Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me: What Pop Music Rivalries Reveal About the Meaning of Life

For those who have argued late into the night with their friends about why one band is better than another, this title will grab them from the minute music critic Hyden (Whatever Happened to Alternative Nation??) starts with Oasis vs. Blur. He covers 19 rivalries going all the way back to the obvious Beatles/Rolling Stones, but the majority of the chapters examine bands that have been prominent during the past quarter century. The author uses the rivalries as a jumping-off point to talk about not only the musicians, but also the meaning of the conflicts, skillfully applying the arguments to a discussion of his own experience. 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. There's also a surprising amount of poignancy, such as his exploration of the odd relationship between the White Stripes' Jack White and the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach. This is a wide-ranging, hilarious, and smart look at both expected and surprising matches mixed with autobiography.