Steven Hyden has written for Uproxx, Grantland, The A.V. Club, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Slate, and Salon and is the author of Twilight of the Gods: A Journey to the End of Classic Rock and Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me: What Pop Music Rivalries Reveal About the Meaning of Life. He lives in Minnesota.
"Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me is entertaining, hilarious, and
thought provoking. It uses feuds in music and pop culture to
explain something about all of us, our behavior, and our strange
need for these spats between show business people. I had a great
time reliving some musical arguments of my youth, but it also made
me realize just how weird the 90s were--really, really
weird."--Craig Finn of The Hold Steady
"A funny book that is also full of ideas -- especially about how
people relate to culture and how meaning changes as we age."--Scott
Timberg, Salon
"A pop-culture journey to self-realization that makes some
intriguing stops."--Kirkus Reviews
"An entertaining, informative look at rivalries in pop
music."--Michael Schaub, Men's Journal
"Even the most knowledgeable music fan will learn from Hyden's
musings, and anyone with a sense of humor will find his prose
laugh-out-loud funny.... An outstanding piece of pop culture
writing for readers who consider music an important part of their
lives."--Craig L. Shufelt, Library Journal (starred review)
"Every serious argument about music is ultimately a non-musical
manifesto--it's 10 percent about aesthetics, 40 percent about how
the respective arguers view the world, and 50 percent about how
those arguers view themselves. Steven Hyden lives inside this ratio
and argues with himself, which means it's impossible to win. But
that's what makes YOUR FAVORITE BAND IS KILLING ME so fascinating:
The title is real. He's funny, but he's not joking."--Chuck
Klosterman, author of Fargo Rock City and Killing Yourself to
Live
"Fluent, frequently hilarious, ultimately persuasive.... [Hyden's]
as entertaining on Eric Clapton vs. Jimi Hendrix (chapter 7) as he
is on Taylor Swift vs. Kanye West (chapter 5).... Hyden [is] a
critic worth reading."--Chris Klimek, Washington Post
"For my money, the best current music writer out there is Steven
Hyden. His profile and feature writing joins the keen observation
of a journalist with the true-believer mentality of a rock
fan."--Aarik Danielsen, Columbia Daily Tribune
"Funny, smart and will provide fodder for the next time you get
together with your music-loving friends."--Deborah Dundas, Toronto
Star
"Highly entertaining.... Whatever side you take in these endless
debates, Hyden's a dude worth arguing with."--Rolling Stone
"Hyden is an effortless writer, and he draws clever connections
between artists and cultural phenomena spanning decades....
Illuminating and often hilarious.... Hyden is wise enough to know
that declaring a winner is pointless (and so the book never does),
but smart enough to discuss everything that might come with
'winning.'"--Jeremy Gordon, Pitchfork
"Hyden masterfully weaves together disparate narratives to reveal
the themes we embrace when we pick sides in pop music."--Josh
O'Kane, The Globe and Mail
"I learned a lot, I laughed a lot, I dug out my old Oasis CDs. Your
Favorite Band Is Killing Me is so authoritative, informative,
compelling, and stone-cold hilarious that I am hereby initiating a
beef with Steven Hyden."--Dave Holmes, author of Party of One
"If Nick Hornby's writing had a love child with Chuck Klosterman's,
the result would be Hyden's clever prose.... By combining music
journalism and pop psychology with some of his own life lessons,
Hyden has created a literary mix tape that will be music to
pop-culture junkies and the music-obsessed."--Publishers Weekly
"One of the various ways the book seems to be connecting with
readers ... is Hyden's ability to take these debates and use them
to find understanding, not just about the culture but also his own
life."--Shane Nyman, Appleton Post Crescent
"Rich with unexpected tangents and entertaining insights, the book
reveals Hyden's well-established talent for pumping out some of the
most thoughtful writing on some of the least-cool artists (at least
in critical corners)."--Zach Schonfeld, Newsweek
"Steven Hyden didn't come to settle your rock arguments--just to
make them louder. In this brilliant book, he pours a little
kerosene on some of music's most heated feuds--some legendary, some
forgotten, one involving Limp Bizkit. Your Favorite Band Is Killing
Me is not only hilarious but surprisingly moving--Hyden captures
the secret emotional details of why these stories matter, and how
picking sides can accidentally tell you way too much about who you
are."--Rob Sheffield, author of Love is a Mix Tape
"Steven Hyden is one of the most original, thoughtful pop culture
writers out there."--Bill Simmons, author of The Book of
Basketball
"Steven Hyden works a tangent like a barroom storyteller.... Funny
and insightful."--Ken Szymanski, Volume One
"Well-researched, hilariously written and solidly conceptualized,
Your Favorite Band is Killing Me is a winding crash course through
the last 50 years of feuding pop stars and the people who back
them, with a narrator who can seamlessly reconcile and separate his
own journey with that of the public view. Hyden's well-honed vision
has forged a book that covers a broad berth of events and ideas
with hyper-specific examples to uncover the relatable human truths
in the middle."--Matt Bobkin, National Post
"Wildly readable... No matter who you might be on any rock-aware
cultural spectrum, this is great fun. But it's a bit more than just
that, too."--Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News
"With sharp, nail-on-the-head observations, Steven Hyden dives into
the minutiae of what we all know is the most important conflict of
modern times but are too embarrassed to admit: Who is the cooler
band? Who is the better band? Why are they better/cooler? Are they
better because they are cooler, or vice versa? Have I blown your
mind yet? Then just imagine what this book will do."--Adam Scott,
star of Parks and Recreation and Party Down and co-host of U
Talkin' U2 to Me?
"Consistently insightful and funny...Your Favorite Band Is Killing
Me connects the dots of music history in new and intriguing ways.
Hyden reminds us why we invest so much in these competitions, how
they help shape identity for so many of us, while never losing
sight of how silly they can be."--Alan Light, New York Times Book
Review
"Funny, informative and essential reading if you ever again intend
to argue loudly with a friend about music."--Seth Meyers
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