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diegoo21's review
2.0
This book needs a new edition... Too much Dashboard Confessional and the final chapters have aged centuries. Still a good read for those interested in the scene.
librarimans's review
1.0
I am not going to bother to finish this book, as quite frankly, it is not very good. As a fan of bands like Jawbreaker, the Promise Ring, Braid, the Get Up Kids, and their ilk as well Andy Greenwald's writing for Grantland (can't say I remember anything he wrote for Spin) to this was a disappointment would be a vast understatement. It did not strike me as a all together well researched book, and some of his claims were downright hilarious--at one point he was talking about underground music 'zines and referenced Punk Planet. Punk Planet, the zine that is/was so underground you could buy it Borders and Barnes and Noble!
I think there is still an interesting book that could be written about this era of music, but Greenwald was not the one to do it.
I think there is still an interesting book that could be written about this era of music, but Greenwald was not the one to do it.
jehsface's review
5.0
So when I finally see Dashboard Confessional in September, my appreciation level for his live music is going to be infinitely more than it would have been had I just gone in with my probably all ready over the top appreciation. This book, whilst starting out with a bit of history, and general emo vibes, record labels, albums etc. ends up devoting a good chunk to Chris Carrabba and Dashboard Confessional. I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves Dashboard, very quickly.
The book also deals with themes of music and how it affects teenagers and the emotional connection and rawness of the 'emo scene'. It transported me to those moments at shows where I'm looking up at the band in tears because the song their playing fills an emptiness in my chest. It took me back to nights locked up in my room blasting songs that made me feel alive again. It amplified that feeling I have now where I'm always searching for a song to knock me out, to punish me emotionally so I can feel relieved again.
I know the book is old, but the ideas are still relevant. Everything in this book was real at that time, and I think still lingers on today in a lot of the older kids from the scene. I just felt a connection to this book. It wasn't as light hearted and satirical as other books on emo culture, and it had a heavy emotion behind it, and that's why I loved it.
I'm just a sucker for any book that describes and relates to the things I went through as a teenager, especially as I'm on the final cusp of that, I'm kind of left longing as the disenchantment sets in. I just want that realness and rawness of the emotional songs - and that's what this book reminded me of, that there are songs like that, and everyone feels it. I felt the book was ultimately telling me 'If you feel it, make a community out of it, stick together, help each other out... oh and love Dashboard because he's amazing'
The book also deals with themes of music and how it affects teenagers and the emotional connection and rawness of the 'emo scene'. It transported me to those moments at shows where I'm looking up at the band in tears because the song their playing fills an emptiness in my chest. It took me back to nights locked up in my room blasting songs that made me feel alive again. It amplified that feeling I have now where I'm always searching for a song to knock me out, to punish me emotionally so I can feel relieved again.
I know the book is old, but the ideas are still relevant. Everything in this book was real at that time, and I think still lingers on today in a lot of the older kids from the scene. I just felt a connection to this book. It wasn't as light hearted and satirical as other books on emo culture, and it had a heavy emotion behind it, and that's why I loved it.
I'm just a sucker for any book that describes and relates to the things I went through as a teenager, especially as I'm on the final cusp of that, I'm kind of left longing as the disenchantment sets in. I just want that realness and rawness of the emotional songs - and that's what this book reminded me of, that there are songs like that, and everyone feels it. I felt the book was ultimately telling me 'If you feel it, make a community out of it, stick together, help each other out... oh and love Dashboard because he's amazing'
frawst_disasta_reads's review
4.0
The pros of this book: the in-depth interviews. Andy spends time with the bands he interviews, mostly Dashboard and Jimmy Eat World. But he also spends time with the teens who love these bands! And it’s so fun reading their thoughts, because they mirror my own twenty years ago. Andy writes well and with attention to detail!
And I absolutely loved the history from even earlier emo, like The Promise Ring or Sunny Day Real Estate.
The cons: parts of the book dragged for me, especially the last two chapters. Sometimes the detail was a bit more than I needed.
And I absolutely loved the history from even earlier emo, like The Promise Ring or Sunny Day Real Estate.
The cons: parts of the book dragged for me, especially the last two chapters. Sometimes the detail was a bit more than I needed.
lindy_b's review
2.0
ugh. where to begin.
1) This book is all over the place. I get the impression Greenwald had no idea what he was doing while he was writing it; he just kind of threw everything at the page and saw what stuck.
2) The interviews for this book were conducted between 2001 and 2003 and the book is primarily about that period in time. It is not a history of emo music/subculture. Anything before 1998 or so is breezed through in around a quarter of the book. Over half the book is dedicated specifically to Dashboard Confessional. This might as well be a book about Dashboard Confessional. I did not want to read a book about Dashboard Confessional. That being said, Nothing Feels Good is interesting as a snapshot in a period of time where industry people were aware that the internet was going to be the primary mode of promoting and distributing music but didn't quite know what to make of it yet.
3) The minuscule chapter about women and emo feels like lipservice and Greenwald makes no mention of the overwhelming whiteness of emo musicians, or how gender and race are constructed within the environment of the suburbs, or the implications of socioeconomic class on the musical landscape. I mean, in 2003, the home internet connection which Greenwald locates as the primary residence emo teenagers was far from ubiquitous at this point. I recognize that Greenwald is a music journalist and not a sociologist, but it seems like common sense to note which groups of teenagers are going to have the ability to spend hours discussing music online and how that's going to impact which artists come to define the genre.
4) Just because you interviewed people on LiveJournal doesn't mean you gotta write your book like it's one long LJ entry. once again, I recognize that Greenwald is a music journalist, but some of the prose is truly eyeroll-worthy in its floridity.
5) Greenwald has little to offer in the way of conclusions, ever.
6) all this being said... Greenwald managed to forecast Fall Out Boy's impending explosion on the nose, so like, at some level the analysis (the tiny, tiny bit that there is) works.
1) This book is all over the place. I get the impression Greenwald had no idea what he was doing while he was writing it; he just kind of threw everything at the page and saw what stuck.
2) The interviews for this book were conducted between 2001 and 2003 and the book is primarily about that period in time. It is not a history of emo music/subculture. Anything before 1998 or so is breezed through in around a quarter of the book. Over half the book is dedicated specifically to Dashboard Confessional. This might as well be a book about Dashboard Confessional. I did not want to read a book about Dashboard Confessional. That being said, Nothing Feels Good is interesting as a snapshot in a period of time where industry people were aware that the internet was going to be the primary mode of promoting and distributing music but didn't quite know what to make of it yet.
3) The minuscule chapter about women and emo feels like lipservice and Greenwald makes no mention of the overwhelming whiteness of emo musicians, or how gender and race are constructed within the environment of the suburbs, or the implications of socioeconomic class on the musical landscape. I mean, in 2003, the home internet connection which Greenwald locates as the primary residence emo teenagers was far from ubiquitous at this point. I recognize that Greenwald is a music journalist and not a sociologist, but it seems like common sense to note which groups of teenagers are going to have the ability to spend hours discussing music online and how that's going to impact which artists come to define the genre.
4) Just because you interviewed people on LiveJournal doesn't mean you gotta write your book like it's one long LJ entry. once again, I recognize that Greenwald is a music journalist, but some of the prose is truly eyeroll-worthy in its floridity.
5) Greenwald has little to offer in the way of conclusions, ever.
6) all this being said... Greenwald managed to forecast Fall Out Boy's impending explosion on the nose, so like, at some level the analysis (the tiny, tiny bit that there is) works.
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