Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota

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Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota

3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 · rating details · 7,278 ratings · 404 reviews

Empirically proving that -- no matter where you are -- kids wanna rock, this is Chuck Klosterman's hilrious memoir of growing up as a shameless metalhead in Wyndmere, North Dakotoa (population: 498). With a voice like Ace Frehley's guitar, Klosterman hacks his way through hair-band history, beginning with that fateful day in 1983 when his older brother brought home Mötley...more

Paperback, 288 pages

Published April 30th 2001 by Scribner (first published April 28th 2001)

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Jul 08, 2008 Imogen rated it 2 of 5 stars

I get the project, and I support the project. I was absolute4ly in love with Poison in fourth grade, and I still get super semi-ironically excited about a lot of the music he's writing about, in just the ways he describes. But Chuck, did you have to be such a douche?

The section on sexism in 80s glam rock is the most tautological, non-informative series of non-arguments I've ever read, which seems to culminate in the argument 'these bands were sexist, but in capitalism, who cares?' Which is prob...more

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Jun 04, 2007 Trin rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: music, popculture, american-lit

I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Chuck Klosterman. I’ve read all his books (I left this one till last, because it’s about heavy metal and that’s not a subject I’m desperately interested in) and I think he’s frequently incredibly funny and often very insightful. But man, does he piss me off sometimes. In Fargo Rock City, that occurred when he decided to share his views on female music fans. Apparently, male music fans are more loyal and less likely to get distracted by every shiny n...more I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Chuck Klosterman. I’ve read all his books (I left this one till last, because it’s about heavy metal and that’s not a subject I’m desperately interested in) and I think he’s frequently incredibly funny and often very insightful. But man, does he piss me off sometimes. In Fargo Rock City, that occurred when he decided to share his views on female music fans. Apparently, male music fans are more loyal and less likely to get distracted by every shiny new thing because men are more analytical and women are more emotional. Yeah. There are so many things wrong with that statement that I risk turning this into a huge rant, which I do not want to do. Leaving aside the issue of “loyalty” (well, after I point to exhibit A: the giant collection of U2 stuff that I’ve bought over the years even when a) I had no money, and b) what I was buying was redundant to stuff I already had save for an extra B-side or remix or miniposter or WHATEVER), for Klosterman to use the old “men are analytical, women are emotional” argument is so absurd in the context of this book that it’s almost hilarious. Because the ENTIRE BOOK is about Klosterman’s emotions. How much he loved heavy metal, and how much it changed and shaped his life, and how much he still loves it. How much it bugs him when people dismiss it without thought, and how he thinks it should be considered important because it was important to him. This is a raw outpouring of emotion! Only he’s a guy, so we’re not allowed to call it that. We have to call it analysis. Right. Do people—Klosterman and anyone else—really think that when women have emotions—which, y’know, we’re actually willing to admit are emotions—we don’t analyze them at all? That we’re just like, “I feel so HAPPY today! La la la!” or “I’m SAD today. I’m heading straight for the Ben & Jerry’s, no thought involved!” Or even, “I really like this band! I’m just going to listen to them and go to concerts and scream and try to sleep with the drummer AND NEVER CONSIDER MY MOTIVATIONS AT ALL.” Women are clearly brainless puppy-dog creatures!

Okay, so this may have tapped into some other issues I’m having right now? But the point remains. Klosterman’s “analysis” of what makes heavy metal important is actually very minimal: it was important to him. It was important to a lot of other people. Therefore it is important in general. And I completely agree with this. I think pop culture should be talked about, because it does say a lot about people and what matters to them—and what could be more important than that? This is why I like reading Klosterman in the first place: because he recognizes that, and talks about it in an amusing manner. It’s just when he decides that he’s an expert on women that he pisses me off. (Well, and some other times. But never mind.)

ANYWAY…all of that said, I actually enjoyed the rest of the book a lot. And I don’t care one iota about heavy metal. But Klosterman does make me care about other people caring.(less)

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Aug 02, 2007 Carl rated it 4 of 5 stars

There's something about Chuck Klosterman's writing that I literally eat up. I blew through this book in two days, ignoring my job, TV, and my girlfriend in the process. It felt like a vacation from normal book reading because I wasn't studying some socially relevant topic I'd recently deemed important to know, I was reading critical analysis of popular music that I can't help but love and obsess over. CK is perfect for guys like me: the kind of guy that tells himself he's got to read 50 more pag...more

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Aug 06, 2007 Mark rated it 2 of 5 stars

"Fargo Rock City" is Chuck Klosterman's first stab at writing more than an album review in SPIN or a story about Marilyn Manson in the Akron Beacon-Journal. And it shows.

The premise is ambitious, and therefore admirable: An entire book about heavy metal from 1980-1990. Essentially, the hair/glam scene that was taking place in Los Angeles and how it all shaped him as a youngster growing up in rural North Dakota.

It's about 100 pages too long and goes horribly askew when he takes heavy metal out...more

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Dec 31, 2007 RandomAnthony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: music

I grew up in Chicago, another urban heavy metal bastion, so I can relate to Mr. Klosterman's love/embarassment/love relationship with Marshall stacks and singers who screech like castratos. Klosterman does a great job of describing how he first discovered metal, what drew him to the music, and why he likes what he likes. Also, he loves TALKING about music, and if you love music, you probably like talking about music almost as much as listening to music. Klosterman gets it. There's a great story...more

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May 27, 2008 Adam Hale rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

If you haven’t read Fargo Rock City by author and rock critic Chuck Klosterman you should go get a copy. It is an interesting tale of a metal head growing up in North Dakota in the 1980’s, a time when heavy metal ruled the world.
I think what made me like it more is that I can somewhat relate to him and what he is saying. He was born and raised in Wyndmere, North Dakota and listened to the radio station out of Fargo. He tackles many of the issues facing metal when it hit the mainstream such as...more

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Feb 27, 2008 Jay double ewe rated it 3 of 5 stars

Chuck Klosterman is a giant dick. Seriously, if we could ask him right now if he's a huge wang, the answer would be yes. Knowing that going into reading this book made the book slightly more enjoyable. The biggest problems I had with it included: 1. I didn't know enough about the subject to keep all the bands distinguished in my head 2. Klosterman comes off as smarmily sexist in an almost-manufactured way and 3. it really had nothing to do with the title or subtitle. Number 3. he tries to answer...more

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Aug 03, 2007 Bo Liles rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: music lovers

Okay, a warning is in order. If you read this book, you may experience side effects such as a yearning to go to CD Warehoue and buy a Guns-n-Roses album or maybe the entire Ozzy solo discography. Or not. Either way, if you were exposed to rock radio in the 80's and early 90's (or just have watched multiple episodes of Behind the Music on VH1) then you will have many of the songs referenced in this excellent memoir stuck in your head for days, maybe weeks.

I like Klosterman because he's fiercely l...more

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Sep 15, 2008 michael rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who hate metal

As someone who grew up on 1980s hair metal, I can say this with utmost confidence: Fargo Rock City is the best book ever written on the subject.

This book is great to the degree that it is personal, artful and passionate about its subject, just as Elie Faure's treatment of the history of art was personal, artful, passionate, or as Spengler's study of western civilization -- a kind of writing that has long since fallen out of favor with the cultural/intellectual elite, for some odd reason.

And th...more

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Oct 17, 2007 Erika rated it 5 of 5 stars

Seriously loved this book. Chuck Klosterman is one of my favorite writers, and he spends the book discussing the heavy metal of the '80s, which I totally loved. This was my favorite quote from the book:

"Eddie (Van Halen) and Eric (Clapton) are certainly among the greatest rock guitarists who ever lived, but for totally different reasons. Listening to Clapton is like getting a sensual massage from a woman you've loved for the past ten years; listening to Van Halen is like having the best sex of y...more

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Mar 23, 2009 Christopher rated it 3 of 5 stars

After reading and loving Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto, I decided to give the Klosterman canon a go until it wasn't worth it anymore. Fargo Rock City, my second Klosterman book (and his debut work) did not disappoint. Klosterman is a few years older than I am but we both claim the same musical generation: We were both old (or young) enough to be genuinely moved by Guns N Roses and Poison in the same way our parents must have been moved by The Beatles. And Klosterman makes an...more After reading and loving Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto, I decided to give the Klosterman canon a go until it wasn't worth it anymore. Fargo Rock City, my second Klosterman book (and his debut work) did not disappoint. Klosterman is a few years older than I am but we both claim the same musical generation: We were both old (or young) enough to be genuinely moved by Guns N Roses and Poison in the same way our parents must have been moved by The Beatles. And Klosterman makes an excellent argument in the opening pages for the cultural viability of heavy metal by examining the Billboard charts from 1987.

One of my two negative criticisms of the book is that Klosterman seems to argue against himself at times by claiming heavy metal was terrible music even though we loved it, I suppose as a way to distance himself from the reality that metal was pretty lowbrow. However, that becomes the cliched, "It was so bad it was good" post-post-modern total embrace of irony that has defined this generation as it has aged. It's like we loved really bad music (Def Leppard) and bad television (Saved by the Bell) and bad movies (Karate Kid I, II, and III). But there was something genuine about them all that we loved as kids (who didn't practice the Crane Kick on their younger sibling?), and now that we are adults we still love bad music (Kelly Clarkson) and bad television (Grey's Anatomy and Gossip Girl) and bad movies (insert name of a Judd Apatow movie) and in order to feel like we actually are adults we must reconcile this badness with our supposed maturity. So we love it ironically. And Klosterman inches his way into this territory with heavy metal after having already made a case for it.

Second, Klosterman takes much liberality with his definition of metal. Was Van Halen really metal or just hard rock, like Zeppelin? I would also argue that GnR is just hard rock. And he gets confusing in his explanation of of the various metal sub genres: Speed, Glam, Hair, Hard, Heavy, etc.

However, the book is more cultural critique than anything, with a splash of personal history. You don't read this book because it helps you academically justify your love of Warrant and the Bullet Boys. You read it because you rocked out to this stuff at one point, and because you thought the "November Rain" video was awesome right up to the point where the guy dives through the cake, and even then it was still pretty freakin' awesome, and because "Rock of Love" will never discredit "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," and because you still don't change the radio station when "Jump" comes on and you probably play air synthesizer while you drive, and because you still harbor dreams of a "woo-girl" in a bar actually talking to you and you know that can only happen in a world where "Pour Some Sugar on Me" exists.

For that, Klosterman has written a worthy book.

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Apr 23, 2013 Craig Wright rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: top-25

It may seem strange to include a book about how heavy metal music helped shape the life of Chuck Klosterman growing up in rural North Dakota, but the more I thought about including this book on the list, the more I felt that I HAD to include it. I am not much of a heavy metal fan because I never understood the appeal. Klosterman not only explains how and why heavy metal is the most misunderstood genre of music around, but he forces the reader to think about how anything a person enjoys in his or...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Justin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Growing up five years later and one state over from Klosterman, and a huge fan of heavy metal music, I figured this would be a book that I would both relate to and enjoy. In some ways, it was both but in others it failed on both accounts.

First, it quickly became clear that the music of Klosterman's youth and that of my own only overlapped in certain places. Many of the bands he described as "heavy metal" - Bon Jovi, Poison, Def Leppard, Slaughter, etc - I would dismiss as "hair metal", a term Kl...more Growing up five years later and one state over from Klosterman, and a huge fan of heavy metal music, I figured this would be a book that I would both relate to and enjoy. In some ways, it was both but in others it failed on both accounts.

First, it quickly became clear that the music of Klosterman's youth and that of my own only overlapped in certain places. Many of the bands he described as "heavy metal" - Bon Jovi, Poison, Def Leppard, Slaughter, etc - I would dismiss as "hair metal", a term Klosterman says he despises. Meanwhile, many of the heavy metal bands I was into as a kid - Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, etc - were dismissed rather snarkily when they were mentioned at all. Still, there were enough bands that overlapped our tastes - Guns N Roses, Motley Crue, and to a lesser degree for me Ratt and Skid Row - that made Fargo Rock City enjoyable. Particularly given that GNR and the Crue got far more ink than any other acts throughout the book.

It's not that I am saying that my tastes were better than his, or that we both don't have the right to like and classify music in whatever way we want, it's just that when I picked up a book about a Midwestern kid listening to heavy metal in the 80s, I brought in my own preconceived notions. Ultimately, I think it is the five-year age difference that is at blame: at one point Klosterman himself points out that in seen through the contexts of both youth and pop culture, a few years makes a huge difference.

In addition to the fact that many of the bands mentioned didn't really fit my tastes, or perhaps better yet my retrospective recollection of my tastes (as I know I had Bon Jovi and Def Leppard tapes as a kid), it became clear that a childhood in Des Moines (while certainly no mecca of culture) left me less cut off from the world at large than Klosterman's youth in the podunk town of Wyndmere, North Dakota and those differences rang out throughout the book as well.

Still, differences aside, I enjoyed reading this book. Even when I found it annoying and pretentious (as I did on numerous occasions) or awkward (the completely out-of-place and crying-out-to-be-cool chapter on his drinking habits), it was a breeze to read and provided some very entertaining and even enlightening looks at some of the music that I grew up with and will always continue to enjoy.

So, Chuck, while it may not have been a perfect fit, at least we'll always have Guns N'Roses. (less)

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Feb 24, 2012 Ryan added it

As recognized in his own epilogue, this book wasn't what I thought it would be or what I wanted, which is more of a straight-up memoir. But what I got was a pleasant surprise. A sign, to me, of really great writing is writing that can make you care about the subject matter when maybe you didn't before, or had no opinion whatsoever. I may have a soft spot in my heart for some of this music (I owned a fair amount of Poison, Skid Row and GNR myself, but who didn't?), but I haven't really thought ab...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Adam rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

During unending hours in the back of a conversion van and brief respites on land in Canada I read Chuck Klosterman’s Fargo Rock City. This book was recommended to me by Nate Scheible during a discussion outside of Parish Hall while waiting for a noise show to start and over a few Commodore Perry IPAs. He found out that I was a metal fan of old and recommended that I read it.

The book’s essence is how glam-metal [bands like Mötley Crüe, Poison and Cinderella] gave Chuck an entrance into the wide w...more During unending hours in the back of a conversion van and brief respites on land in Canada I read Chuck Klosterman’s Fargo Rock City. This book was recommended to me by Nate Scheible during a discussion outside of Parish Hall while waiting for a noise show to start and over a few Commodore Perry IPAs. He found out that I was a metal fan of old and recommended that I read it.

The book’s essence is how glam-metal [bands like Mötley Crüe, Poison and Cinderella] gave Chuck an entrance into the wide world outside of North Dakota. His point is, that no matter how derided glam-metal was, is and probably ever shall be, since it was an important part of the growth of a generation it shouldn’t be. Now, this wasn’t the kind of book I was hoping it would be. I hate glam-metal. To me there is nothing really metal about dudes with with flammable hair nancing about in spandex and singing about banging. That’s fine, but it’s not metal. I’m more of the Iron Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Ozzy fan for first-gen metal and Pantera, Anthrax and others for second-gen. I hate nü-metal, [Korn, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit] and technical-metal noodlers like Yngwie Malmsteen and Mastodon don’t do much for me either.

So basically, like every other metal fan, I’m a huge jackass about what I like.

Chuck’s book is good, although he mentions fly-fishing for walleye, which I think, while not impossible, is utterly ineffective. ANYWAY, there are digressions, tangents, anecdotes and the sorely desired lists and name-drops of random bands to dig for, but mixed in with all of this is some excellently penetrating commentary on both metal itself and its place within the zeitgeist of the 80s and 90s. These are the best parts. The most interesting parts of the book came at the end for me; when he got away from the hair and Axl Rose and started talking about what qualifies a band as metal, what bands are carrying on the metal torch [still, for him, in terms of glam] and how grunge killed it off.

He’s good at putting things in context, giving depth to what appears to be shallowness and rubbing his theories against possible criticisms to see what holds and what tears. He does some straw-manning, but hey, he’s a journalist. The book is often hilarious, as when he lists the kind of women each band likes to fuck, and geekily earnest, as when he lists his favorite metal albums and how much you’d have to pay him to never listen to it again.

One area I think he missed out on was talking about Euro-metal and its continuing massive popularity over there. That’s probably a completely different book though. If you’re even a slight fan of metal, or a fan of 80s glam or somewhat analytical discussions about Tawny Kitaen humping a Corvette, this is the book for you.(less)

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Sep 28, 2011 Patrick McCoy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-autobiography, non-fiction

Chuck Klosterman is an excellent writer and a very funny guy. I’ve been a fan of his column for Esquire and I’ve read his entertaining book of essays, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. And although I'm not a huge metal fan, but this is one of those books that is as much about the author as it is about the subject. Furthermore, anyone coming of age in the 80s will be familiar with most of the bands that Klosterman discusses in this book, which is a sort of homage to metal bands of his youth. I mean I...more Chuck Klosterman is an excellent writer and a very funny guy. I’ve been a fan of his column for Esquire and I’ve read his entertaining book of essays, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. And although I'm not a huge metal fan, but this is one of those books that is as much about the author as it is about the subject. Furthermore, anyone coming of age in the 80s will be familiar with most of the bands that Klosterman discusses in this book, which is a sort of homage to metal bands of his youth. I mean I started out listening to metal bands in junior high school and eventually found new wave and punk music by the middle of high school with a transition to popular Top 40 via MTV. In addition, one of my old Seattle roommates was a total metal freak. So Klosterman is about four years younger than me, but a product of the MTV generation and I would argue that Spokane, my hometown, has more in common with North Dakota than Seattle if truth be told. There are several hilarious quotable passages in this book, but I’ll only mention a few.

In relation to the appeal of heavy metal to young teenage boys (hence the term “cock rock”): “If parents really wanted to keep their sons from getting the neighbor girl pregnant, the best thing they could have done was buy them several Dio albums and the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide.”

In another section he writes about the problem of his CD collection that reflects his 80s metal fetish=which in turn ruins his indie rock credibility, which he turns around to his advantage by claiming to be an Ironic Contrarian Hipster. This is a complicated process-“…it forces you to own over a thousand CDs, and you have to hate all of them. In fact, the only things you can openly advocate are artists like the Insane Clown Posse and Britney Spears.”

Another great quote: “Hating (and sometimes mocking) music is just as important as loving (and embracing) music. They are basically the same emotive function, separated only by the tone of one’s voice.”(less)

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Feb 24, 2011 Nacho Cano rated it 4 of 5 stars

Chuck Klosterman loves metal.
Metal has been his obsession since he was very young. He allowed heavy metal to shape his adolescence since he was around - for the lack of a better term - the boring state of North Dakota.

Rather than discussing stories about his youth - which he does very rarely, - Klosterman spends most of his time talking about how metal shaped his opinions on the world around him. It helped him determine the lifestyle that he wants to live and also define his teenage personal...more Chuck Klosterman loves metal.
Metal has been his obsession since he was very young. He allowed heavy metal to shape his adolescence since he was around - for the lack of a better term - the boring state of North Dakota.

Rather than discussing stories about his youth - which he does very rarely, - Klosterman spends most of his time talking about how metal shaped his opinions on the world around him. It helped him determine the lifestyle that he wants to live and also define his teenage personality.

He expresses this through pivotal moments in metal history, from it's birth, to it's boom, to it's identity crisis - that being the what some would call, awful glam/hair metal era - to it's eventual death.
Chuck has an unconditional connection to metal, one of which can't be broken by anything; not even when girls started to get into heavy metal. It's something that is quite endearing to read, because he has such a connection to something so abstract and musical. He allows it to become a part of him and is therefore it completely. Even though he is now an adult, he still reflects upon it like an old friend or love.

To be honest, I loved this novel. Though it isn't quite up to literature standards and feels like it is written as a continuous column on the Onion A.v., it still holds up. There is a lot of depth to this book, primarily in terms of interpretation. For example, Chuck begins to talk about an anecdote which still impacts him to this day. When he had dinner with his family and his father accidentally said the name of Chuck's favorite band, Motley Crew. Everyone laughed but him and his father. Chuck then begins to talk about something else. However, if you look close enough, he essentially talked about how not once in his youth, did his father ever have any interest in knowing what his son liked, or had ever entered his room.

It is a delight to read this, quite quick too. It is very humerus and clever. Even if you know nothing of Metal there is still a lot to see, and trust me you will learn some because Chuck Klosterman loves metal and has written an entire book about it... oh and also about him.
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Feb 13, 2011 Allan MacDonell rated it 3 of 5 stars

You know how you're in a bar and some studious-looking kid two stools down, hoping to catch the attention and impress a table full of impressionable but unimpressed girls will pipe up about rock music or pop culture with this know-it-all fan's passion, hoping to impress these girls of the very fact of his existence, and if he can sling opinions with sufficient humor and zest and conviction, you might buy him a Budweiser to keep his spew going, even though he's totally ignorant of the New York Do...more

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Oct 09, 2009 Dr. Detroit rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It may be sacrilege to some, and even laughable to others, but Chuck Klosterman may just filling in the gap in my medulla oblongata left by the death of Lester Bangs. "Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey In Rural North Dakota" is a fascinating, insightful recounting of Klosterman's heavy metal obsession dating back to his days as a teenager in North Dakota. His unabashed love for not just metal, but rock and roll, shines through on every page, and his often hilarious stories of an adolescence...more

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Jul 31, 2010 Rebekkila rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: made-me-laugh

I lived this. Chuck Klosterman and I could be soul mates. I slept under a pentacle. I felt pain when Van Halen broke up.I saw Metallic 7 times until they started wearing pointy, shiny shoes. One of the guys from Poison threw a guitar pick to me and I was going to cherish it forever (or the next 6 months, I can'tfind it anymore). I had my dad listening to Battery and Master of puppets on the way to church. I saw Axl Rose rip off Steven Tyler's moves and a Guns and Roses/Aerosmith concert. Who is...more

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Jul 27, 2009 kat rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Seth (who doesn't read)

Shelves: new-read

As much as I love me some music, there's a big gaping hole where heavy metal is concerned. And God help Chuck Klosterman should he ever come to DC on a book tour.

Exhibit 1:

It's also fun to get drunk and cry during "Open Arms," and maybe even call your ex-girlfriend and apologize for things that actually happened in an altogether different relationship with an altogether different person. Just trust me on this one. Steve Perry is a fucking genius.

Exhibit 2:

When I'm straight, it always seems like...more

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Jun 08, 2010 David Holmes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fargo Rock City is alternately hilarious, rambling, sexist, reductive, and brilliant. Anybody who agrees with everything Chuck Klosterman writes in this book is either far too impressionable or named Chuck Klosterman. But the man's faults and contradictions are exactly what make him the perfect guide through the imperfect world of heavy metal. And his lack of respect for anything sacred is a refreshing twist on rock journalism, a craft which usually elevates (or disparages) its subjects in outsi...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Derrick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012read, music, memoirs, pop-culture, e-books

This book is not really a memoir, though it includes a lot of personal anecdotes. It's not really an analysis of hair metal or 80's rock culture, either, although it has some of that as well. I think it's a rambling celebration of an era and a mindset and how it affected one man on the street.

At one point, Klosterman asks another writer to compare a kid who went to a Black Flag concert in 1981 versus one who went to a Van Halen concert on the same day. The other writer goes into this long diatr...more

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Jun 07, 2011 Nycdreamin rated it 2 of 5 stars

When I picked this book up for $1 at a local thrift shop a few weeks back, I figured that since "Fargo Rock City" author Chuck Klosterman and I grew up a mere 239 miles from each other (Klosterman grew up in Wyndemere, ND and I grew up just a few hours away in Aitkin & Grand Rapids, MN) during the height of the 1980's hard rock/heavy metal explosion, we'd have a bit in common and I'd REALLY enjoy this book. I was wrong. I was only mildly amused and more than somewhat agitated by it.

Not that...more When I picked this book up for $1 at a local thrift shop a few weeks back, I figured that since "Fargo Rock City" author Chuck Klosterman and I grew up a mere 239 miles from each other (Klosterman grew up in Wyndemere, ND and I grew up just a few hours away in Aitkin & Grand Rapids, MN) during the height of the 1980's hard rock/heavy metal explosion, we'd have a bit in common and I'd REALLY enjoy this book. I was wrong. I was only mildly amused and more than somewhat agitated by it.

Not that Klosterman isn't a good writer. Quite the contrary, he is a great writer. He knows how to tell a story and he has a great sense of humor. But the impression I got from reading Klosterman's tales from his metal-drenched teenage years was that at some point after he graduated from high school and went off to college, some of his new poindexter college buddies must have told him "Metal IS NOT cool. It's dumb." And it seems that, although he still professes to love the music he grew up on, he has taken this observation to heart and fully agrees with it.

In almost every instance in this book while he's telling you how great a band is (his favorites seems to be Guns 'N' Roses, Motley Crue and Kiss), two sentences later he's telling you WHY they and their music were dumb. And maybe some of the music some of these bands released WAS dumb. But to read such a whiplash-inducing critique of so many of these bands...it just seemed like Chuck "outgrew" his metal phase, even though he says he still loves the music. But after reading "Fargo Rock City," I can't for the life of me figure out WHY he still loves the genere if he thinks it is so "dumb."

And to make matters worse, he seems to really have been mostly into mainstream pop-hair-metal. Not that that that's a bad thing. But he slams Yngwie Malmsteen. He slams Metallica. Maybe those bands were just a bit too cerebral for youg Chucky to understand. No mention of Slayer or Testament. Oh, L.A. Guns, Warrant (his first concert), Damn Yankees, Stryper, Poison, Dokken, Ratt, they're all here. But no mention of more obscure bands like House of Lords, Icon, Seduce, Fates Warning, Manowar...the list of bands he ignores is long. One of my favorite 80's hair bands, Autograph, is roundly dismissed with two words: "They sucked." Excuse me, but I happen to think that their debut album, "Sign In Please" is maybe one of the finest examples of the hair metal genere. I could go on and on and on, but I won't bore you with my opinions. And that's just it - I guess we each have our own opinions of music and some people's opinions change over the years, sometimes due to the influence of new peer groups.

I realize this review may seem a bit nit-picky, negative and defensive, and that's probably the case. But it seems I wasted almost a week reading this book, only to find so many of the bands both Klosterman and I grew up listening to are held in such low esteem by the author now that he's "all grown up." And that does bother me just a bit.

Maybe I'm just an immature, 40-something metal head at heart who will never really grow up (although I HAVE developed other musical tastes in the past 20 years) and as I did when I was in my teenage years, I sometimes feel like an attack on the music of my youth is an attack on me personally. That's how much I loved - and still love - so many of these bands. I've been flying the metal flag for most of my life and I will continue to do so until the day I die I guess. Hard rock and heavy metal are in my blood. It's just the way it is. And when I read some smarty-pants author dismissing the music and bands I still love as "dumb" and "stupid," well, it kinda gets under my skin just a bit.

Others will no doubt find this book an amazing read, and good for them. I, on the other hand, having finished reading the book over a week ago, still find myself a bit worked up over it. "Fargo Rock City" is NOT the story I thought it would be.(less)

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Nov 29, 2012 Winter-chill rated it 4 of 5 stars

Zunächst einmal finde ich, dass Fargo Rock City eher ein Fachbuch über die Musikrichtung Metal ist, als ein Roman. Zwar baut Klostermann immer wieder seine eigenen Erlebnisse und Erkenntnisse ein, wodurch das Buch zum Teil autobiographische Züge bekommt, aber im Großen und Ganzen besteht das Buch doch sehr aus Fachsimpelei und liest sich zum Teil fast wie ein wissenschaftliches Werk. Das heißt aber auf gar keinen Fall, dass das Buch dadurch langweilig oder gar schlecht ist. Im Gegenteil. Fargo R...more

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Jan 18, 2009 Mary rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: rock geeks

Recommended to Mary by: the interwebs

Shelves: nonfiction

Much of this book is entertaining -- Klosterman writes about heavy metal with a lot of wit and insight that's fun to read...especially because I'm not a metal fan. If I felt strongly about any of these bands, all his potificating probably would have gotten kind of annoying. Also, he can be hilarious, but can, on the same page, be overly detailed and completely lose the thread.

One of his points is how the metal audience is integral to the experience and frankly, I think he still identifies rathe...more Much of this book is entertaining -- Klosterman writes about heavy metal with a lot of wit and insight that's fun to read...especially because I'm not a metal fan. If I felt strongly about any of these bands, all his potificating probably would have gotten kind of annoying. Also, he can be hilarious, but can, on the same page, be overly detailed and completely lose the thread.

One of his points is how the metal audience is integral to the experience and frankly, I think he still identifies rather strongly with the bands. He meticulously argues how much of the metal band's standard provocation was artifice rather than conviction -- Ozzy wasn't a satanist, Iron Maiden's geeky classical-music-influenced rock was tarted up with evil symbols by record label, etc. But he takes a bunch of random, unjustified pokes at feminists, hippies, the Peace Corps, Tipper Gore, you name it. It's sort of weird. He gets all heady about metal, letting us inside his adolescent head and really bringing to life the experience of a rural North Dakota farm kid/heavy metal fan. He's not trying to gloss over any of his teenage awkwardness either. But once he tries to place his own experiences in a context, everything he doesn't have direct experience with becomes sort of two-dimensional.

I read a profile of him in Salon that was revealing. The author described him as "kind of hard to know" and "emotionally detached." She asks him if he's autistic or has Asbergerger's (he was not offended but amused by the questions). I think he's one of a class of Midwestern guys who live in their heads and not so much inside the rest of their bodies. They are often articulate, smart, and funny, but not particularly observant of what's happening around them. They are hard to connect with and lack some serious empathy. I think Klosterman can parse the hell out of his own experiences and, better yet, communicate them to us so clearly, it feels like we're there. But we're not really there. He's keeping us at arms length.

I do appreciate his unabashed love for '80s metal, even if he did feel the need to write a whole book defending it. He writes in his epilogue: "How can the music that was the soundtrack to the lives of so many teenagers not be culturally important?" It's kind of endearing.
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Mar 08, 2013 Abraham rated it 5 of 5 stars

Uno de esos libros con los que pude sentir una identificación inmediata desde las primeras páginas. Compartir experiencias con un autor puede ser la mejor manera de entender un libro. Si esto se hace desde la música, mejor aún. Y siendo este libro parcialmente autobiográfico, pues es perfecto.

No solamente se trata de compartir visiones sobre un género normalmente despreciado y desestimado por críticos y fans "serios" del rock (hablo del pop metal ochentero o "hair metal"). La parte de crecer con...more

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Jun 16, 2009 Dennis D. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Dennis D. by: Kevin, Nick

Chuck Klosterman wraps a treatise on the cultural merits of heavy metal in a quasi-autobiographical story about coming of age during the 1980s and early 1990s. Klosterman laments that hard rock is underserved when it comes to critical reflection, and suggests that the bands he grew up listening to: Mötley Crüe, Poison, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Quiet Riot, Van Halen, Def Leppard and Ratt, just to name a few, were as significant to him and his contemporaries as the Beatles and Stones were to children of th...more

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Dec 02, 2011 Josh Duggan rated it 5 of 5 stars

As this blog has (d)evolved, it has become more and more about my own fandom. There are a few opinions espoused here that are not related to media or sports, but those are becoming fewer and farther between. Generally, dropping by this site is simply checking out my opinions on these relatively unimportant matters--and certainly in the instance of this post it is not always in the realm of what some might consider timely.

Now, by happenstance, I had been told by a friend (J-Bone) that I should c...more As this blog has (d)evolved, it has become more and more about my own fandom. There are a few opinions espoused here that are not related to media or sports, but those are becoming fewer and farther between. Generally, dropping by this site is simply checking out my opinions on these relatively unimportant matters--and certainly in the instance of this post it is not always in the realm of what some might consider timely.

Now, by happenstance, I had been told by a friend (J-Bone) that I should check out Chuck Klosterman because "he writes like [I] talk." Then, about three weeks ago, KRD handed me Fargo Rock City and said she thought I'd like it because like Chuck Klosterman, I hail from a small town in the Upper Midwest (mine had one stoplight, his had none) and seem to share the same sensibility.

Thank you both. Having now read Fargo Rock City, being compared to him is flattering, and it probably wouldn't have happened if I'd not been loaned the book.

Fargo Rock City is Klosterman's love letter to 1980's Glam Metal. Having grown up a teen in a small farming town in an era in which this music was the prevalent force in his (and many others') youth, he feels that this genre is written off as being entirely unimportant and sets forth to correct this erroneous assertion by the critical community at large.

Now I don't listen to a lot of Glam (or Hair) Metal, so this isn't a book that is completely in my wheelhouse from a subject matter standpoint, but Klosterman's writing is so engaging and funny that the lack of encyclopedic knowledge in the area prior to having read the book is entirely irrelevant. Moreover, I'd have to say I agree with his contention that anything that was that much a part of popular culture for more than a decade cannot be written off as having been without merit because its message (sex, drugs, and booze) was generally superficial.

This isn't simply a look at metal's overlooked cultural impact on the masses, though. Fargo Rock City is an insanely endearing look at how this music affected the writer as a youth, and it is loaded with autobiographical content that hits closer to home than I might like.

Overall, there is not a single lull in the book, and not knowing the frontman of Dokken by name is not going to take away from the fun of reading this book.

But don't take my word for it.

Originally reviewed at http://inconsiderateprick.blogspot.co...(less)

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Oct 25, 2009 Jason Gregg rated it 4 of 5 stars

While reading "Fargo Rock City" I kept thinking how the planets aligned correctly in order for me even to come in contact with this book. If I was introduced to it 8 years ago I don't know if I would openly admit that I read it. I am a recovering hair metal fan. I tried to run away from my past but it was so hard to do with this book. It made me admit I had a problem but it also made me admit that I am OK with that.

It absolutely amazes how much I have in common with with Chuck Klosterman. We're...more While reading "Fargo Rock City" I kept thinking how the planets aligned correctly in order for me even to come in contact with this book. If I was introduced to it 8 years ago I don't know if I would openly admit that I read it. I am a recovering hair metal fan. I tried to run away from my past but it was so hard to do with this book. It made me admit I had a problem but it also made me admit that I am OK with that.

It absolutely amazes how much I have in common with with Chuck Klosterman. We're both about the same age and both enjoy irony and sarcasm. He mentioned his home town in North Dakota several times and how small it was and how hard it was to even get decent videos since they didn't have MTV. I grew up in a small town in northwest Iowa not too different from the town Chuck described in this book.

I agree with him, these larger than life bands were our escape from Smallville to something bigger. The hair, the "I don't give a fuck" attitudes, the rebellion against the norm, everything was there. It was our way of leaving town without ever getting out of our rooms or our Camaros. Motley Crue, Ozzy, Skid Row, G N' R, KISS and yes even Warrant and Poison, they were all part of the equation of this escapism.

He does a great job of putting them on a pedestal but never too high. He admits that they weren't perfect. I love how he breaks down his Jack Factor for his top albums (Jack Factor being how much he would need to be paid never to listen to certain albums again.) This man obviously did his homework on these bands, and he wrote this book with passion. One thing that should have been changed by his editor - dumb down the vocabulary a bit. Chuck, we get it, you went to a 4 year college and a got a degree. I don't know if that gets a credit with your audience of 80's hair metal fans or not.

If anything, this book made me get on YouTube and look up a lot of old videos from my youth. And why? Just like Chuck said, it was part of my adolescence and I can't easily close the door on that. I thought I could move on, but after reading this I might want to go pick up a copy of "The Decline of the Western Civilization II: the Metal Years".
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About Chuck Klosterman

Charles John "Chuck" Klosterman is an American pop-culture journalist, critic, humorist, and essayist. He was raised on a farm near Wyndmere, North Dakota and graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1994. After college he was a journalist in Fargo, North Dakota and later an arts critic for the Akron Beacon Journal in Akron, Ohio, before moving to New York City in 2002.

More about Chuck Klosterman...

Books by Chuck Klosterman

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto

Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas

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Quotes from Fargo Rock City: A Hea...

“It might sound chauvinistic, but there is a sad reality in rock music: Bands who depend on support from females inevitably crash and burn.” — 9 people liked it

“What my mom failed to understand was that I didn't even want long hair -- I needed long hair. And my desire for protracted, flowing locks had virtually nothing to do with fashion, nor was it a form of protest against the constructions of mainstream society. My motivation was far more philosophical. I wanted to rock. ” — 8 people liked it

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