From Booklist
Hootie and the Blowfish surprised the rock world with the megahit sales of its debut album. The band's nonthreatening, good-timey sound appealed to slackers, aging boomers, and the pointedly quirky alternative-music crowd alike. In 1995, it became ubiquitous. Then the second album went nearly nowhere. How did these nice-guy college buddies devolve from comfy commercial juggernaut to creatively challenged MOR crooners so quickly? Miller's tracing of the band's arc is as important for what it says about pop groups who succeed too well too soon as for its comprehensive Hootieness. The name Hootie has become a byword for unchallenging rock and a rebuke to the group for its early success. Is it headed down what one critic called "the Peter Frampton Memorial Highway," and will it do the world a favor by taking Phil Collins with it? Miller doesn't know, but his book will help some formulate an informed opinion just as, for others, it affords a warm, loving, defensive journey through the Hootie ethos. Mike Tribby
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
