Book Review Spotlight: Greg Kot Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music

-- Library Journal, 03/17/2009

Kot, Greg. Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music. Scribner. May 2009. c.256p. index. ISBN 978-1-4165-4727-3. $25. MUSIC

Kot, Chicago Tribune music critic and cohost of the syndicated radio show Sound Opinions, offers a perceptive, unblinking, and up-to-the-minute take on the seismic transformations of the recording industry in the digital age. Like Steve Knopper's Appetite for Self-Destruction, Kot's book helps to illuminate the tangled and complex history of digital music—its production, distribution, and sales—over the past 30 years. While Knopper's title is rich in profiles of record label moguls and software executives, Kot focuses more on the artists, including how they reacted to MP3 file sharing and distribution. Trent Reznor, Prince, U2, and Radiohead parlayed the new opportunities brought on by the decline of the recording industry to their advantage. Artists such as Death Cab for Cutie, Arcade Fire, Lily Allen, and others are profiled as unique phenomena of the new digital age. Kot organizes his book by topic rather than chronologically. His breezy, entertaining, journalistic style and sympathetic tone consistently draw in the reader. Essential for all those interested in the intersection of music and technology.—Larry Lipkis, Moravian Coll., Bethlehem, PA

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