Rock and Roll Always Forgets

Chuck Eddy is one of the most entertaining, idiosyncratic, influential, and prolific music critics of the past three decades. His byline has appeared everywhere from the Village Voice and Rolling Stone to Creem, Spin, and Vibe. Eddy is a consistently incisive music journalist, unafraid to explore and defend genres that other critics look down on or ignore. In 1987 he published one of the first interviews with the Beastie Boys to appear in a national publication, and his review of Aerosmith’s Done with Mirrors purportedly inspired the producer Rick Rubin to pair the rockers with Run DMC for “Walk This Way.” Eddy has brought his signature hyper-caffeinated, hyper-hyphenated style to bear on heavy metal, hip hop, alt rock, country—you name it. Rock and Roll Always Forgets features the best, most provocative reviews, interviews, columns, and essays written by this singular critic over the past twenty-five years. Essential reading for music scholars, critics, and fans, it may well be the definitive time-capsule comment on pop music at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Chuck Eddy is an independent music journalist living in Austin, Texas. Formerly the music editor at the Village Voice and a senior editor at Billboard, he is the author of The Accidental Evolution of Rock’n’Roll: A Misguided Tour through Popular Music and Stairway to Hell: The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe. Chuck Klosterman is a freelance journalist and the author of books including Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto and Fargo Rock City.