Rating: 
Summary: Klosterman Rocks! Hair Metal Rules! Well...
Review: Chuck Klosterman's book is a great introduction not to the mind of a hair band freak, but to the mind of a rock fan in the late twentieth century. We all filter our expectations and experiences through mythologies; Klosterman's happens to be the myth of the rock star not as musical artist, but as lifestyle exemplar. Writing with passion, wit, and intelligence, Klosterman reconstructs the forces that drove him into the arms of pseudo-Satan worshipping guitar slingers. Mostly living in North Dakota. Some of his assertions about Prog rock are wrong; but if I don't like them I can write my own book. I am. Well worth your time whether you're a hair band fan, a musicologist, or someone looking for a good read.
Rating:
Summary: More than just a book on 80s metal
Review: WoohhoOOOooo! Don't rate this book lower just because it was more than a book about metal music.... It deals a lot with Chuck Klosterman growing up in rural (Wyndmere) North Dakota, and the "culture shock" associated with being different in a small town. Gotta love the part where as an 8 year old boy, he sleeps under a Motley Crue sticker with an inverted pentagram, having no idea its a satanic symbol. This is a great book if you love nostalgic reminising of your teen years. Although I was a little to young to remember the 80's music scene (I'm 17), I loved this book. UP THE IRONS! \m/
Rating: 
Summary: sweet metal o mine
Review: Klosterman's _Fargo Rock City_ is a description of the author's life in the 1980s, growing up as a heavy metal fan in small town America. He loved Motley Crue, Guns n Roses, and Bon Jovi. If you're going to like this book, you better had like those bands too. Klosterman is without a doubt a good writer. _Fargo Rock City_ made me laugh out loud a few times. It's not only humorous, but it's captivating (at times) and true to the subject. I grew up in the 1980s also, and, while I listened to lots of other pop music (i.e. Talking Heads, The Clash, Go-Go's, etc.) just as much, I definitely had a jones for pop-metal. Fargo Rock City definitely has a down side, though. Self-indulgent to the point of parody at times, it seems like less a chronicle of 1980s heavy metal fandom than it does the Chuck Klosterman Story. The author spends a good 1/3 of the pages trying to justify his own musical taste. Granted, many of us born between 1963 and 1973 listened to early Van Halen, and look back on it with fondness-- heck, we even turn the radio up when we hear it again. But how many of us would do that with Guns n Roses song "November Rain" ? or something by Poison? Klosterman would. It seems like Klosterman enjoyed most of his 1980s heavy metal because he listened to it all the time, he drank a lot, and there was nothing else to do in his little North Dakota town. No surprise there, but Klosterman comes up with an argument why all of that music was good. Bad idea. However, Klosterman is the perfect person to write a book about growing up a child of 1980s pop metal. He's smart, witty, and has a hell of a memory. He had given himself an impossible task, though: cast a fond look back Quiet Riot, Bon Jovi, and their peers, AND write about it intelligently, WITHOUT making it look stupid. And in a sense, you had to be there. By "there" I don't mean North Dakota, but living as a hair-metal fan in the mid- or late 1980s small town America. If _Fargo Rock City_ had been about 1970s rock, I definitely wouldn't have been interested... I doubt many young 20somethings would be interested in reading about the adolescent journey of Klosterman, since they didn't grow up with his music. Still, this is a funny book, more than worthwhile if you grew up on the likes of Def Leppard, Quiet Riot, and Bon Jovi. Klosterman seems to be a regular guy with a lot of heart, not to mention he's funny. Rock on, Chuck Klosterman. ken32
Rating:
Summary: Poison RULES! My God... WHAT am I saying???
Review: Klosterman almost....ALMOST... well, ok, not really... makes me think 80s hair metal was a worthwhile music genre. Despite my contempt for Poison and Motley Crue this book is a funny, engaging read by a creative writer and will strike home with any and all who grew up as a smalltown loser awash in pop culture crap. And doesn't that really describe us all? For rock music fans, it's an absolutely essential book that details rocks slide into triviality. Even if you hate hair metal, you'll like FARGO ROCK CITY.
Rating: 
Summary: A Target Missed!
Review: Klosterman missed the target with his book. The author and his publisher represent the book as a comprehensive review of metal. In reality, the book is mostly rambling prattle about Klosterman's wretched life, complete with chunky prose and silly self-confessions that detract from the purported seriousness of the book. However, I did learn a few things about Klosterman -- (...); he has few friends; he drinks himself into oblivion; he frequents bars alone; he shows up for work late; and he gets nasty letters from his landlord. While such tidbits could be interesting if Klosterman were ... say... Eddie Van Halen or Angus Young, few people care about the personal foibles of a 27 year old columnist who lives in Akron, Ohio. Klosterman blew a good opportunity to write a great book. He completely glossed over British metal and the hard rock of the late 1970s. He failed to consider metal in the larger context of rock n' roll and failed to consider appropriately the cultural impact of metal. I'd save your money and donate it to Klosterman for psychological counseling.
Rating: 
Summary: why bother?
Review: I read this book over the course of a weekend. My interest in it stemmed from the fact that I am from the Fargo area. I did not read anything of relevance, period. Klosterman seems to be an immature, self-absorbed writer....he'd have been better off writing this drivel in his diary and sparing the rest of us from having to deal with it. The most appropriate thing about the book is that it is just like the city of Fargo, it is better to acknowledge that they exist than to have anything to do with them in person.
Rating:
Summary: Best of Both worlds
Review: This book is the best a music fan can ask for.
It is filled with facts and moments in music and pop culture that most of us that grew up with MTV remember. It however DOES NOT make you feel like you are reading a serious essay about why one band or genre is historically significant (like: Why Kurt Cobain was a genius). Chuck writes talks to his readers as if he;s saying "Here's what I think, and here's some facts, and if you don't agree, that's fine"
It's the perfect blend of Heavy Metal's reality, truth and legends mixed with his own personal experiences along the way.
I would reccomend this book to anyone that feels a connection with eighties Heavy Metal. You'll walk away feeling like you visited a good friend you haven't seen in along time.
If you can still sing the chorus to Ratt's "Round and Round" and if you remember Tawny Kitane of the hood of a car, you HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK! Seriously, go read this book. You'll laugh about things you forgot about. But most importantlu, you'll remember how great heavy Metal was/is and how at times it was laughable.
Rating:
Summary: Everywhere was a 'Rock City" in those days
Review: Man you know you are getting old when the local bookstore starts carrying books that are retrospectives of your youth. I have read Deena Weinstein's "Heavy Metal: A Cultural Sociology" and enjoyed it, despite the fact that I think Ms. Weinstein gets a little too analytical about metal culture and turns a simple form of music into some sort of nuclear science. We listened to heavy metal in the 1980's because there was little else to do, it was the perfect vehicle for teenage frustrations and it really did disgust normal thinking people. That is excactly the point of Chuck Klosterman's book.
Being a child of heavy metal in the '80's meant that you had to defend yourself against those Geraldo Rivera specials about satanism, contend with those 20/20 shows about dysfunctional kids who happen to like Iron Maiden and explain to teachers and parents that because you liked Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest you weren't about to shoot yourself in the head or be found sucking on an exhaust pipe in the garage. We also had to deal with the blatant sexism of some of the genre's biggest commercial forces like Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Poison, etc. Klosterman deals with this topic quite frequently in his book. Rightfully so, because it is the sexual imagery that sold "hair metal" to legions of teenage boys and girls alike. Metal offered pure fantasy, girls wished guys like Vince Neil and Sebastian Bach existed in their hometowns and guys dreamed that scantily clad video vixens strolled Main St. like they did the Sunset Strip.
"Fargo Rock City" is an entertaining read mainly because Klosterman is very witty and a very amusing social commentator. The one thing I believe he tried to do in this book is offer up some sort of relative importance of the big hair metal explosion of the Reagan era. He does not succeed in doing this blatantly. If you were not affected by Guns N' Roses and Motley Crue in any way, you will never find any importance in that music. For those of us who lived it, we understand and already know how important it was. You see our generation didn't have the war and social issues of the sixties, nor did we have the freewheeling attitudes of the seventies. Casual sex and recreational drug use turned into AIDS and the crack epidemic and the whole world was "Reaganomics". So of course all we wanted from our music was cartoon satanism and "Nothin' But A Good Time".
One thing I wish the author had discussed more was the fact that metal was probably more visible in the heartland than it was in trendy big cities. Metal bands touring arenas in those days spent more time playing the local civic centers of Fargo, North Dakota and Cedar Rapids, Iowa than they did playing the L.A. Forum and Madison Square Garden. In the small cities, metal concerts became huge events and spawned heated fundamental debates between church leaders and local government whereas the big cities just looked at them as a way to keep the local sports arena busy between home games.
This book will guarantee a few laughs and maybe make you a little nostalgic. Highly recommended for anyone who spent a few Saturday nights watching "Headbanger's Ball" and wasted entire math classes drawing pentagrams on their school books.
Rating:
Summary: Everywhere was a 'Rock City" in those days
Review: Man you know you are getting old when the local bookstore starts carrying books that are retrospectives of your youth. I have read Deena Weinstein's "Heavy Metal: A Cultural Sociology" and enjoyed it, despite the fact that I think Ms. Weinstein gets a little too analytical about metal culture and turns a simple form of music into some sort of nuclear science. We listened to heavy metal in the 1980's because there was little else to do, it was the perfect vehicle for teenage frustrations and it really did disgust normal thinking people. That is excactly the point of Chuck Klosterman's book.
Being a child of heavy metal in the '80's meant that you had to defend yourself against those Geraldo Rivera specials about satanism, contend with those 20/20 shows about dysfunctional kids who happen to like Iron Maiden and explain to teachers and parents that because you liked Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest you weren't about to shoot yourself in the head or be found sucking on an exhaust pipe in the garage. We also had to deal with the blatant sexism of some of the genre's biggest commercial forces like Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Poison, etc. Klosterman deals with this topic quite frequently in his book. Rightfully so, because it is the sexual imagery that sold "hair metal" to legions of teenage boys and girls alike. Metal offered pure fantasy, girls wished guys like Vince Neil and Sebastian Bach existed in their hometowns and guys dreamed that scantily clad video vixens strolled Main St. like they did the Sunset Strip.
"Fargo Rock City" is an entertaining read mainly because Klosterman is very witty and a very amusing social commentator. The one thing I believe he tried to do in this book is offer up some sort of relative importance of the big hair metal explosion of the Reagan era. He does not succeed in doing this blatantly. If you were not affected by Guns N' Roses and Motley Crue in any way, you will never find any importance in that music. For those of us who lived it, we understand and already know how important it was.
One thing I wish the author had discussed more was the fact that metal was probably more visible in the heartland than it was in trendy big cities. Metal bands touring arenas in those days spent more time playing the local civic centers of Fargo, North Dakota and Cedar Rapids, Iowa than they did playing the L.A. Forum and Madison Square Garden. In the small cities, metal concerts became huge events and spawned heated fundamental debates between church leaders and local government whereas the big cities just looked at them as a way to keep the local sports arena busy between home games.
This book will guarantee a few laughs and maybe make you a little nostalgic. Highly recommended for anyone who spent a few Saturday nights watching "Headbanger's Ball" and wasted entire math classes drawing pentagrams on their school books.
Rating:
Summary: "Please keep your hands inside the tram at all times"
Review: Klosterman is a master tour guide of a generation that is due for a book that really takes one back to a time that has long been
overlooked by journalists who think they're to hip to write about Heavy Metal. As my receeding hairline gives testimony to
the fact that 20 years has past since I strutted my stuff on the Sunset Strip, I gotta tell you this book is an amazing
trip down Metal lane. Though some won't admit it,most of us thirty somethings all had our spandex and FinalNet at the ready for that next Van Halen or Motley Crue show. For a guy from the
Midwest,Klosterman's life completely mirrored my own. This is truly the first book I read, that from front to back, seemed like chapters of my own life.If you lived through the 80's with even one metal tape in your collection, you will thoroughly enjoy this book.I lived the metal experience out in Hollywood and I would like to thank Klosterman for helping me to relive it.His humor and insight gives Heavy Metal the respect it deserves for a music that really did own the world for a decade.This is an enjoyable book for any music fan.
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