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Robert Christgau

Bio from "Christgau's Record Guide - The 80s"

Born in New York City in 1942, Robert Christgau began writing rock criticism for Esquire in 1967. He became a columnist for the Village Voice in 1969, and, after two years at Newsday, returned to the Voice as an editor and columnist in 1974. He has taught at the California Institute of the Arts, City University of New York, the Massachusettes Institute of Technology, and New York University and appears regularly in Video Review and Playboy. In 1987 he won a Guggenheim Fellowship to study the history of popular music. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter.

Christgau's Record Guide - The 80's

Picture of Christgau's Record Guide - The 80's
Pantheon Books (1990) ISBN 0-679-73015-X
From the back cover...

Robert Christgau has earned his place as America's foremost rock critic by distilling enthusiastic nonstop listening into incisive, knowledgable, sometimes hilarious judgments.

Christgau's guide to the records of the 1980s, the first and only book to survey the decade's popular music, reviews and letter-grades some 3,000 albums. His search for exciting music is wide-ranging, not just what is narrowly defined as "rock", but also pop, country, rap, blues, rock-related jazz, and the panoply of world musics, especially reggae and African genres.

"You may be outraged or amused by Robert Christgau's view, but there isn't a more provocative writer about rock 'n' roll alive. For anyone who loves pop music, each edition of Christgau's Consumer Guide in the Village Voice is like a Christmas present. This book-length Guide is the best present of all."

- Robert Hilburn, Pop Music Critic, Los Angeles Times

"The entries convering a decade's work by a performer sometimes read like tiny novels, full of suspense, dramatic turnarounds, tragedy or farce. But what makes the book work is Christgau's endless capacity for surprise - and the fact that it's almost impossible to read about an artist without thinking of a dozen more you have to check out, right now."

- Greil Marcus, Author of Mystery Train, and Lipstick Traces

"Bob Christgau taught my generation - the "My Generation" generation - how to talk about rock. For almost a quarter century now, he has kept his ears and his mind open. His career is a wonderful example to us all of how if you keep listening, rock can help you grow. At his best, Bob Christgau makes thought swing."

- Marshall Berman, CUNY, and author of All That Is Solid Melts Into Air

Christgau's Record Guide - Rock Albums of The 70's

Picture of Christgau's Record Guide - Rock Albums of The 70's
Ticknor & Fields (1981) ISBN 0-89919-026-X
From the back cover...

Let Christgau Be Your Guide

Outrageous, Outspoken, And Totaly Reliable

Robert Christgau has adapted his notorious Village Voice column to produce the essential guide to recent rock and roll. It is the first book devoted to the years that brought us disco, punk, and new wave; that established Linda Ronstadt, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Bob Marley, and Deborah Harry as superstars; and that confirmed the brilliance of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, and the Rolling Stones.

The man who has listened to more rock and roll than anyone else in the country offers a unique reference book, as energetic and rebellious as the music he has the nerve to grade - funny and personal, but always searching for musical, literary, and political standards in an amorphous and hype-ridden business.