indie music fans.

6.5 / 10

To understand my review you need to understand me.
I graduated college in 1989, drove out to Los Angeles to be in the music business and started my own record label in 1994.

The music I put out was indie rock, most of which can be categorized as emo in today’s day and age.

I not only know most of the bands mentioned in this book, I know a lot of them personally and have released records in my label by a handful of them.

Reading this book was like a time warp back to my 1990s life. It kept my attention. It was great to hear all the names again. More than a few times I had a “oh damn I completely forgot about them!” moment - and then went to Spotify to listen again to the music I used to live on.

If you grew up an indie or emo kid in the 80s and 90s, the first half of this book will be nostalgia.

The second half is basically how indie rock went mainstream. Without ruining the journey, its inevitable climax is former indie-ish hero Jack Antinoff becoming the mass market producer extraordinaire that he is now.

So, I’m sure you’re wondering why I gave it a 6.5.
Let me tell you.

This isn’t a story as much as it is written kinda like a nonstop, machine gun barrage of album review after album review - like a thousand of them - and a few sentences in between that tries to tie them together into an arc of a story.

It’s also like a Pitchfork advertisement. Nary a page goes by without some mention of Pitchfork, the online zine.

The book is long too. It’s like 360 pages long. So after awhile it just gets tiring to read. There are so many band names that get thrown out so rapidly, at some point your brain just gets numb to it.

Granted, this book was written by a guy who’s made his living writing album reviews, so I’m not sure if I should be surprised.

But if the book were half as long, my 6.5 rating may have been a 7.5.

Anyway, I did send info about the book to my indie rock friends and told them they need to read the first 125 pages if they want a trip back in time.

I appreciate the attempt. And I appreciate the memories. I just wish there was a compelling story to be had.

#netgalley #suchgreatheights

This book covers a very specific time frame and a very specific genre of music within that time and if you were involved in this scene -as a music consumer, a concert goer, a musician or just in the know, the subject of this book will resonate very clearly. As it did with me - I am about a decade of so older than the author and while I was not involved creatively as a musician or a writer, I spent a lot of time around people who were.

I am that music geek that loves indie music and has always been up to date on what's new and this timeline was not my first go round with the cyclical nature of indie music blowing into popularity and fading out again.

The author covers the period with playlists of songs I already have in my collection. The author starts his recollection with the emergence of new technology - file sharing with Napster, the phenomenon of the iPod, Mp3 blogs, MySpace and the effect of online media on how new music got shared, promoted and hyped during the aughts.

I was there following along, picking up new artists but I couldn't tell you how I knew about this artist or when I found out about this album. For a consumer like myself I have multiple methods of watching for new trends and did not pay attention as to how that changed from the 90s to the start of the 2000s, but this book shows what a huge change the internet was in how we experienced music and influenced the sounds we chose to listen to.

I would have told you that I was an original, that I didn't have a MySpace presence, I didn't watch the OC (but I did download the theme) and that I refused to read any crap that Pitchfork put forth - me and my friends complained non stop about "millennial" hipsters and their idiotic opinions. I watched the NY and LA from afar, snarking on it from Gawker properties and Blue States Lose. And yet, our soundtracks were exactly the same, so it doesn't matter how we got there, we experienced the same love for the same music being released.

There may only be a small audience for this look back at this short era of music history. I would say that some areas had more influence on me than others, but I can't deny that the author's description of the indie to rap to r&b to pop pipeline is authentic and rings true, although I never saw the trajectory at the time. Books like these don't add anything new to the discussion, but it does reframe that time in a way that just makes sense.

It was cool to walk through the era once again, this time with the added hindsight of knowing where it's all going, and how technology and consumerism shapes our tastes even if we think we are the most unique music consumer.

We are left with the question of what next? and what does new technology mean for new music. It seems inevitable that bands who have a message will find a way to get themselves heard, but how that will look and where it will come from next is unknowable.

In the end, while my experience of this time probably looks nothing like Chris DevIlle's, it still came across as a shared conversation of the time.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the ARC. I’ve requested and received a lot of non-fiction ARCs about music over the years. Reading and music are easily tied in my top interests, and I eagerly anticipated all the books I received. However, the vast majority went unfinished. They just didn’t live up to my expectations and were often boring and not how they were described by the publisher. All that said, this book was an exception. Fantastic history of “indie” music (read the book to better understand why that’s in quotes) from its inception to the current day. If you are or were a fan of what was termed indie in the 90s and early 2000s, this book is for you. To top it off, every chapter has a great playlist to go along with it.