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Underated/Overrated threads - Chuck Klosterman
stevieraveon
Posts: 413
I just read "Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas" and one of his essays made me think of this forum. Here is the link to the article I'm talking about:
http://vixi.livejournal.com/198971.html
By the way, I love Klosterman's articles and have read all the books.
I particularly loved his analysis of "And The Cradle Will Rock" as I almost thought the same thing when seeing VH last month.
http://vixi.livejournal.com/198971.html
By the way, I love Klosterman's articles and have read all the books.
I particularly loved his analysis of "And The Cradle Will Rock" as I almost thought the same thing when seeing VH last month.
Bob Loblaw's Law Blog: "Why should YOU go to jail for a crime someone else noticed?"
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What a moron, "they wrote all the best songs". I love The Beatles but I relate to the bands from my time more and I think plenty of bands have wrote songs just as good or better than The Beatles. Its not like The Beatles are flawless, they actually have some terrible songs just like basically every band out there.
Summerfest 2006
"Why would they come to our concert just to boo us?" -Lisa Simpson
I think he's just saying that when people say the Beatles are the most important/influential band of all time, that that statement is correct.
I agree. I imagine if you're an Oasis fan by your name, you'd have to agree they're influential.
Well definitely, I dont doubt they are the most important band ever but I dont like that he said they wrote ALL the best songs. I guess I dont understand the point of his essay, I just like what I like, dont care if it is underrated or overrated. I sometimes question why bands are rated the way they are by fans and critics but it doesnt have any affect on what I am gonna listen to.
Summerfest 2006
"Why would they come to our concert just to boo us?" -Lisa Simpson
I would say lighten up and try not to take the essay so literally. Klosterman is my favorite writer...he tends to be massively insightful, but there's always a little hyperbole. It's just entertainment...
maybe chuck is just saying that the beatles...at the time...wrote all the songs that everyone else wished they had written/could've written. ya know...the absolutely brilliant ones, skip the crap ones.
read sex, drugs, and cocoa puffs...then you'll understand klosterman's take on things a bit more
Yeah I found that sex, drugs and cocoa puffs to be much stronger than IV, partly because I think he had more time to work on those essays than these ones, but the one about Billy Joel in IV was really good, and the band rating one is hilarious
Chris Cornell
http://www.myspace.com/mrwalkerb
just leave it at that.
Story outline[edit]
Klosterman's analysis focuses less on the actual circumstances leading to the deaths of rock musicians, but more on the existential and cultural implications that result. To these ends, Klosterman goes on a road trip, visiting the death sites of rock stars such as Duane Allman and Kurt Cobain.[2] In a rented Ford Taurus, which he nicknamed "Tauntaun", Klosterman encounters a variety of interesting circumstances and people along the way, such as a teenager in Missoula, Montana, who asks him to sell her some cannabis, or a Cracker Barrel waitress who reads Kafka.
A large part of the narrative describes four (although primarily three) women from Klosterman's past and present who embody abstractions that he loves (and are later compared to the four original members of the band KISS). According to Klosterman, in the same way that a rock star's death grants transcendence beyond anything they may have embodied during the course of their career, so, too, these four women transcend their own effect on Klosterman to become the molds by which all other women will undoubtedly be understood.
The book contains much literary analysis of songs and the retelling of conversations from the author's past. Klosterman also includes a controversial passage about Radiohead's Kid A, proclaiming that track-by-track the 2000 album unintentionally details the events of the September 11 attacks, which would occur 11 months after its release.[3]
It is kinda crazy how he breaks all the Kid A album down. Interesting stuff for sure.