"If Justin Timberlake doesn't get you going, if Britney Spears doesn't rub your rhubarb, then this is the book for you. In detail, M. C. Strong has chronicled the careers of those musicians who positioned themselves outside the mainstream of conventional 'pop'. From the Americans like Velvet Underground and Captain Beefheart who offered something different to the flower power'n'peace of the 60s, through the filth and fury of punk, to the acid house culture that spawned the Happy Mondays and Primal Scream, and onto the ascension of grunge and its crown princes Nirvana: this is another dizzying feat of research from M. C. Strong. "--Jacket.