Fever How Rock 'n' Roll Transformed Gender in America [Paperback]

InFever, music critic Tim Riley argues that while political and athletic role models have let us down, rock and roll has provided enduring role models for men and women. From Elvis Presley to Tina Turner to Bruce Springsteen to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, Riley makes a persuasive case that rock and roll, far from the corrosive force that conservative critics make it out to be, has instead been a positive influence in people's lives, laying out gender-defying role models far more enduringly than movies, TV, or real life.

Tim Rileyis the author ofTell Me WhyandHard Rain. His commentary on pop culture has appeared inThe Washington Post,Bostonmagazine, The Boston Phoenix,Salon, andFeed. He is currently the pop critic for NPR'sHere and Now. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Riley is at his very best. The New York Observer

Tim Riley'sFevercombines brainy and audacious cultural analysis with genuine musical understanding--a combination rare enough to inspire exhilaration. Tim Page, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Tim Page on Music

In his new book,Fever, Tim Riley goes beyond his unique fusion of technical music knowledge and stunningly perceptive emotional exegesis of lyrics to a wider-angle social vision. Ron Rosenbaum, The New York Observer

Feveris a fascinating look at the ways rock has shaped how we think about sexual identity....Riley presents serious academic points within a rock-critic analysis of icons that even a layperson would appreciate....Witty, acerbic, and smart. Charles R. Cross, author of Heavier Than Heaven