“60 SONGS THAT EXPLAIN THE ’90s is an increasingly rare thing: A book about pop music that’s legitimately funny. Whether or not these songs actually ‘explain’ the 1990s is irrelevant, because they inadvertently explain something far more interesting ― they explain how songs feel to a person who can’t think about life in any other way, and who ultimately understands who they are now through the prism of who they used to be and what they used to like.” ―Chuck Klosterman, New York Times bestselling author of The Nineties

“An epic quest into the sick heart of the Nineties, the most gloriously chaotic music era ever. In this brilliant book, Rob Harvilla breaks down the decade’s hits—grunge, rap, pop, ska, the swing revival. But his unstoppable madman enthusiasm and cerebral insight makes this book impossible to put down. (Even the part about the swing revival.)” ―Rob Sheffield, journalist

“Rob Harvilla has been one of the most creative and influential pop culture writers of the past decade. And I am so happy to report that his first book, 60 SONGS THAT EXPLAIN THE ’90s, is exactly as effervescent and weird and unpredictable as Harvilla fans were hoping it would be. He turns ideas into excavations and sentences into roller coaster rides. Buy this book. Don’t be an idiot.” ―Shea Serrano, New York Times bestselling author of The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed

“Rob Harvilla is the only man whose opinions and nostalgia on the music of the 90’s I eagerly seek out. I was a teen girl in the nineties and hit the Gladwellian 10,000 hour rule of dude’s sermonizing on Dinosaur Jr lore by the 11th grade. So that’s really saying something. …Harvilla examines and revivifies all the culture shifting, the weirdness, the glorious anthems, and what it meant to be alive and driving around exurban Ohio in your best friends beater car taking in the potent eroticism of Nine Inch Nails with literal virgin ears. Rob’s experiences are specific but so universal on what it means to discover music  that is YOUR OWN and fall in love with it. He brings us into the wow and the power of music to transform us, and break open our little worlds and connect us. This book is phenomenally funny, and really scrapes the bowl of nineties music nerdom. A goddamn delight from one of the most insightful critics we’ve got.” ―Jessica Hopper, author of The First Collection of Criticism By A Living Female Rock Critic

“Gratitude for this book, which doesn’t only allow a reader to sink into a kind of empty nostalgia, but adds a real generous weight and context to songs, and the world they existed in. I found myself building playlists while I read. This is an interactive, immersive delight.” ―Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

“Harvilla debuts with a fun and freewheeling look back at the music of the 1990s… a funny and poignant love letter to a decade.” ―Publisher’s Weekly