Rock Criticism from the Beginning is a wide-ranging exploration of the rise and development of rock criticism in Britain and the United States from the 1960s to the present. It chronicles the evolution of a new form of journalism, and the course by which writing on rock was transformed into a respected field of cultural production. The authors explore the establishment of magazines from Crawdaddy! and Rolling Stone to The Source, and from Melody Maker and New Musical Express to The Wire, while investigating the careers of well-known music critics like Robert Christgau, Greil Marcus, and Lester Bangs in the U.S., and Nik Cohn, Paul Morley, and Jon Savage in the U.K., to name just a few. While much has been written on the history of rock, this Bourdieu-inspired book is the first to offer a look at the coming of age of rock journalism, and the critics that opened up a whole new kind of discourse on popular music.

Seeking to understand youth culture through its visual and musical expression, "In Garageland" presents a pioneering ethnographc study of rock bands and their fans.
The authors explore the functions of rock playing within three socially different peer groups, investigating how their activities relate to the external demands and resources of a postmodern world. Presented in the "dialogic" format--the authorial text juxtaposed on the page with the remarks of those interviewed--the authors analyze the objective, social, symbolic and subjective sources and meanings of rock playing, relating these to theories on modernity, social groups and the production and reception of cultural symbols.
Topics include class as well as sexual conflicts; mainstream and deviant subcultures, and the complex social, psychological and ethical relationships which exist within youth culture. "In Garageland" develops the notion of youth culture research as a way of mirroring our grown-up identities and of staking out the limits of late modern culture in general.