Books about Subculture from Amazon.com

Full of startling anecdotes and incredible true stories, Hiding in Hip Hop is not a traditional tell-all. A personal and poignant memoir, it is also one of the most provocative and honest looks at stardom and sexuality..
Price: $15.41 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Mixing research and reportage with autobiography, critically acclaimed writer Benjamin Nugent embarks on a fact-finding mission of the most entertaining variety. He seeks the best definition of nerd and illuminates the common ground between nerd subcultures that might seem unrelated: high-school debate team kids and ham radio enthusiasts, medieval reenactors and pro-circuit Halo players. Why do the same people who like to work with computers also enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons? How are those activities similar? This clever, enlightening book will appeal to the nerd (and antinerd) that lives inside all of us..
Price: $13.60 [Notify me when price goes down.]

When Disco Bloodbath was first published, it created a storm of controversy for its startlingly vivid, strikingly fresh, and outrageously funny depiction of the hedonistic world of the New York City club kids, for whom nothing was too outré -- including murder. Nominated for the Edgar Award for best true-crime book of the year, it also marked the debut of an audaciously talented writer, James St. James, who himself had been a club kid and close friend and confidant of Michael Alig, the young man convicted of killing the drug dealer known as Angel.

Now the book has been brought to the screen as Party Monster, with Macaulay Culkin playing killer Michael Alig and Seth Green as author/celebutante James St. James.

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Price: $3.84 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"* * * * * *! The most incredible story in the history of music a heavyweight book."-Kerrang!

"An unusual combination of true crime journalism, rock and roll reporting and underground obsessiveness, Lords of Chaos turns into one of the more fascinating reads in a long time."-Denver Post

A narrative feature film based on this award-winning book has just gone into production.

Since the creation of the hit Broadway musical Beatlemania tribute bands have become an indelible part of the musical landscape, playing local bars, biker rallies, banquet halls, town fairs, and, occasionally, even stadiums. In an age when famous rock groups charge $100 or more for a concert ticket, their tribute band imitators offer an accessible, intimate, and surprisingly authentic outlet for fans. The Grateful Dead have Dark Star Orchestra; Led Zeppelin Zoso, Hammer of the Gods, and the all-girl Lez Zeppelin; Van Halen have twenty-five tribute bands, including Hot for Teacher and Van Heineken; and KISS have not one but two tribute bands peopled by dwarves—Mini Kiss and Tiny Kiss.
In this droll and entertaining expedition to the heart of tribute world, Steven Kurutz chronicles the ups and downs of one of the oldest and best-established acts, Sticky Fingers, who bill themselves as “the leading international Rolling Stones tribute show.” The narrative follows Sticky Fingers as they shadow the real Rolling Stones 2005–06 tour like a remora trailing a shark. When the Stones perform at an arena in Charlotte, North Carolina, Sticky Fingers plays a preconcert bash at nearby Dixie’s Tavern. More gigs follow: a trip to Las Vegas, bookings on the southern fraternity circuit, a spectacular sold-out stadium show in the Netherlands. The band’s frontman, Glen Carroll, is a roguish and colorful Mick Jagger look-alike, and we see him onstage and off, navigating the peculiar life of a tribute performer. As Carroll says, “I know what it’s like to walk in Mick’s shoes—with lift supports, mind you.” The band’s guitarist, meanwhile, is so committed to his role as Keith Richards, he’s always in costume. Along the way, the writer travels with the members of Sticky Fingers’ archrivals, the Blushing Brides; profiles a group of Deadheads who re-create entire, highly specific Grateful Dead concerts, and examines an occupational hazard one musician calls “tributitis”: identifying too closely with the rock star one portrays, with resulting swelling of the ego. As the book unfolds, what emerges is an honest and sympathetic portrait of the musicians as they juggle work and band obligations and come to terms with middle age and their fading dreams of rock stardom.
Like a Rolling Stone is a superbly reported, affectionately told, hilarious account of life at the lower altitudes of the music industry. In its own sly way, it is also a critique of the Rolling Stones’ stadium juggernaut and the baby boomer nostalgia pervading modern culture. Above all, it is a testament to the timeless appeal of rock and roll, even in a culture of perpetual rewind.