Moshpit: The Violent World of Mosh Pit Culture

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Summary: Moshpit Editor's response
Review: I am the London-based editor of Moship Culture by Joe Ambrose and I take exception to the comments of your reviewer in Pocatello, Idaho. In the UK, where this book was originated, 'realise' is spelt thus, as is 'organise'; indeed, almost all those verbs that end in -ize in the US end in -ise in the language of the country where it was first written and spoken. 'Quick march' is a common phrase here. Comments like this reflect a deep ignorance of language on the part of this reviewer.

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Summary: An Englishman replies
Review: I found this thought-provoking, interesting, an essential read about contemporary music styles and what it means to be a fan. Your reviewer from Pocatello needs to know that 'realise' and 'organise' are the recognised English spellings of these words (as is 'recognised' by the way). In addition, 'quick march' is a English expression. There are other forms of the language besides the one adapted for American usage. If your reviewer is uncertain of England's location, I suggest he/she logs on to Amazon again and buys an atlas.

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Summary: solid, fact driven, written by an obvious fan of the music
Review: The title is doesn't really cover the depth of the contents nor the knowlegeble (sub-culture / music) fan the author comes across as...
it is very well written...as are Joe's other books.
As one of the "30-something fat gut types" the thread from old skool punk to straight edge to indie to nu-metal was a great nostalgic journey. The descriptions of the surrounding cultural influence to all the music genres is spot on. highly recommended for any lover of live music. in the pit or not.

also sports an excelent set of well placed interviews.

/neil

Rating:
Summary: Good ideas, but terribly written
Review: There are some ideas that I agree with in Ambrose's "Moshpit: The Violent World of Mosh Pit Culture". I agree with his statement that "Moshing is a ritualized and furious form of dancing combining very real violence with remarkable displays of emotion...". I agree with statements like that, but there are some problems with this book that almost drive the reader to put it down and stop reading. Ambrose's constant misspelling of words like realize (he spells it realise) and organize (organise as Ambrose would put it) that is both distracting and irritating. Then there are things like this: "It was cool for Soulfly in particular, as Max Cavalera quick marched from Sepultura's 15 years of achievement and heritage." Quick marched? I believe he means quickly marched. And I'm not one to say that just because you write a book that you should be perfect, but when a book is published I believe it should as perfect as possible. What the heck is an editor for? This book feels more like a first draft rather than the published shelf version.

Rating:
Summary: Good ideas, but terribly written
Review: There are some ideas that I agree with in Ambrose's "Moshpit: The Violent World of Mosh Pit Culture". I agree with his statement that "Moshing is a ritualized and furious form of dancing combining very real violence with remarkable displays of emotion...". I agree with statements like that, but there are some problems with this book that almost drive the reader to put it down and stop reading. Ambrose's constant misspelling of words like realize (he spells it realise) and organize (organise as Ambrose would put it) that is both distracting and irritating. Then there are things like this: "It was cool for Soulfly in particular, as Max Cavalera quick marched away from Sepultura's 15 years of achievement and heritage." Quick marched? I believe he means quickly marched. And I'm not one to say that just because you write a book that you should be perfect, but when a book is published I believe it should as perfect as possible. What the heck is an editor for? This book feels more like a first draft rather than the published shelf version.