Is This It

"Steven Hyden is a critic of bracing honesty, intelligence, wit, and charm, probably the closest modern successor to the great Lester Bangs. Indeed, Is This It isn't just a cultural history of the Strokes, but a love letter from a fan who bought the ticket, took the ride, and wonders what it all meant — and what it might still mean — for a true believer in the promise of rock 'n roll."

 “Every band is a kind of proposition, and the Strokes are a particularly knotty one. Strong opinions and vexing contradictions come whizzing in from all sides. Steven Hyden, ever humble but always game, steps bravely into the crossfire, and emerges with an incisive, expansive, genial, playful, and heartfelt consideration of their curious career—and its broader implications, as the passing decades and inevitable upheavals change the way we think about rock bands, pop music, and the culture at large, from one generation to the next.” 

“Steven Hyden is one of rock ‘n’ roll’s deepest, sharpest, brightest, and coolest thinkers, with a passionate superfan’s encyclopedic zeal but a humble Midwestern everyman’s clear-eyed and hard-fought wisdom. His undying love for the Strokes is infectious, but he’s both an ebullient rock-star mythologist and a shrewd realist: He’ll make you believe this band truly matters, but he also deftly drills down on how much they ultimately matter, and to exactly whom, and to what end. The Strokes might not have ‘saved rock,’ but enough warm and funny and passionate books like this might just save rock criticism.”

 "This is music criticism at its most engrossing. In his expert retelling of the Strokes' story, Steven Hyden not only finds deep comedy and sorrow, but explains the most profound shifts in the culture of music fandom that accompanied the decline of rock in the early 21st century."