"In a nasty piece of timing, 1999 saw the arrival of Napster and the explosion of file-sharing and music piracy. Industry revenues, which had been climbing, would stall and then plummet. As Rolling Stone journalist Steve Knopper recounts in the recently reissued chronicle Appetite for Self-Destruction, rock — and indie — fans would be among the first to bail on physical albums."

"Given the way audiences and tastes have shifted since, there will probably never again be a musical year as iconic — recognizable to everyone for a handful of undeniable reference points — as the Summer of Love [in 1967] or the year punk broke [in 1977]. But to many enthusiasts of indie rock, 1997 established a kind of high-water mark. And it really is stunning to see what a single 12-month period produced: Sleater-Kinney’s Dig Me Out, Built to Spill’s Perfect From Now On, Pavement’s Brighten the Corners, Spiritualized’s Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, and numerous others. To those who lived through the period, it seemed like it would last forever. But youth, like cultural history, rarely signals when it is about to disappear. For a series of reasons that would have been hard to discern at the time, 1997 stands as both Peak Indie and the beginning of the end for the style’s heyday."

"In my book Culture Crash, I date the birth of indie [rock] at 1982, when the Smiths began recording and R.E.M. released its debut EP, Chronic Town. The US side of the story is forcefully told in Michael Azerrad’s book Our Band Could Be Your Life; Britain’s followed similar contours, with indie ideology locking in early and fiercely, as sales charts tracked what was selling at independent record stores."

"It was such an exciting time for this music because it was so new. Everyone was figuring this stuff out for the very first time, and learning from each other. It’s fascinating to look at the very gradual developments that some of the most major rock bands in the world — The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who, The Byrds — were making to get from their initial sounds to the colorful, mind-expanding sounds of psychedelia. It’s a sound that’s still wildly influential today. What would modern day bands like The Flaming Lips, Tame Impala, MGMT, Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, Spiritualized, Mercury Rev, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, or the Elephant 6 collective sound like if not for the music of that era?"

"1967 was the peak year for psychedelic rock. It gave us Sgt. Pepper’s, debut albums by Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, and the Grateful Dead, the iconic Monterey Pop Festival, “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair),” and so many more key artyfacts from the first psychedelic era. 1967 was the year where just about everyone tried to make a psychedelic rock record, from obscure underground bands to bubblegum pop groups. Even Sonny Bono!"

"You can’t talk about the Summer of Love without diving into the songs that made it legendary. In 1967, music wasn’t just background noise—it was a revolution. It fueled the spirit of change, brought people together, and defined a generation. From psychedelic rock to heartfelt ballads, these tracks became the anthems of a cultural movement that changed everything."

"Iceland did very well. That was "Beathoven", not Beethoven. Beethoven is probably rolling over just at the moment."

"I remember 1977; I started going to concerts and I saw the Led Zeppelin. I got a guitar on Christmas day; I dreamed that Jimmy Page would come to Santa Monica to teach me to play."

"Snoop said this in '94: "We don't love them hoes.""