The best thing I can say about author Steven Hyden is that I don't even care about The Strokes, and have barely listened to their discography, and found this book absolutely fascinating.

This is as much a book about whether history - at least that part of history that concerns the prototypical 5-piece rock band - is dead as it is about The Strokes themselves. If the rise of a new band that wipes away the prior generation's idols is a cyclical thing, what happens when the cycle dies and the world moves away from caring?

Along the way, Hyden talks about the changes wrought to the rise and fall of artists by the internet and social media, the (dying) role of rock press, the public and critic world's embrace of poptimism, and shifting concepts of cool.

It's not a cliche - in fact, I'm proof - that you don't have to like The Strokes to love Hyden's Is This It.

Many thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the advance review copy.

Steven Hyden is the best music writer currently working in my opinion. He feels the gap left by Chuck Klosterman since Klosterman's interests moved beyond just music.

Hyden's previous books have covered Springsteen, Pearl Jam and the death of the classic rock artists. So the subject matter for his latest book felt a little thin to me. Like a lot of music fans, I kinda forgot about The Strokes after their second album.

He does a good job making that decline a big part of the book The Strokes were greeted with "Rock is Back" headlines when they emerged. The same way Nirvana was when they knocked Michael Jackson of the top of the charts. But The Strokes DIDN'T bring rock back the way Nirvana did in the early '90s. The book focuses on that time and why the culture moved on from white male rockers.

It's an interesting overview of a period that as a rock fan kinda bums me out. So Hyden gave himself a higher degree of difficulty with this subject matter, but he still created an interesting book that I enjoyed it a lot.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a free e-galley in return for this honest review.

Steven Hyden always writes an engaging book. Even when I'm not especially interested in the subject, and I would say I went into this thinking I had minimal interest in a anything longer than a magazine-length treatment of The Strokes, he managed to pull me through and keep me invested for the duration. He happens to be excellent at situating rock music in particular in a larger cultural context, and The Strokes turn out to be a fruitful subject in that regard. While I don't think this book is as essential as Lizzy Goodman's Meet Me in the Bathroom, it's still a great read for anyone who remembers early 2000s NYC and the moment when The Strokes arrived on the scene.