Joe Carducci's Rock and the Pop Narcotic is the most obnoxiously provocative, insightful, entertaining and offensive tome on music I've ever read. If you believe rock criticism has been a sick joke led by aging boomers desperately clinging to those glory years and keeping the masses from learning about the best stuff coming out, Carducci is your man, as he insults every rock critic you've ever heard of and many you haven't. He has an opinion on just about every band to appear in the last fifty years. He hates liberals. He calls out the conventional narrative of blues birthing a baby called rock n roll. Hell, he calls out just about every cliche rock "truism" the "rock press" accepts as historical fact. He calls Depeche Mode lovers 'fags.' He loathes Dave Marsh, which should be enough for anyone. He's also hilarious.

Buy at once.