From Elvis and a hound dog wearing matching tuxedos and the comic adventures of artificially produced bands to elaborate music videos and contrived reality-show contests, television—as this critical look brilliantly shows—has done a superb job of presenting the energy of rock in a fabulously entertaining but patently "fake" manner. The dichotomy of "fake" and "real" music as it is portrayed on television is presented in detail through many generations of rock music: the Monkees shared the charts with the Beatles, Tupac and Slayer fans voted for corny American Idols, and shows like Shindig! and Soul Train somehow captured the unhinged energy of rock far more effectively than most long-haired guitar-smashing acts. Also shown is how TV has often delighted in breaking the rules while still mostly playing by them: Bo Diddley defied Ed Sullivan and sang rock and roll after he had been told not to, the Chipmunks' subversive antics prepared kids for punk rock, and things got out of hand when Saturday Night Live invited punk kids to attend a taping of the band Fear. Every aspect of the idiosyncratic history of rock and TV and their peculiar relationship is covered, including cartoon rock, music programming for African American audiences, punk on television, Michael Jackson's life on TV, and the tortured history of MTV and its progeny.

"Long before American Idol captivated audiences, rock music was practically everywhere on TV, starting with Bo Diddley and his sexually encoded lyrics on The Ed Sullivan Show in the mid-1950s and crescendoing to MTV and VH1, which 'made' pop-rock icons like Michael Jackson and Madonna. In a series of engaging essays, Austen, editor of Roctober magazine, debates the role of rock on the small screen as an audience magnet, mass culture monolith and subversive tool. He charts the simultaneous rise of rock on the airwaves and rock on TV through standards like Your Hit Parade, American Bandstand and Soul Train, as well as through guest spots on Saturday Night Live and other non-musical venues; and explains how Elvis Presley and the Beatles became overnight stars through TV audiences who never attended a live concert. Austen leaves no Rolling Stone unturned in this rich, compelling discourse on how rock became a magnetizing (some would claim insidious) force on American TV. From bop and R&B to rock, punk, hip-hop and rap, Austen has a handle on the entirety of the rock phenomenon and how it infiltrated American homes via the tube. Photos. " Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Jake Austen is the editor of Roctober magazine, produces a cable-access children's television dance show called Chic-a-Go-Go, and writes for magazines including Playboy. He is the editor of A Friendly Game of Poker.