Record Collecting for Girls: Unleashing Your Inner Music Nerd, One Album at a Time by Courtney E. Smith

Sep 20, 2012 Jenn(ifer) rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jenn(ifer) by: Markus

Shelves: music, non-fiction, read-in-2011, gr-friends-recommend, own, female-authors, my-reviews-that-dont-suck

Since Miss Smith is so keen on lists, here's one for ya!

Top ten reasons why this book sucks:

10. The writing is insipid.
9. There is an entire chapter devoted to "groupies" vs. "wives" with a subsection entitled "bros before hos" (I'm not making this up)
8. There is a chapter exploring the ever important "our song" phenomenon, complete with an "our song" playlist containing such gems as U2's "All I Want is You", Phil Collins' "Against All Odds" and Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven." I might vomit r...more

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Oct 09, 2011 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Years ago I loved music, bought LPs and music mags, stayed up late and listened to UK radio, and showing my age watched late night Radio with Pictures on NZ tv. Then collected cassettes and loved my walkman, then CDs came along, with my CD walkman which was a pain in the butt, I hated having to lug all those CDs around. So entered the ipod, which meant all the songs in the CD stacks are at your fingertips. Somehow though I lost my love for music reviews, as they all seemed to be written by perpe...more

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Oct 23, 2011 Sandy Irwin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-non-fiction, music

Yes! A book that shares the female perspective on music! While not a music fanatic, I could appreciate the struggles of girl bands, the choices of music we make that reflect what's happening in our lives, and her funny and witty insights into the world of music. It made me think of bands I dislike and could not like someone who really likes them (Depeche Mode, Jethro Tull, Moody Blues, Yes - mostly older bands that I just can't stand), and introduced me to the awesomeness of Yacht Rock. similar...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Kala rated it 2 of 5 stars

Okay, so I saw this book sitting on the featured new releases shelf on the library and the cover and the title made me and the person I was with make a face. Not a happy face, the kind of face that I make when I see a pink "for girls" toolkit or a set of pink Legos. But I thought I'd give it a try and see what the author had to say, I mean titles and covers are often not chosen by the authors so maybe I'd be pleasantly surprised. Yeah...no. This book was very disappointing and very much centered...more

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Apr 04, 2012 Leslie rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: tweens recovering from bieber fever

This was a joke-gift from my guitar-collecting, cymbal-smashing, Pitchfork-reading, vinyl-shopping, tinnitus-suffering boyfriend, who probably thought that I, faux-insulted and too busy swooning around the kitchen to “Brigadoon,” would laugh, toss it up on the bookshelf and never look at it again. But I did! I read it!

I hoped a book like this would go for the nuts, honestly. Over the course of my life, I’ve spent a lot of time explaining (or defending) myself both as a fan of music and sports (...more This was a joke-gift from my guitar-collecting, cymbal-smashing, Pitchfork-reading, vinyl-shopping, tinnitus-suffering boyfriend, who probably thought that I, faux-insulted and too busy swooning around the kitchen to “Brigadoon,” would laugh, toss it up on the bookshelf and never look at it again. But I did! I read it!

I hoped a book like this would go for the nuts, honestly. Over the course of my life, I’ve spent a lot of time explaining (or defending) myself both as a fan of music and sports (there are a lot of assumptions/suspicions about why I, as a woman, like Blue Note and baseball). So I’m interested in how the “acceptable” roles for women (as music listeners, makers, and writers) are coded and then reinforced; how women are commodified, branded, shortchanged, and judged, but also how they innovate, and how they’re recognized for that. I wasn’t expecting an academic polemic here, of course, but I was thinking it might be part sociological study, part illumination of the byzantine recording industry, and part awesome recommendations for my record collection.

It started off okay, breezy and likeable and a little acerbic, but then veered into sections that felt more like lightweight bubblegum essays you’d read in a teen magazine (Britney vs. Madonna? Really?). Maybe this book would have been a good primer for me when I was 13 or 14 and began seeking music out on my own, instead of relying on KIIS-FM or my parents’ LPs. And while I’m not a music snob, I am (at 32) a seasoned listener, and one with eclectic tastes. Even though it was a tongue-in-cheek present, I was still hoping I might stumble on some gems – maybe this book would give me a little nudge, a way to think about my music collection or the sounds I surround myself with (what I was listening to, why I responded to what I did). But nothing that complex emerged. The genres were surprisingly narrow (mainstream pop/rock, perhaps owing to the author’s MTV resume), and the advice suspiciously skewed to music’s role in grappling with or decoding romance.

I think that’s what really pissed me off in the end. Too much energy was dedicated to the intersection of music and “boys,” or “crushes.” Maybe I’d respond to this if I were a moody adolescent, or if music were the only way I could connect with a guy (hey, we like the same bands! let’s make out!). Or if my designs as a music lover were to get indie rock guys to take me home to their dirty apartments and write songs about me in my cute glasses and ugly sweaters. But that hasn’t been my experience, and I was disappointed that “The Guide” would assume I’m more interested in music’s role in my love life than in the music itself. Simply put, I love music because I grew up with it, because it was always playing in our house, and because I played it myself. I was raised on a strange stew of Spooky Tooth, Judy Garland, Creedence Clearwater, Miles Davis, Huey Lewis, the LA Phil and “West Side Story.” There is music I listen to in order to dance, to brood, to get out aggression, music for exaltation and contemplation, music to rile me up or calm me down, music to allow me to imagine what it’s like to be someone else, somewhere else. So… “choosing a song for your wedding”? Songs to make out to? Songs to break up to? That’s how I should think about when I listen music? And an entire section about the dos and don’ts of dating a musician? That’s a girl’s guide to record collecting??

Music is vital, emotional, but it does a disservice to women and young girls to take the breadth of their emotions – which music, unlike anything else, has the power to tap – and try to bind them to a singular (male-oriented) experience. Unfortunately, for all its rah-rah girl power poppiness, which I really wanted to get behind, this book ultimately reinforced the one stereotype I hoped to god it would dispel: if you like music, boys will like you.
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Dec 29, 2011 Julie rated it 2 of 5 stars

The book starts by warning you not to go out with rock stars ! well dont think the majority of us have to worry about that one! The author seems to make a lot out of her postition working for MTV and the fact all her boyfriends are in bands ! so a lot of the music lists seem to be revolve around romance and the question are you a Beatles fan or a Rolling Stones fan, can you not be both ??. This is just a book of lists of the authors favourite bands and music, as she is an American i must admit i...more

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Dec 14, 2011 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars

I got instantly excited when I saw that my library had this book and was the first on the list to read it. I completely agree that women's voices are missing from music writing and her attempt to try to fill that void is admirable. It starts out pretty promising but falls so short of what I had hoped it would be. Smith starts out by listing her credentials. She works for MTV. Kind of lame. But, she has helped launched several really good indie bands like The Shins, M.I.A., etc. This leads into t...more

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Dec 03, 2011 Jan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I love music. I love getting turned on to new music. Even books I've read books about music that I haven't particularly liked, they've always helped me to discover bands or songs I'd never heard of before. I don't really consider myself a music "snob," however. Actually, a lot of the "snob" music she referred to here turned out to be stuff that I didn't particularly care for. I guess I'm a bit mainstream, haha. (not really)

I like this concept - a book about cool music written by a woman. The rec...more

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Nov 03, 2011 Seth rated it 2 of 5 stars

I'll admit there is the possibility that the problems I had with this book were due to the fact that the book was not supposed to be for me, and I should have known that from the title. But I don't think that's the case. To me, the title of the book makes it sound like there will be a focus on music, and that's not the case, or at best it's only the case sporadically. She starts out well enough with a chapter on building a top 5 artists list. The tone is lighthearted and witty, and it seems like...more

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Sep 05, 2011 Jamie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult, memoir, music

Boy did I hate this book. I think it is trying to be a "Love is a Mixtape" for girls, but it doesn't succeed. She imparts univerality into the story, and since I don't care about here, it just gets more annoying as you go. Here are some examples:

1. Her Top 5 artists are Elvis Costello (fine), REM(fine) Sleater-Kinney (hi, 90s Indie rocker) Stevie Nicks, (fine) and Fiona Apple (enough said.)

2. Chapter 2 : Where have all the girl bands gone - focuses largely on The GoGos and the Bangles and then j...more Boy did I hate this book. I think it is trying to be a "Love is a Mixtape" for girls, but it doesn't succeed. She imparts univerality into the story, and since I don't care about here, it just gets more annoying as you go. Here are some examples:

1. Her Top 5 artists are Elvis Costello (fine), REM(fine) Sleater-Kinney (hi, 90s Indie rocker) Stevie Nicks, (fine) and Fiona Apple (enough said.)

2. Chapter 2 : Where have all the girl bands gone - focuses largely on The GoGos and the Bangles and then jumps to the Dixie Chicks. For someone of the 90s to totally ignore "riot grrl" and other bands like L-7 and Babes in Toyland is unconscionable.

3. She states "Never date a boy who likes the Smiths." While I can see where this seed starts, she goes off the rails when she says "Every Smiths fan I ever met was also obsessed with serial killers. " WTF?

4. By the time I got to "The Next Madonna" chapter I was so annoyed with her. I take the greatest issue with her stating why straight guys like Madonna. Who are these straight guys? I don't know any, and they are an exception rather than the rule.

5. She seems totally obsessed with very mainstream online sources, like last.fm, and The All Music Guide. I would think someone could send me off the beaten path.

Last straw : The Beatles vs. Stones chapter. She chooses the Beatles. I'd choose the Stones. But that's fine. It's her reasoning that's problematic.

6. Beatles are better than the Stones because they never reunited after breaking up and the Stones keep hacking it out. OK, maybe they never reunited because ONE of them died 31 years ago, and the other died 10 years ago. Her exact quote "Too many bands of the 1960-90s are cashing in with reunion tours from nostalgic fans who will pay to see performers well past their prime. It's embarrassing and I'm glad the Beatles did not partake. They will remain the 1969 versions of themselves in our minds forever ." Might I remind her that McCartney and Starr, the 2 living Beatles played BEATLES SONGS at a SUPER BOWL HALF TIME SHOW in 2005. And McCartney himself certainly still plays shows, charges top dollar for them, and he's singing Beatles songs. So......

And the flip of that "In the deciades since [Altamont] the Stones have devolved into greedy old men of questionable talent. Every world tour as the audience wonders who might break a hip on stage..., their legacy as the most dangerous band in rock and roll unravels just a little more. Once you looked to the Stones and found the definitive rock band, look today and you'll find old men who are in it for a paycheck"

I've seen the Stones 3 times, once in 1989 (AWESOME) once in about 1999, and once in 2001. Even though they weren't as good in 2001 as they were in 1989, they were still great and the audience LOVED it. The AUDIENCE wants to hear these songs - it brings back their youth too!

I might also tell her that Stevie Nicks is only 5 years younger than MicK Jagger and Elvis Costello only 11 years. I wonder when they will be considered "old people only in it for a paycheck."

Courtney smith, I hope you DONT die before you get old, so you can look back on these words with regret.(less)

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Jun 09, 2011 Kristen rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed Courtney Smith's book about how music has shaped her life and what it says about you. At times the book reads like High Fidelity from a female perspective. I laughed a lot as she details what a potential boyfriend's musical tastes says about him (I now know better to date anyone who loves The Smiths too much) and how musical soundtracks determine our lives. A lot of her musical preferences were similar to mine, and anyone who can write in-depth about the Romeo + Juliet soundtrac...more

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Apr 27, 2012 Bart rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an interesting book that betrays an intellect superior to the author's voice and occasionally suffers from an identity crisis of sorts. Most of the third-person reporting is informative and engaging, even, or perhaps especially, if a reader knows nothing about the history of girl bands or girlfriends of boy bands. Most of the first-person storytelling merits praise for its sincerity. And the final chapter - as an ode to the twistaplot - is novel indeed.

Trouble is, the three approaches do...more

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Jan 15, 2012 Cassandra Phoenix rated it 5 of 5 stars

H. and I read when we eat dinner. We spend all our time together, so the whole catching-up-at-dinner bondy thing is not that pressing. Tonight I started "Record Collecting For Girls" by Courtney E. Smith and she asked, "Why would you want to read a book about that?"

"Well," I said, "back in the day --"

"You used to collect records?"

"No. Don't interrupt and let me splain. Back when your Mom was 16 or 17, one of the ways you would show a guy you liked him, or your friend that you cared about them, y...more H. and I read when we eat dinner. We spend all our time together, so the whole catching-up-at-dinner bondy thing is not that pressing. Tonight I started "Record Collecting For Girls" by Courtney E. Smith and she asked, "Why would you want to read a book about that?"

"Well," I said, "back in the day --"

"You used to collect records?"

"No. Don't interrupt and let me splain. Back when your Mom was 16 or 17, one of the ways you would show a guy you liked him, or your friend that you cared about them, you made them a mixed tape. And you would collect cassette tapes and obsessively organize them. My friend from college, Eva? She cared about music even more than I do."

"Then a book called 'High Fidelity' came out and described pretty much how I viewed my music collection and rearranging it and making mixed tapes. But it was really a book for guys. So now this book is out, and it's by a woman, and describes it from that point of view."

I refrained from chanting, "One of Us! One of Us!" because I thought it would freak H. out, but that's how this book makes me feel. And it made me really wistful and nostalgic for who I was during those times (as freaked out and unmedicated and unmediated as I was) because I could find a band I liked and just really immerse myself in them and their work.

I mean, I still love The Church, and Crowded House, and Nine Inch Nails, and I am probably the only person in the whole wide world that still likes Dada, but it's one of those fond and banked affections, instead of the red-hot conflagration it was when I was in my early twenties. Where I would make a mixed tape for one of my friends because they absolutely had to hear this band, this artist, this song. Or debate with my college friends what would be essential to put on a cassette to have sex to.

Of course, I had the time and the emotional energy to devote to those kinds of pursuits back then. These days I watch my daughter discover the bands she likes, and I brace myself for the onslaught of enthusiasm. She is, after all, my daughter. I can't wait to see what she does.(less)

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Feb 05, 2012 Ariel Cummins rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, books-for-grownups

So, here's the thing. I love books. Like, every single thing about them: I like holding the physical objects, I like reading them, I want to talk about them constantly, I like thinking about how we access books, I like the ease of ebooks, I want to read all the time...

Which is great! But while I've now found a ton of people in my actual and digital world who love books just as much as I do, growing up, there weren't really a lot of my peers who were sharing my joy. I was a bookophile in a sea o...more

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Jan 24, 2012 Cynthia rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm so torn about this book. On the one hand, Ms. Smith's got some good advice to give, hilarious and insightful anecdotes, and she clearly knows what she's talking about. I admire that she's not content to sit on the sidelines of (the at least superficially) male-dominated world of music fandom, and that she's candid and blunt about her experiences and observations. Also, I admit that I was an ardent devotee of MTV2's Subterranean and was really interested in what little she had to say about he...more

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Jun 08, 2012 Clare rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: music, nonfiction

It took me longer to think about what to write about this book than it did to read the book itself. After some thought, I decided to give it a weak 3 stars. I gobbled it up on the bus to and from work in the last few days and I laughed a lot. It's not about record collecting, but it is about girls who like music, specifically girls who like boys, and especially girls who like boys who like music or even better are musicians. Which is to say, it's a little shallow, but there was enough here to re...more

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Jul 12, 2011 fleegan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, non-fiction

The title makes it sound like this book is a music guide for girls. It is not. It reads more like a memoir about her history with music as well as some general music history thrown in.

There were two parts of the book that I thought were very clever. One is that she has a playlist at the end of each chapter with all the the groups and songs she mentions in the chapter. That was a neat idea. The last chapter had this really great Choose Your Own Adventure style of how to find music that is simila...more The title makes it sound like this book is a music guide for girls. It is not. It reads more like a memoir about her history with music as well as some general music history thrown in.

There were two parts of the book that I thought were very clever. One is that she has a playlist at the end of each chapter with all the the groups and songs she mentions in the chapter. That was a neat idea. The last chapter had this really great Choose Your Own Adventure style of how to find music that is similar to music you like. It was smart and witty.

There are two or three solid chapters in this book, but the rest of it I can’t figure out. I’m also not sure who this book is for. If it is for girls, as the title implies, then I’d think it’s geared for teens and maybe women in their early twenties.

I’m fairly certain that the author and I are the same age. Yet throughout the book she keeps talking about having crushes on boys. There comes a time when you stop referring to men or guys as boys. By using the word boys instead of men (or guys or dudes sense we’re going informal here) one implies that the men are immature for their age. That’s fine. But if you keep calling men who are roughly the same age as you boys, that shows a level of disrespect (or creepiness). This author uses the word boys so much that it’s distracting. I can’t tell if she’s calling all of her boyfriends boys because she thinks they were/are immature or if she’s calling them that out of some kind of disrespect for males. I don’t think it’s the latter because she seems to very much like guys. So it might be that she just has a habit of either dating immature guys or overusing the word boys instead of men or guys. A good friend or proofreader/editor could help her with this.

Another thing that was distracting was she admits she’s a music nerd and a music snob, and the book touts that she’s bringing a “female perspective” to music, but her music snobbery and the music snobbery of the “boys” she’s trying to impress/date/whatever, is the same music snobbery. She’s acting just like the guys. She’s judging and hating the music she doesn’t like. I don’t see how this is a female perspective.

In the chapter Guilty Pleasures, Ms. Smith hates on the Black Eyed Peas and judges others for liking them, then turns around and says she likes The Pussycat Dolls, but that's okay because they are her guilty pleasure. She also says that if someone is proud of all the music they own (meaning they don’t have a group/singer they feel ashamed of liking) that that person is either ignorant about music or they are a “pompous ass.” As a 33 year old woman who does not particularly care for country music, I have to say that I’m not particularly proud of the amount of Glen Campbell songs on my iPod, but I also don’t feel the need to defend them to anyone. Why this would make me ignorant or an ass, I have no idea.

I think some of the individual chapters would have made really good magazine articles or something, but the book as a whole just doesn’t really accomplish anything. If this book is for twenty-somethings and teen girls, I wish the author would have been more about building up confidence in liking what you like, and not so much about stalking guys with similar music interests and trying to impress them with musical knowledge. I wish there really had been a female perspective instead of the if-you-can’t-beat-’em-join-’em vibe the book had.

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Apr 13, 2012 Terri Light rated it 4 of 5 stars

Though the author and I clearly differ in generation and on the feminist agenda of one's music collection, I applaud her love of Elvis Costello and her virtual cojones at challenging the boys' music knowledge via the ever-present cool-a-thon of musicspeak. I was once nearly proposed to at a party by a fellow Pete Townshend fan who had never run into a PDBT enthusiast with actual girlparts. Seriously. He presented me his draft card and passed out on a chair. All my teen through adult life, I have...more

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Jan 26, 2012 Kerri rated it 2 of 5 stars

The fact that I enjoy reading other people's thoughts about music has been made clear to me as I have read through Hornby, Sheffield and Klosterman works at breakneck speed on numerous occasions and loved every minute of it. When I found this book I was excited to finally read about music from a woman's point of view, which as Smith reiterates, is very rare in the industry. Throughout college I definitely encountered some "music snob" guys through the radio station and the newspaper where I was...more The fact that I enjoy reading other people's thoughts about music has been made clear to me as I have read through Hornby, Sheffield and Klosterman works at breakneck speed on numerous occasions and loved every minute of it. When I found this book I was excited to finally read about music from a woman's point of view, which as Smith reiterates, is very rare in the industry. Throughout college I definitely encountered some "music snob" guys through the radio station and the newspaper where I was the editor of the Arts & Style section, but I have always felt equally if not more informed about music than they were. I have gotten into the Beatles/Stones debate (Beatles, all the way) with both guys and girls and have gone to every single concert I've ever attended in the presence of at least one other girl. Reading this book, for me, wasn't about sticking it to the guy music elitists in my life, because I've never really felt their presence. What I hoped to find was some awesome women in music history, good mix tapes, insider secrets and personal stories from the author about the role music has played in her life from childhood to her work at MTV. I feel like Smith did some things in this book really well and some things ... well, not so much.

There were a few things about the writing that I did not enjoy, and that is entirely due to the fact that I didn't agree with what Smith was saying. When you get into writing personal stories about what music means to you there will always be room for disagreement and believe me, I did disagree. The fact that almost all of the personal stories Smith told were laced with references to her "super duper important" work at MTV, the fact that her taste in music is FAR SUPERIOR to almost everyone around her, and the fact that she has broken up with or gotten her heart broken by boys in bands annoyed me because I felt like she was either full of herself or was just embracing stereotypes of females in music. There were plenty of moments where I found myself rolling my eyes, including her insistence that Fleetwood Mac can't be listened to in NYC (I was born and raised and still live here and I listened to plenty of Fleetwood Mac with no problem), the entire chapter on guilty pleasures and her obviously insane declaration that any guy who is into The Smiths would make a terrible boyfriend. I have had a run-in with a guy who loved The Smiths and the reason it didn't work out was because he is a douche bag, not because of what music he listens to. It seems to me that Smith should start coming to terms with that one, too. Also, I am a girl and I would count The Smiths as one of my favorite artists. I am also nowhere near obsessed with serial killers. I can't even watch horror movies. Smith clearly hates this artist and is simply spewing out her condemnation based on biased personal experiences, reading more like the diary of a teenage girl that happened to be scorned by a Smiths fan than an actual music writer. A lot of the book read that way, actually.

However, there were plenty of moments where I enjoyed this book and the information contained within. I loved the way she started off with the Top 5 list and her reasons for choosing the artists she did. High Fidelity is one of my all-time favorite books and it helped set the tone as light and witty and seemed to really be focused on music ... although that didn't last for long. It was also really interesting to read about the evolution and demise of the all-girl band, who could/should be The Next Madonna, and the rise, fall and rise again of the Record Collector. If there was one thing that was clear throughout, it was that Smith really does love music. She wants other women to embrace their love of music, too and go out there armed with as much knowledge about it as the boys have. She wants women to be able to tell their own stories through song. To listen to new things. To broaden their musical horizons.

All of that is admirable and I only wish that was the point she stuck with for the entirety of the book ... where she spent most of her time, however, was discussing the perfect songs to play when someone breaks your heart, the perfect song to play when you break someones heart, her affair with a semi-famous musician with a girlfriend, the types of guys never to date based on their music taste, how to choose an "Our Song" for your relationship ... basically, she spent almost the entire time defining women's place in music by men, which is completely what this book was NOT supposed to do. I wish she would have told us more about her music experience outside of her musical experience with men. I wish she would have given us more history lessons about important female artists. That was where this book really shined. Instead of trying to "fight back" against the male music jerks in her life through this book she should have forgotten about them all together and focused on the awesome musicians, both male and female, that made her love music in the first place.(less)

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Dec 29, 2011 Kelli Robinson rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm a self-proclaimed music snob just like Courtney E. Smith and I've NEVER met another girl as into music as me so I was instantly drawn to this book when it popped up as a recommendation by Amazon while looking for - you guessed it - music. It was a quick and easy read with a few moments of head nodding but, most of the time, I felt a generation gap between me and the author or maybe it was really an experiential gap since the author and I are less than 10 years apart in age. I've never worked...more

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Aug 17, 2011 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, music, memoir, america

One long-ago day in 1995 I was sitting in the Cafe Iguana with my friend Dulcie, washing down lunch with a pint, when she asked me if I’d read High Fidelity yet. This was the first time I’d heard of Nick Hornby or his debut novel. Until that point, “High Fidelity” was something I associated with the mysterious concept of “Dolby NR” and the backs of record sleeves.

“You have to read it,” she told me, “it's about us!”

She was right. That book was about us. It was about our life. We both worked in a...more

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Oct 03, 2011 Brianna Soloski rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoirs, reviewed-for-blog, books-in-2011

Record Collecting for Girls was part memoir, part dissertation on why we should like certain kinds of music and not others. I picked the book up on a whim, but I’m glad I did. It was an interesting read. The author, Courtney Smith, worked for MTV in their music programming department and was instrumental in helping bands like Death Cab for Cutie and Vampire Weekend get their name out there.

From my perspective, she had a little bit of an attitude about her music choices – as if they were superio...more Record Collecting for Girls was part memoir, part dissertation on why we should like certain kinds of music and not others. I picked the book up on a whim, but I’m glad I did. It was an interesting read. The author, Courtney Smith, worked for MTV in their music programming department and was instrumental in helping bands like Death Cab for Cutie and Vampire Weekend get their name out there.

From my perspective, she had a little bit of an attitude about her music choices – as if they were superior to what other people might choose. Maybe it was just me reading into it, but I feel like she looks down on people who don’t like the same music as her. I have pretty diverse taste in music, and I know most people don’t like the same music I do, but I don’t make them feel like they’re missing out because we have different taste in music. On the flip side, that’s why I share play lists on my blog sometimes, in an effort to expose people to other kinds of music and perhaps get suggestions of bands I should check out.

In the first chapter, she talks about picking your top five – the bands that you love so much you could listen to them daily and you own everything they’ve ever released. This led me to think about my top five bands. I was going to make it a separate post, but I’ll just include it here:

1. Mumford & Sons
2. Lady Antebellum
3. Florence + The Machine
4. Matt Nathanson
5. The Weepies

I don’t have everything these artists have done, but pretty darn close. If I could find a way to make a play list in iTunes that had every single song from these five artists, I’d be a happy camper.

Back to the book. Ms. Smith also talks about how girl bands have all but disappeared from our radar, how important it is to have guilty pleasures (hello, Backstreet Boys!) and having a song with your significant other. Reading the Our Song, Your Song, My Song chapter was tough for me. I don’t have a significant other and probably won’t for a very long time, so there is no our song. I do, however, have a lot of songs that remind me of previous significant others, songs that I can’t listen to without conjuring up a whole lot of painful memories. I dream of having that closeness with someone again, but I’m learning to live without it.

She talks about The Next Madonna, but I disagreed with her almost entirely. I don’t believe Britney Spears or Lady Gaga are the next Madonna. The next Madonna is going to come from where we least expect it and turn the musical world upside down. Her chapter (rant) on The Smiths was a little much – she basically made it seem as if liking The Smiths made you crazy. Personally, I like There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, but you really can’t go by me.

There was a lot of emphasis on creating play lists. There was a play list at the end of each chapter with a list of songs mentioned. I liked that aspect of the book. I love making play lists – last year I made one for each month of the year and I’m planning to do that again next year. It’s fun to have a song set that reminds you of something that happened during the month. Of course, my play lists tend to be full of the songs I’m obsessed with at the time.

Despite my issues with the book, it was a fun read. I’d suggest it to anyone who enjoys music and is interested in checking out some bands they might have heard of but not listened to very much of their music.

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Nov 01, 2012 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I really wanted to like this book. I had read a preview chapter on The Hairpin and loved it, so I thought I'd love the whole book. Unfortunately, that wasn't true. Smith focuses the majority of her anecdotes on past relationships and seems to suggest that a girl's entire relationship with music is based on boyfriends she has had. Putting aside the heteronormative-ness of that assumption, I find it to be very reductive and limiting. Girls relate to music in so many ways, some of which are, of cou...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Tiffany rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: too-much-fluff, nonfiction, geekiness, 2012, when-the-music-hits-i-feel-no-pain

Frankly, this book is not for girls. The hidden print in the title of this book is probably something like: Record Collecting for the Female Music Snob. And I know that's a bit harsh, but I really don't think that this book is accessible enough for anyone to read it and really glean something for it. Courtney E. Smith references a ton of music that I've never heard of. And the thing is that I can't even get a clear idea of what it sounds like - looking up all the songs mentioned just keep me fro...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Alisa rated it 5 of 5 stars

When I saw this book on a music-themed display at Joseph Beth, I was immediately intrigued by the title. I've always fancied myself a music nerd, but I know I still have a LOT to learn. The author Courtney E. Smith worked in programming for MTV and was influential in choosing which bands got played on the air. This book was highly entertaining and very informative. I loved the author's suggestions on how to discover new music, and what your musical tastes may be saying about you, and what you c...more

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Nov 05, 2011 Iris rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: music

Chatty and sweet-natured, it's part memoir of a music-industry veteran, part love-life retrospective, and part rock anecdote collection. Put together, the ultimate goal seems to be to incite women to reclaim and develop their musical tastes instead of relying on the bullying influence of rock-nerd boyfriends.

I'm happily encasada with a jazz buff, but my own musical tastes are necessarily dormant in this arrangement. (When I asked my man if I could add a few tracks to a party playlist, I was met...more

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May 30, 2011 Catie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011, memoir, for-review

This book, more than anything, made me realize that I will first and foremost always be a book nerd, and my music nerddom will forever live in the backseat. I can spend hours thinking about the four books that I am typically in the middle of at any given time. I have a bookshelf that’s probably at about 200% of its recommended capacity. I have a cat named after a literary character. That bag of books in the corner? I have no idea when I got those or what they are. Unfortunately, my musical nerde...more This book, more than anything, made me realize that I will first and foremost always be a book nerd, and my music nerddom will forever live in the backseat. I can spend hours thinking about the four books that I am typically in the middle of at any given time. I have a bookshelf that’s probably at about 200% of its recommended capacity. I have a cat named after a literary character. That bag of books in the corner? I have no idea when I got those or what they are. Unfortunately, my musical nerdery is just not up to par. I am not sure who would really appreciate this book: while there are a few more approachable chapters (“Top Five Lists” and “Guilty Pleasures” for example), the rest is full of overly detailed musical history that I found incredibly boring.

This book never feels cohesive; I’m not sure if this is true but I strongly suspect that this may be one of those “books” that’s cobbled together from blog posts and articles. It’s titular claim (“Unleashing Your Inner Music Nerd, One Album at a Time”) suggests that it is a guidebook, and it is, for about three chapters. The rest is full of dry recitations of musical history, lots of personal stories about how she found certain bands and why she loves them, and “interludes” about using Last.fm, Rhapsody, music blogs, Second Life, and All Music Guide which are sure to horribly date this book and render it useless in 5-10 years. I mean, sure, I love Goodreads. But hopefully I’ll never write a whole chapter in a book about how to use it. And then there are the chapters that are just shoved in with no purpose that I can see – like an in depth discussion about why The Beatles are better than The Rolling Stones (again, with tons of historical detail that I care nothing about), and a whole chapter about the indignities that have befallen women who date rock stars. How is that relevant to music collecting?

There’s no doubt that Courtney E. Smith is a bona fide music nerd, and she’s more than qualified to give the rare woman’s point of view in the music industry – so why wouldn’t she? This book has more than enough personal stories to qualify as a memoir, and I think that it would be a far more interesting read if it would just accept that it really really wants to be a memoir. I was very intrigued by the chapter called “Where Have All the Girl Bands Gone?” I actually really wanted to know. What happened? Why have they all gone underground? But she never really attempts to answer that question. Instead it’s a chronicling of girl bands from the 50’s – present. AGAIN with the history!

She also, besides the few more approachable chapters, almost never makes any attempt to make all of this music “riffing” and discussion relevant to anyone but the nerdiest of music nerds. I think that it’s okay that this book won’t have mass commercial appeal, but it feels highbrow enough to be off-putting. Also, a woman who is in her thirties should NEVER use the phrase “a boy I had a crush on recently,” unless she is a pedophile.

Perfect Musical Pairing

Arcade Fire – Wake Up

Yeah, Courtney Smith, I was a little bummed that you dismissed every Arcade Fire album as “over-hyped,” “obnoxious,” and “self-important” except their latest. I know that among indie music nerds, there’s a widely acknowledged negative linear correlation between the enjoyment one gets from listening to a particular band, and the popularity of said band. So, I’m sure that the grammy that they just received has made their yupster status rise even higher in your eyes. Good thing I can claim primary book nerd status so I have a free pass to love them anyway. This song is one of the more well-known tracks from “Funeral” and all I have to say is, stick this in your pipe and smoke it!
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Jul 11, 2012 Clayton Cheever rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book was ok. It could have been so much more. I read the entire thing and found bits to like throughout, but I was seriously underwhelmed by how it failed to really look at lots of women in music. I couldn't believe neither the Indigo Girls nor Ani Difranco were mentioned. Not once. It wasn't until almost the last page hat Sinead O'Connor was mentioned. The author is proud of her stint with MTV. I think it really showed how limited her view is. Oh, and she never mentions any music outside...more

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Sep 04, 2011 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a well-written, witty book that weaves the stories of music over the last fifty years (focusing on the semi-indie scene of someone in their 30's) with the author's stories from the music biz (working for MTV) as well as the business of men (dealing with their music nerdiness as well as romantic disasters). I really enjoyed reading this book - I learned fun new things and also found myself laughing out loud at many points. Plus, I have many new "musical k-holes" (read the last chapter for...more

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Sep 04, 2011 Rachel added it

A better title for this book would be "Record Collecting for Girls who define themselves by the Men." If the author isn't trying to hang with the boys and play their music snob games then she is relying on her step-father's influences. For a self-proclaimed 'taste maker' she doesn't seem like a music fan. Dismissing R.E.M.'s early albums as the same record struck me as weird. This is a personal bias, but I hate the assignation of a "guilty pleasure" song. If a song does it for you, own it. Music...more

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