Killing Yourself to Live

I'm reading Chuck Klosterman's book Killing Yourself to Live. I was loitering around Barnes & Noble and I always gravitate toward the "Music" section even though I've been through a hundred times and I know there are 40 books on every Beatles lyric and 10 on Nirvana, and about 56 on musicians I don't know. But since I'm a musician I guess I'm curious to see what new books have come out and what old, dead, or overrated artist now has a bio written about them.

Surprising finds:
- Nothing on Roy Orbison
- but a book about Modest Mouse
- I know there is a Sonic Youth bio, but I guess it's not popular enough for B&N to carry it
- more hair metal bands than I care to name

So I think I like Chuck Klosterman. I like how he seems honest and doesn't give a shit whether his musical tastes are "hip." Is he a hipster? I don't know. I guess. But he definitely seems to make fun of them enough to tell me he is either (a) not a hipster or (b) the only hipster who kind of knows/admits that hipster culture kind of sucks.

There's a great passage about authenticity when he talks about the Station fire:

"This was not a bunch of hipsters trying to be seen by other hipsters; this was a bunch of blue collar people all trying to unironically experience music that honestly meant something to them..."

And later:

"I honestly think that people of my generation despise authenticity, mostly because they're all so
envious of it."

Yeah. This is a pretty sweet insight - I'd never thought of it exactly that way. And this is why I don't give a #$%& whether my music is ever popular in that particular subculture.