Rock On Reviews and Mentions

"A succession of gently mordant vignettes, with hilariously spot-on asides about media image-making, music-biz hierarchies and sensitive singer-songwriters. Like Walter Mitty in reverse, Kennedy constantly retreats from an absurd corporate environment — equal parts tyranny, vanity and fecklessness — into neurotic internal-reality checks even funnier than the folly all around him. Neither Kennedy nor the music business will ever be the same."

—The New York Times Book Review, Michael Azerrad

"Kennedy's got the guts to reveal our collective internal monologue...if he weren't so self-deprecating, Kennedy might come off as a jerk. But he's just as hard on himself and, besides, he's funny. Super funny."

—The Los Angeles Times, Erika Schickel

"A desperate, venal tale such as this needs a light touch, and Kennedy proves adept at supplying it. The comedy in Rock On owes more to The Office than it does to Spinal Tap. Kennedy is not, in real life, the bumbling ingénu he masquerades as in Rock On. He is a wise guy in geek's clothing. It's a measure of his book's success that this running gag neither palls nor distorts Kennedy's high-spirited obituary for the record business."

—The London Times, Robert Sandall

"Kennedy is glib, a man without real adversity. He even receives a severance package when he's sacked from his six-figure job, then walks into a book deal."

—D. Grant Black, Saskatchewan freelance writer

"Kennedy tars and feathers these yes-men (and women) with his sharp reportage. But there's still a degree of respect, a benefit of the doubt, for the creatively dead bottom-liners. "Rock On" is less of a gripefest and more of a tragicomedy. It turns out that Kennedy can't save rock 'n' roll after all, but he'll make you laugh pretty hard."

— The Oregonian, Kevin Sampsell

ROCK ON NAT'L BESTSELLER U.S.

#26 NEW YORK TIMES EXTENDED WEEK OF 3/30
#12 BOOKSENSE/NAIBA BESTSELLER LIST
#6 BOOK SOUP TOP 10 BESTSELLERS WEEK OF 2/5
#10 POWELL'S BOOKS TOP 20 WEEK OF 3/3
#10 ATOMIC BOOKS TOP 20 BESTSELLERS, MARCH
#6 DIESEL BOOKS TOP 10 BESTSELLERS, APRIL
#8 iTUNES TOP 20 AUDIOBOOKS WEEK OF 2/15

ROCK ON NAT'L BESTSELLER CANADA

#12 BOOKNET, HUMOUR, WEEK OF 4/6

"Hilarious and poignant."— The Ottawa Citizen

"Kennedy was with the label for all of 20 months, but what a time to be there..."— The Globe and Mail

"...Pitch-perfect...a brilliant, hysterical and insightful look at what happens when truly creative people try to blend into a Banana Republicized mediocracy. The author makes it clear, in laugh-out-loud fashion, that the lid was shut on the coffin of music business dreams some time ago, we've just delayed the burial."

— The New York Post, Larry Getlen

"Blessed with an eye for detail and a shrewd sense of comic timing, Kennedy plays his internal narrative against the grain of his subject matter with consistently entertaining results. An equally amusing and eye-opening journey through the corridors of power in the corporate rock universe."

— The Guardian U.K., David Sinclair

"The death of rock 'n' roll is hilariously tragic in Dan Kennedy's memoir."

— The Independent, Ireland

"Imagine a love child born of The Office and High Fidelity. With Knocked Up as the slacker godfather.That captures Dan Kennedy's memoir Rock On: An Office Power Ballad, his amazingly funny yet perceptive look at rock music and big corporations in crisis."

—USA TODAY, Deirdre Donahue

"You'll laugh, you'll rock, you'll turn up the volume on your iPod. You'll remember your first job. You'll wonder if you ever grew up. And you'll be glad Dan Kennedy is out there somewhere, rocking on, living the dream."

— The New Orleans Times-Picayune, Susan Larson

"A hugely enjoyable read. He even offers his own suggested questions for any book club brave/foolish enough to tackle "Rock On." Here's one suggestion he didn't make: If you're in a book club doing "Rock On," leave the cork in the chardonnay and huff a little nitrous oxide instead."

— The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Phil Kloer

"Fast-moving and darkly funny, Rock On should be a chart topper."

—PEOPLE Magazine, 4 of 4 stars, Michelle Green

"A very funny memoir about [Kennedy's] days as a marketing executive in the currently flailing music business."

—GQ Magazine, February 2008

'The Honor Roll -- [one] of our favorite things: "Rock On" by Dan Kennedy, a memoir about working at Atlantic Records.'

—SPIN Magazine, February 2008, HERE

"The decline of the major labels has inspired plenty of rancor, but Kennedy uses it as the basis for a hilarious — and damning — insider's memoir."

— WIRED Magazine, 9 of 10 stars, February 2008

"Rock On could be construed as piling on if Kennedy weren't so damn funny and, despite a good-sized ego, occasionally self-deprecating and even sweetly human. A laserlike wit, Kennedy deploys his considerable snark with deadly precision."

— UTNE READER Magazine, Keith Goetzman

"[Kennedy's] workplace boasts all the dysfunction of The Office, except it's the real deal. Sycophantic underlings jockey for position, psychotic bigwigs condescend, Kennedy's soul slowly withers--and we laugh, as he describes it all with satirical playfulness."

— FAST COMPANY Magazine, February 2008 Issue

"Petty jealousies and power plays, extravagant consumption, boneheaded execs terrified of fast changes in the music biz and preening narcissism straight out of "This is Spinal Tap." Kennedy details all this and more with glee. We also get self-deprecating accounts of his own neurotic feelings of inadequacy, and fleeting glimpses of celebs like Duran Duran, Jewel and Jimmy Page."

—The Seattle Times, Adam Woog

"Plenty of laughs...a wild ride... a truly weird twilight world, a bit like a high-powered version of The Office, one where the artists are at the absolute bottom of the food chain and a co-president can get dumped for only selling 80 million albums."

—The Scotsman, Edinburgh, Doug Johnstone

"His feverish interior monologue smacks you over the head, shoving you forward, often latching onto something so alarmingly funny you must suddenly brake to appreciate the author's skill. Kennedy captures rock in a way that fiction writers rarely pull off, and the secret seems to be to never forget the rush you felt when you were 16, driving around, listening to music, childishly gobsmacked by the glory of it all."

—SF Weekly, Michael Leaverton

"...a series of exquisitely self-deprecating anecdotes."

—DAZED AND CONFUSED (U.K.), INTERVIEW

"On a university campus in the not-so-distant future, a misguided college student will challenge a friend to a little Six Degrees of Fat Joe. And to make it all the way to Phil Collins, he’ll have to turn to the one man connecting “Get It Poppin’ ” and “Sussudio.” And that man will be Dan Kennedy."

— TIME OUT Chicago, Jonathan Messinger

"Throughout the pages of Rock On, a memoir about being a suit at an ailing major record label, Dan Kennedy inserts the kind of droll lists (“Uncool Merch Ideas for Bands,” “Office Supplies for the Unemployed”) he also frequently contributes to McSweeney’s. In honor of this, we offer a list of our own: Signs That Kennedy Is One of Today’s Best Humor Writers: (1) He’s prodigiously self-deprecating, mining his foibles and fears to joyous effect. (2) He understands that humor must also have heart—as a sensitive portrait of the institutionalization of music, Rock On is occasionally snarky but never snide. (3) And finally, he’s effing hilarious. The book is not just laugh-out-loud funny; it’s snort-audibly-on-the-subway funny."

— TIME OUT New York,Jane Borden, Issue 644, February 5, 2008

"Despite the fact that Rock On is in some ways a eulogy for the major-label system, it's also painfully evident how much Kennedy truly loves music. This character detail makes the reader root for Kennedy the same way viewers relate to Jim Halpert's character from The Office. "With hearts and brains like hard drives, we all move through this life constantly shuffling through thousands of songs triggered by memories and names," Kennedy muses in Rock On's introduction, before making a casual aside about how his ex-girlfriend Kristen cheated on him with patrons of a local restaurant in exchange for cocaine. It's this dichotomy of realism and humor that makes Rock On a success."

—Miami New Times, Jonah Bayer, February 7

"Kennedy transformed the death of his rock 'n' roll fantasy into the scathingly funny Rock On: An Office Power Ballad, turning what could have been another tired eulogy into a funny, darkly comic wake. . . . Kennedy cuts to the heart of what it's like to work in the business of 'cool'"

—THE ONION A.V. Club, interview HERE

"I laughed more times than I can count...The book is not some hipster treatise of cool. In fact, Dan makes more fun of himself than he does of the (deserving) mainstream music industry. This results in a book that is endearing, sincere, and most importantly, very very funny."

— POPSHIFTER.com, Less Lee Moore, interview HERE

"One of the funniest and most entertaining books about music, culture, and business that I've ever read."

—CNET.com IT/Microsoft analyst Matt Rossoff's BLOG

ROCK ON IS A BOOKSENSE PICK FOR FEBRUARY:
"Ah, the glamorous life of a mid-level music executive: non-corner offices, awkward meetings between nerds and rock stars, and late night car service vouchers; not exactly the sex, drugs, and rock and roll you'd expect. Dan Kennedy tells all in his keenly observed, laugh out loud funny, insider's view of the music biz."—Allsion Hill, Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, CA INTERVIEW

ROCK ON IS A STAFF PICK AT POWELL'S: "Cleverly written and feverishly funny, Rock On is Dan Kennedy's account of his music-biz shenanigans at Atlantic Records. Written with entertaining and self-deprecating wit, Kennedy’s off-the-wall confrontations and dealings make for irresistible reading."

ROCK ON IS BOOK OF THE MONTH IN THE MAY ISSUE OF MAXIM MAGAZINE (U.K.) "This hilarious exposé from a former industry foot soldier reveals that it's idiocy, not evil, that fuels the music biz."

PRE-PUBLICATION REVIEWS:

"Kennedy, a McSweeney's contributor, offers an entertaining explanation of how, after years of stumbling through adulthood, he landed an improbable gig writing and producing ads for Atlantic Records. For a kid who grew up dressing like Gene Simmons each Halloween in the 1970s, this should be a dream job—hobnobbing with rock stars and industry legends while making more money than he ever had before. The trouble is that, by the early 21st century, he finds that Atlantic is more corporate than rock. Kennedy's run-ins with rock stars involve helping Jewel sell razors and mistaking Duran Duran's manager for a member of the band. When he's not inadvertently insulting aging rockers, Kennedy worries incessantly about office politics—whether he's made a permanent enemy of a co-worker by asking what kind of muffin she's eating, which executives to greet in the hallway and which to ignore. Kennedy's style—hilarious, paranoid and vulnerable—captures wonderfully the absurdity of the corporate music industry. Readers will appreciate the many lists that pepper the book, including "Inappropriate Greetings and Salutations for Middle-Aged White Record Executives to Exchange: #1. Hello, Dawg."

— Publishers Weekly

"McSweeney's contributor Kennedy's memoir is, in the new tradition of rock 'n' roll, a semi-ironic, semi-wistful examination of the author's past, wherein he discusses the bittersweet nature of finally breaking into the record industry only to discover that it's not quite what he expected. Instead of spending his days doing glamorous work with up-and-coming bands, he toils away writing magazine ad copy for artists who have, to put it gently, seen hipper days. Kennedy is a talented humor writer, and the book is riotously funny throughout. One especially entertaining encounter revolves around a music-video shoot where Kennedy presents a tray of cheese and grapes that his bosses have provided for lunch to rap star Fat Joe and his large crew, who then proceed to laugh at him, order delivery barbecue, and get stoned in a conference room. Readers with an interest in pop music will get the most out of this book, but anyone who appreciates good writing will enjoy it as well. Recommended."

— John Helling - Library Journal

"The music business isn't pretty, but it's pretty funny. Humor writer and McSweeney's contributor Kennedy (Loser Goes First, 2003) recounts his short career as a marketing executive for Atlantic Records in this alternately hilarious and depressing memoir...A fitfully funny, ultimately sad look at the continuing decay of our popular culture."

—Kirkus Reviews