Rock and The Pop Narcotic - The Book's Structure

The Book's Structure

Though the book has grown in length since the first edition the essential structure remains the same. The book is divided into two parts, The Riff and The Solo followed by several appendices that gather miscellaneous pieces and ephemera.

R&tPN opens with The Riff which is divided into five chapters:

I The King of It & The King of Thing: Outlines the basic argument for the book and describes Carducci's theory of how rock music works.

II Television and Mutation: Documents what he sees as the profound negative impact of television on American culture.

III The Whole World's Switching the Channel: How mass media and other cultural forces have shaped the music business.

IV None Dare Call it Reason: How the music business has warped the music itself.

V Narcorockcritocracy!: The complicity of the rock criticism establishment in the decline of the music.

After a middle section of several band photographs the book continues with The Solo which contains one chapter:

I The Psychozoic Hymnal: A decade-by-decade evaluation of rock bands. Each subsection begins with a listing of and short comment on the best rock artists of the decade in Carducci's view. It then moves onto a more general discussion of the musical trends of the decade and more band evaluations.

The book closes with several appendices which include radio show playlists, catalogs from his time at Systematic, gig posters from Black Flag, Saccharine Trust, etc.