A review by gjpeace
Love Goes To Buildings On Fire: Five Years In New York That Changed Music Forever by Will Hermes

3.0

While the subject matter is fascinating, there still isn't much to get excited about with this book. Hermes takes a very wide approach to writing about the time period, attempting to show in chronological order the entirety of the music scenes going on at the time - e.g. the CBGB crew, loft jazz, salsa, the beginnings of hip-hop, etc. This ultimately results in a pretty fascinating overview of the City at the time, showing how the movements of each band/artist impacted others both in and out of the city, but it also results in a fairly shallow take on the subject, as Hermes' need to show everything ultimately limits how the depth with which he can explore some of the more interesting (at least, to me) material. To be honest, I thought the first chapter was acting as an introduction, laying the groundwork for the future chapters by giving us brief, two-to-three paragraph long descriptions for each artist. Turns out, the entire book is written like that. It's an easy read - even fun, at times - and it's quite informative if you're new to the material like I am, but I can't help but wish there was more here. Still, I now have a good list of music to work through now, which is one of the things you want to get out of a book like this. Overall, this is a pretty good introduction to the music of the time, and if you're a music-obsessive like I am, you'll definitely find some great, fascinating moments here, but it can't imagine this book to be anything near authoritative nor, I hope, the best-written book on the time period. I am a little disappointed with this one.