Quotes by Michael Azerrad - Page 1

There's no law that says anybody has to do an interview.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Interviews
Law
Copy Quote
There's no glamour in Nirvana, no glamour at all, in fact.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Facts
Glamour
Nirvana
Copy Quote
I have this theory, bands with enigmatic lyrics attract crazies.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Band
Enigmatic
Theory
Attract
Crazies
Copy Quote
Just as not all popular albums are wonderful, not all wonderful albums are popular.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Albums
Wonderful
Copy Quote
Nine Inch Nails' sound is dominated by clanging synths and sardonic, shrieking vocals.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Nails
Nine
Sound
Dominated
Inch
Nine Inch Nails
Vocals
Copy Quote
People shared everything: information, equipment, their floors, whatever. There was strength in unity.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Information
People
Unity
Copy Quote
As a journalist, I'm not supposed to be the subject, but as an author, I'm fair game - another ingredient in the media soup.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Fair Game
Games
Journalist
Media
Soup
Author
Ingredient
Copy Quote
I really believe in the power of music - and I mean literally the power of musical tones - to rearrange the way you can think.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Believe
Mean
Thinking
Power Music Believe
Literally
Rearrange
Tones
Copy Quote
People didn't get to see how other towns interpreted the underground ethos, and so they developed their own unique versions of it.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Ethos
People
Unique
Copy Quote
I just wanted to tell the story of a bunch of musicians who had never had their story told before. There's no preaching or theorizing.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Bunch
Musician
Stories
Copy Quote
There's a whole apparatus for indie bands now, but back in the eighties it was just getting built. The early people really took it on the chin.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Band
Chins
People
Apparatus
Chin
Eighties
Indie
Copy Quote
The American indie underground made music for like-minded people who thought for themselves. Thinking for yourself is intrinsically subversive.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Made
People
Thinking
Copy Quote
I'll leave it to other people to evaluate the legacy of my book, but I'm very moved when musicians tell me that they've been inspired by my book.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Book
Musician
People
Copy Quote
Naturally, no one knows more about music than musicians. They talk about their own work all the time, but they rarely get to talk about other people's music.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Knows
Musician
People
Naturally
Work Time Music
Rarely
Copy Quote
You didn't have to be a huge rock star; you just had to do well enough to continue doing what you wanted to do. It wasn't about hitting the jackpot, it was about sustainability.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Hitting
Rocks
Stars
Copy Quote
Now that the generation that grew up on '80s indie-rock has attained influential positions in the culture, that music is the new yardstick. And that will shift yet again some day.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Generations
Indie Rock
Rocks
Copy Quote
Bon Jovi's trick is to use heavy-metal chords and still sound absolutely safe. Rock & roll used to be rebellion disguised as commercialism; now so much of it is commercialism disguised as rebellion.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Chords
Commercialism
Rebellion
Rocks
Sound
Use
Disguised
Trick
Copy Quote
Critics and fans use the music of their youth as reference points. For years, people seriously wondered who "the next Beatles" were going to be, and classic rock bands were the de facto yardstick for rock quality.
Michael Azerrad / Author
People
Rocks
Years
Copy Quote
I'm not sure I ever try to make a case for the music. I mean, sometimes the music isn't even that good. I just tell the band's stories; if I describe the music, it's to explain how it moved the overall story along.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Band
Mean
Trying
Copy Quote
The most surprising and rewarding chapter to write was the Butthole Surfers chapter. I'd always thought of them as a bunch of drug-addled reprobates - which maybe they were - but it turned out to be more complicated than that.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Complicated
Drug
Writing
Copy Quote
For Nirvana, putting out their first major-label record was like getting into a new car. But the runaway success was like suddenly discovering that the car was a Ferrari and the accelerator pedal was Krazy Glued to the floorboard.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Car
Discovering
Ferrari
Labels
New Car
Runaway
Accelerator
Glued
Nirvana
Pedal
Suddenly
Copy Quote
I would roll out of bed and immediately start working, and keep working until it was so late at night that I couldn't stay awake anymore. Then I'd go to sleep and wake up the next morning and do the same thing all over again. I did that every day for three years.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Morning
Night
Sleep
Copy Quote
Ten percent of the American population thinks that Barack Obama is a Muslim. Those are the people that have not learned the skill of filtering information from the vast barrage of inaccurate information that we're all faced with everyday. I think that's a very 21st century skill.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Barack
Everyday
People
Population
Skills
Thinking
Barack Obama
Vast
Filtering
Inaccurate
Muslim
Skill
Thinks
Copy Quote
In eras past, mainstream culture was blandly, blindly complacent, so underground music was angry and dissatisfied. But now, mainstream culture isn’t complacent, it’s stupid and angry; underground culture reacts by becoming smarter, more serene. That’s not wimpy—it’s powerful and productive.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Past
Powerful
Stupid
Copy Quote
Back in the day, in '91 or so, I tried to interview Fugazi for Rolling Stone, which the band felt stood for everything they detested about corporate infiltration of music. They said, 'We'll do the interview if you give us a million dollars of cash in a suitcase.' Which was their way of saying no.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Cash
Corporate
Dollars
Giving
Million Dollars
Rolling
Detested
Interview
Rolling Stone
Stone
Suitcase
Copy Quote
When you're writing, you're only a brain and some fingers, but drumming, you're involving all four limbs, and you're hearing stuff and you're converting your ideas into physical motions, getting physical feedback from things you are touching - it's pretty cool. It's a really a nice contrast to writing.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Contrast
Drumming
Feedback
Fingers
Ideas
Involving
Limbs
Nice
Writing
Motions
Copy Quote
I'm always very careful to make the distinction between music criticism and music journalism. A lot of people don't. But criticism doesn't require reporting. You can write criticism at home in your underwear. On the other hand, journalism takes legwork - you have to get out there and see things and talk to people.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Home
Careful
Criticism
Distinction
Hands
Journalism
Underwear
Writing
Home Music People
Home Music Always
Reporting
Require
Copy Quote
A lot of music fans are still interested in insightful perspectives on music - maybe even more interested than ever, since everyone needs help making sense of the incredible variety of sounds that have sprung up in the wake of the Internet revolution. There's a lot of room for unique, qualified voices who can provide good reads.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Fans
Insightful
Music Fans
Needs
Qualified
Revolution
Sprung
Sprung Up
Unique
Variety
Voice
Since
Interested
Maybe
Room
Perspectives
Provide
Reads
Sounds
Voices
Wake
Copy Quote
The online musical universe has become Balkanized, with many sites focusing on minute niches. That works well for reaching very specific demographics, which is wonderful for advertising, but it flies in the face of the common wisdom that people's tastes have become more diverse as music of any description has become a mouse-click away.
Michael Azerrad / Author
Wisdom
Advertising
Demographics
Description
Diverse
Musical
Online
People
Reaching
Tastes
Flies
Focusing
Minute
Niches
Sites
Copy Quote
To begin with, the key principle of American indie rock wasn't a circumscribed musical style; it was the punk ethos of DIY, or do-it-yourself. The equation was simple: If punk was rebellious and DIY was rebellious, then doing it yourself was punk. 'Punk was about more than just starting a band,' former Minutemen bassist Mike Watt once said, 'it was about starting a label, it was about touring, it was about taking control. It was like songwriting; you just do it. You want a record, you pay the pressing plant. That's what it was all about.'
Michael Azerrad / Author
Ethos
Indie Rock
Simple
Copy Quote

Related Author Authors

Zig Ziglar
Author
Saturday, Nov 06, 1926
Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012
Wayne Dyer
Author
Friday, May 10, 1940
Saturday, Aug 29, 2015
Stephen Covey
Author
Monday, Oct 24, 1932
Monday, Jul 16, 2012
Zz Packer
Author
Friday, Jan 12, 1973
Zsuzsanna Budapest
Author
Tuesday, Jan 30, 1940
Zona Gale
Author
Wednesday, Aug 26, 1874
Tuesday, Dec 27, 1938
Zoey Dean
Author
Zoe Weil
Author
Thursday, Jul 13, 1961
Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Author
Wednesday, May 11, 1927
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2014
Zick Rubin
Author
Zhang Xianliang
Author

Saturday, Sep 27, 2014
Zelda Popkin
Author
Tuesday, Jul 05, 1898
Wednesday, May 25, 1983
Ze'ev Jabotinsky
Author
Monday, Oct 18, 1880
Sunday, Aug 04, 1940
Ze'ev Chafets
Author
Zane Grey
Author
Wednesday, Jan 31, 1872
Monday, Oct 23, 1939

View All Author Quotes

Top Authors

Napoleon Bonaparte
Military Commander
Tuesday, Aug 15, 1769
Saturday, May 05, 1821
Socrates
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Michael Jordan
Basketball Player
Sunday, Feb 17, 1963
Robert Frost
Poet
Thursday, Mar 26, 1874
Tuesday, Jan 29, 1963
Steve Jobs
Entrepreneur
Thursday, Feb 24, 1955
Wednesday, Oct 05, 2011
Henry David Thoreau
Author
Saturday, Jul 12, 1817
Tuesday, May 06, 1862
Thomas Sowell
Economist
Monday, Jun 30, 1930
Tyler, The Creator
Rapper
Wednesday, Mar 06, 1991
Groucho Marx
Comedian
Thursday, Oct 02, 1890
Friday, Aug 19, 1977
Barack Obama
44Th U.s. President
Friday, Aug 04, 1961
Aristotle
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Will Rogers
Actor
Tuesday, Nov 04, 1879
Thursday, Aug 15, 1935
Yogi Berra
Baseball Manager
Tuesday, May 12, 1925
Tuesday, Sep 22, 2015
Helen Keller
Author
Sunday, Jun 27, 1880
Saturday, Jun 01, 1968
Ronald Reagan
40Th US President
Monday, Feb 06, 1911
Saturday, Jun 05, 2004

View All Authors

Michael Azerrad Quotes - Page 1

App & Tools

Related Author Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page

Stay Connected

App & Tools

Related Author Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page