Covering nearly one thousand icons of alternative culture, an authoritative guide is arranged in an A-to-Z format that discusses everything from music and politics to drugs and technology. $35,000 ad/promo. Tour.
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An AbFab-to-'zines encyclopedia of youth culture in the Nineties -- underground, online, and over-the-counter. This is an authoritative, comprehensive guide -- including URLs! -- to the sociology of Generation X.
From the Publisher
America in the 1990s is witnessing the biggest youth culture gold rush since the '60s. By 1992 a series of seismic events registered: Generation X, Nirvana, Slacker, and Lollapalooza sent shock waves into the mainstream media and turned the spotlight on a whole network of thriving subcultures, from comics to raves to body-modification. In alt.culture, Steven Daly and Nathaniel Wice have created a Dictionary of Cultural Literacy for our times; the ideas and fashions, the heroes and villains that have shaped a generation.
While documenting the tribes, trends, and technologies that flavor the '90s, alt.culture also covers characters and events that aren't necessarily youthful or "alternative." For better or worse, the disparate likes of Calvin Klein, Keanu Reeves, Sega, 40oz. malt liquor, and Noam Chomsky are each part of the youth culture consciousness. alt.culture examines such subjects in this context.
alt.culture is the first non-computer book to treat the Internet as a fact of life. Most of the 900-plus entries are accompanied by online addresses where the reader can obtain more information or opinions, or argue the merits of any given subject.
In addition to the more than 900 concise entries, alt.culture contains 13 bylined essays on some of the key cultural phenomena of the last few years. Topics including punk and MTV, spirituality, heroin, dancehall reggae, and political correctness are all given special attention in an essay.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fun Reading,
By TigerlilyM (California) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Alt. Culture: An A-To-Z Guide to the '90S-Underground, Online, and Over-The-Counter (Paperback)
This book came out in the mid-90s, so it is hardly a comprehensive guide to 90s alternate culture, but it is a fun read just the same. From Birkenstocks to Trekkers to MTV, this book is crammed full of amusing information.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Guide to the late '80s,
By
This review is from: Alt. Culture: An A-To-Z Guide to the '90S-Underground, Online, and Over-The-Counter (Paperback)
The subtitle of this book should really read 'Guide to the late '80s and early '90s' as, published in 1995, it does not encapsulate anything that came into popular culture post-publication. That said, this is an exhaustive and inclusive tome, not meant to be read straight through. Personally, I employed the device of reading it on cigarette breaks, and was thus able to digest the information thoroughly without becoming overloaded with information. While I was alive during the early '90s, I was only 10-15 years old and was not aware of most of the people/terms/musical groups contained within. It was good to glean information about things I was merely tangentially aware of, and also sad to see how some of the aforementioned subjects the authors considered essential to the era quickly lost notoriety. It is obvious that the dawn of the internet has completely revolutionized life as we know it, and somewhat interesting to remember what things/technologies were popular or thought to be 'the next big thing' that ended up not being so.
I don't know that I'd really recommend this book to those reading it for it's stated purpose, but it was an interesting collection of information.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Glib and uninformative.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Alt. Culture: An A-To-Z Guide to the '90S-Underground, Online, and Over-The-Counter (Paperback)
Can't say as this book has much to offer in the way of insight into the several hundred subjects it takes up. It's a sort of Gen X coffee table book, full of buzzy names and things that don't matter and matter even less the way they're glibly described.
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