Michael Azerrad Quotes
You didn't have to be a huge rock star; you just had to do well enough to continue doing what you wanted to do. It wasn't about hitting the jackpot, it was about sustainability.
Bon Jovi's trick is to use heavy-metal chords and still sound absolutely safe. Rock & roll used to be rebellion disguised as commercialism; now so much of it is commercialism disguised as rebellion.
Now that the generation that grew up on '80s indie-rock has attained influential positions in the culture, that music is the new yardstick. And that will shift yet again some day.
I really believe in the power of music - and I mean literally the power of musical tones - to rearrange the way you can think.
There's a whole apparatus for indie bands now, but back in the eighties it was just getting built. The early people really took it on the chin.
Nine Inch Nails' sound is dominated by clanging synths and sardonic, shrieking vocals.
Naturally, no one knows more about music than musicians. They talk about their own work all the time, but they rarely get to talk about other people's music.
As a journalist, I'm not supposed to be the subject, but as an author, I'm fair game - another ingredient in the media soup.
People shared everything: information, equipment, their floors, whatever. There was strength in unity.
The American indie underground made music for like-minded people who thought for themselves. Thinking for yourself is intrinsically subversive.
I'll leave it to other people to evaluate the legacy of my book, but I'm very moved when musicians tell me that they've been inspired by my book.
I just wanted to tell the story of a bunch of musicians who had never had their story told before. There's no preaching or theorizing.
People didn't get to see how other towns interpreted the underground ethos, and so they developed their own unique versions of it.
