When Dave Thompson’s I Hate New Music: The Classic Rock Manifesto in 2008, the book did not so much divide the world of rock reading as leave it in an uproar. It started arguments, it ended debates, and for the author of over 150 music books, it not only received the strongest reader response of any book he’d written, it also still crops up in author interviews today.
Almost fifteen years later, however, much has changed, and the classics have lost some of their bite as well. In I Hate Old Music, Too, Thompson recasts the story of “classic rock” in the 21st century.
Among the targets of his ire are lavish box sets that mostly just duplicate the albums you already own; comebacks and reunions featuring half or even fewer of the band members; the dark side of the “vinyl revival;” the continued cult of The Beatles; and much more.
Dave Thompson is the author of over 150 books, including cowritten autobiographies with Motown songwriting legends Eddie and Brian Holland, rock photographer Bob Gruen, and New York punk heroes Sylvain Sylvain and Walter Lure, among others. He has also written biographies of James Taylor, Paul Simon, and the Pogues. He is the editor of Goldmine’s industry standard record price guides. He lives in Newark, Delaware.