20th Century Rock & Roll-Alternative Rock

This book is an incredibly informative and interesting source for the story behind modern and alternative rock music. Alan Cross does a fine job of delievering the lives, music, and impact of some of the last 4 decades' musicians. While some of what's in this book may be just intriguing trivia about your favorites well-known bands (i.e. Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, R.E.M.) a good deal of the chapters deal with some of the lesser known gods of alt rock. But that's the best part I think. I have found that I have been introduced to all lot of my new favorite bands through reading this book. The other chapters however did provide an interesting new look at some of my old favorites. Overall, this book was a thouroghly interesting read that gave great insight into a lot of rock's most important bands and expanded my horizons as well. The only downside I found was that Alan Cross' writting seems a little dumbed down sometimes, as if he's writting to a much younger audience. Aside from the fact that you're not reading Rolling Stone quality reporting, this book is quite essential to anyone who wants to know all about alternative music. Highly recommended.