Book Reports: A Music Critic on His First Love, Which Was Reading

by Robert Christgau

In this generous collection of book reviews and literary essays, legendary Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau showcases the passion that made him a critic—his love for the written word. Many selections address music, from blackface minstrelsy to punk and hip-hop, artists from Lead Belly to Patti Smith, and fellow critics from Ellen Willis and Lester Bangs to Nelson George and Jessica Hopper. But Book Reports also teases out the popular in the Bible and 1984 as well as pornography and science fiction, and analyzes at length the cultural theory of Raymond Williams, the detective novels of Walter Mosley, the history of bohemia, and the 2008 financial crisis. It establishes Christgau as not just the Dean of American Rock Critics, but one of America's most insightful cultural critics as well.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Essays

416 pages, Hardcover

Published May 3, 2019

About the author

Robert Thomas Christgau (born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. He began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became an early proponent of musical movements such as hip hop, riot grrrl, and the import of African popular music in the West.

Christgau spent 37 years as the chief music critic and senior editor for The Village Voice, during which time he created and oversaw the annual Pazz & Jop critics poll. He has also covered popular music for Esquire, Creem, Newsday, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Billboard, NPR, Blender, and MSN Music, and was a visiting arts teacher at New York University.

Reviews

[atom_box Evan G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super meta: I'm writing a review about a book about writing reviews of books about musicians.

"In Search of Jim Crow: Why Postmodern Minstrely Studies Matter" was surprising.

I prefer going to his homepage and reading Robert Christgau's free online album review archive; that is much more compelling and funny. This book of his reviews is for true fans only. Come with your academic papers and gigantic flea market collection of Blues 78s. I enjoyed 3 or 4 essays, maybe.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book reviews instead of record reviews - longer and still about music and politics. A long and terrific collection.

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lacks the universality of his music criticism; essays on literature you haven’t read plunge the reader into an academic abyss

[J. Pineiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Witty, acerbic and insightful take on music books by one of the sharpest music critics.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love his open, slangy, informed but not condescending voice on the page. Sometimes he's a little too prone to talking ABOUT the book being awesome not really explaining what makes it so awesome as with Raymond Williams, who I'd like to have understood more about.