Grunge, Nerds, and Gastropubs · A Mass Culture Odyssey (Kindle Single)

Grunge, Nerds, and Gastropubs: A Mass Culture Odyssey examines some of the most memorable pop culture phenomena of the past two decades and highlights the innumerable and often veiled threads which connect them.

Ever wonder why glum rock à la Nirvana became popular in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, or why gastropubs that serve organic kale have replaced all-American chain restaurants like Applebee’s as the trendy dining establishments? Can the tennis rivalry between John McEnroe and Björn Borg shed light on the type of sadness intrinsic to success? And what’s the connection between the music of the bands Weezer and the Presidents of the United States of America? (Hint: It has to do with the difference between pretending to be nerdy and actually being nerdy.)

Grunge, Nerds, and Gastropubs: A Mass Culture Odyssey answers these questions and explores how one trend—say, the marginalization of indie rock—relates to another—like our society’s growing interest in organic food—largely due to the social contexts in which they occur. As a writer for publications like The Atlantic, Salon, Slate, GQ, and The Washington Post, author Kevin Craft has moonlighted as a craft spirits connoisseur to better understand why foodies obsess over “authenticity,” and spent sleepless nights pondering the tragic link between the Dave Matthews Band and doofusy frat bros, all for the sake of identifying the latent connections between disparate bits of mass culture and figuring out if these connections matter.

Grunge, Nerds, and Gastropubs: A Mass Culture Odyssey is a book that’s edifying, fascinating, and downright hilarious, and it will take readers back to the decade when people listened to Smashing Pumpkins albums alone in the dark.