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Top 30 Michael Azerrad Quotes (2025 Update)

Michael Azerrad Quote: “In eras past, mainstream culture was blandly, blindly complacent, so underground music was angry and dissatisfied. But now, mainstream culture isn’t complacent, it’s stupid and angry; underground culture reacts by becoming smarter, more serene. That’s not wimpy – it’s powerful and productive.”

1. “In eras past, mainstream culture was blandly, blindly complacent, so underground music was angry and dissatisfied. But now, mainstream culture isn’t complacent, it’s stupid and angry; underground culture reacts by becoming smarter, more serene. That’s not wimpy – it’s powerful and productive.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “I have this theory, bands with enigmatic lyrics attract crazies.”

2. “I have this theory, bands with enigmatic lyrics attract crazies.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “I would roll out of bed and immediately start working, and keep working until it was so late at night that I couldn’t stay awake anymore. Then I’d go to sleep and wake up the next morning and do the same thing all over again. I did that every day for three years.”

3. “I would roll out of bed and immediately start working, and keep working until it was so late at night that I couldn’t stay awake anymore. Then I’d go to sleep and wake up the next morning and do the same thing all over again. I did that every day for three years.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “The most surprising and rewarding chapter to write was the Butthole Surfers chapter. I’d always thought of them as a bunch of drug-addled reprobates – which maybe they were – but it turned out to be more complicated than that.”

4. “The most surprising and rewarding chapter to write was the Butthole Surfers chapter. I’d always thought of them as a bunch of drug-addled reprobates – which maybe they were – but it turned out to be more complicated than that.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “There’s no glamour in Nirvana, no glamour at all, in fact.”

5. “There’s no glamour in Nirvana, no glamour at all, in fact.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “You didn’t have to be a huge rock star; you just had to do well enough to continue doing what you wanted to do. It wasn’t about hitting the jackpot, it was about sustainability.”

6. “You didn’t have to be a huge rock star; you just had to do well enough to continue doing what you wanted to do. It wasn’t about hitting the jackpot, it was about sustainability.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “Music can inspire people to wake up and say, ‘Somebody’s lying.’ This is the point I’d like to make with my music,” Watt told Rolling Stone in 1985. “Make you think about what’s expected of you, of your friends. What’s expected of you by your boss. Challenge those expectations. And your own expectations. Man, you should challenge your own ideas about the world every day.”

7. “Music can inspire people to wake up and say, ‘Somebody’s lying.’ This is the point I’d like to make with my music,” Watt told Rolling Stone in 1985. “Make you think about what’s expected of you, of your friends. What’s expected of you by your boss. Challenge those expectations. And your own expectations. Man, you should challenge your own ideas about the world every day.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “People didn’t get to see how other towns interpreted the underground ethos, and so they developed their own unique versions of it.”

8. “People didn’t get to see how other towns interpreted the underground ethos, and so they developed their own unique versions of it.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “People shared everything: information, equipment, their floors, whatever. There was strength in unity.”

9. “People shared everything: information, equipment, their floors, whatever. There was strength in unity.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “I’m not sure I ever try to make a case for the music. I mean, sometimes the music isn’t even that good. I just tell the band’s stories; if I describe the music, it’s to explain how it moved the overall story along.”

10. “I’m not sure I ever try to make a case for the music. I mean, sometimes the music isn’t even that good. I just tell the band’s stories; if I describe the music, it’s to explain how it moved the overall story along.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “Now that the generation that grew up on ’80s indie-rock has attained influential positions in the culture, that music is the new yardstick. And that will shift yet again some day.”

11. “Now that the generation that grew up on ’80s indie-rock has attained influential positions in the culture, that music is the new yardstick. And that will shift yet again some day.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “Back in the day, in ’91 or so, I tried to interview Fugazi for Rolling Stone, which the band felt stood for everything they detested about corporate infiltration of music. They said, ‘We’ll do the interview if you give us a million dollars of cash in a suitcase.’ Which was their way of saying no.”

12. “Back in the day, in ’91 or so, I tried to interview Fugazi for Rolling Stone, which the band felt stood for everything they detested about corporate infiltration of music. They said, ‘We’ll do the interview if you give us a million dollars of cash in a suitcase.’ Which was their way of saying no.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “The American indie underground made music for like-minded people who thought for themselves. Thinking for yourself is intrinsically subversive.”

13. “The American indie underground made music for like-minded people who thought for themselves. Thinking for yourself is intrinsically subversive.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “Boon and Watt had the bad – or perhaps good – fortune to come of age during one of rock’s most abject periods. “That Seventies stuff, the Journey, Boston, Foreigner stuff, it was lame,” Watt says. “If it weren’t for those type of bands we never would have had the nerve to be a band. But I guess you need bad things to make good things. It’s like with farming – if you want to grow a good crop, you need a lot of manure.”

14. “Boon and Watt had the bad – or perhaps good – fortune to come of age during one of rock’s most abject periods. “That Seventies stuff, the Journey, Boston, Foreigner stuff, it was lame,” Watt says. “If it weren’t for those type of bands we never would have had the nerve to be a band. But I guess you need bad things to make good things. It’s like with farming – if you want to grow a good crop, you need a lot of manure.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “When I peeked out the window into the yard, there was Kurt with some kind of contraption on his head that resembled a tin-foil hat, sneaking around the yard followed by a half a dozen laughing toddlers. Kurt had that million-dollar grin on his face and I could tell he was definitely in nirvana. I guess you could say he was the Pied Piper of compassion.”

15. “When I peeked out the window into the yard, there was Kurt with some kind of contraption on his head that resembled a tin-foil hat, sneaking around the yard followed by a half a dozen laughing toddlers. Kurt had that million-dollar grin on his face and I could tell he was definitely in nirvana. I guess you could say he was the Pied Piper of compassion.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “Naturally, no one knows more about music than musicians. They talk about their own work all the time, but they rarely get to talk about other people’s music.”

16. “Naturally, no one knows more about music than musicians. They talk about their own work all the time, but they rarely get to talk about other people’s music.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “As a journalist, I’m not supposed to be the subject, but as an author, I’m fair game – another ingredient in the media soup.”

17. “As a journalist, I’m not supposed to be the subject, but as an author, I’m fair game – another ingredient in the media soup.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “I really believe in the power of music – and I mean literally the power of musical tones – to rearrange the way you can think.”

18. “I really believe in the power of music – and I mean literally the power of musical tones – to rearrange the way you can think.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “When he met Kurt and Chris, he was a saute cook at a seafood restaurant on Bainbridge Island. By night, he partied with his friends, smoking pot, drinking, and doing the potent local acid, which many swear has fried the brains of an entire generation of Bainbridge Islanders.”

19. “When he met Kurt and Chris, he was a saute cook at a seafood restaurant on Bainbridge Island. By night, he partied with his friends, smoking pot, drinking, and doing the potent local acid, which many swear has fried the brains of an entire generation of Bainbridge Islanders.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “Ten percent of the American population thinks that Barack Obama is a Muslim. Those are the people that have not learned the skill of filtering information from the vast barrage of inaccurate information that we’re all faced with everyday. I think that’s a very 21st century skill.”

20. “Ten percent of the American population thinks that Barack Obama is a Muslim. Those are the people that have not learned the skill of filtering information from the vast barrage of inaccurate information that we’re all faced with everyday. I think that’s a very 21st century skill.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “MacKaye never told anyone to get off the stage. Sometimes this encouraged a rapid and irreversible descent into chaos, but usually it just meant a steady stream of stage divers and kids who just wanted a few seconds of attention while they did some silly dance for their buddies. Anarchy, it seemed, could work.”

21. “MacKaye never told anyone to get off the stage. Sometimes this encouraged a rapid and irreversible descent into chaos, but usually it just meant a steady stream of stage divers and kids who just wanted a few seconds of attention while they did some silly dance for their buddies. Anarchy, it seemed, could work.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “There’s no law that says anybody has to do an interview.”

22. “There’s no law that says anybody has to do an interview.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “There’s a whole apparatus for indie bands now, but back in the eighties it was just getting built. The early people really took it on the chin.”

23. “There’s a whole apparatus for indie bands now, but back in the eighties it was just getting built. The early people really took it on the chin.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “I just wanted to tell the story of a bunch of musicians who had never had their story told before. There’s no preaching or theorizing.”

24. “I just wanted to tell the story of a bunch of musicians who had never had their story told before. There’s no preaching or theorizing.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “For Nirvana, putting out their first major-label record was like getting into a new car. But the runaway success was like suddenly discovering that the car was a Ferrari and the accelerator pedal was Krazy Glued to the floorboard.”

25. “For Nirvana, putting out their first major-label record was like getting into a new car. But the runaway success was like suddenly discovering that the car was a Ferrari and the accelerator pedal was Krazy Glued to the floorboard.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “Critics and fans use the music of their youth as reference points. For years, people seriously wondered who “the next Beatles” were going to be, and classic rock bands were the de facto yardstick for rock quality.”

26. “Critics and fans use the music of their youth as reference points. For years, people seriously wondered who “the next Beatles” were going to be, and classic rock bands were the de facto yardstick for rock quality.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “Just as not all popular albums are wonderful, not all wonderful albums are popular.”

27. “Just as not all popular albums are wonderful, not all wonderful albums are popular.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “I’ll leave it to other people to evaluate the legacy of my book, but I’m very moved when musicians tell me that they’ve been inspired by my book.”

28. “I’ll leave it to other people to evaluate the legacy of my book, but I’m very moved when musicians tell me that they’ve been inspired by my book.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “Being a teen was a metaphorical state that could be prolonged indefinitely, a way of being in which one was unspoiled, blameless, enthusiastic, and sincere.”

29. “Being a teen was a metaphorical state that could be prolonged indefinitely, a way of being in which one was unspoiled, blameless, enthusiastic, and sincere.”

— Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad Quote: “Says Sullivan, “Those guys used to get together in the van and put their hands all together and then Paul would say, ‘Where are we going?’ And the band would go, ‘To the middle!’ And he’d go, ‘Which middle?’ And they’d go, ‘The very middle!’ ” But it was all false modesty. The Replacements, it seemed, secretly believed in themselves and yet adopted a loser persona to insulate themselves against failure.”

30. “Says Sullivan, “Those guys used to get together in the van and put their hands all together and then Paul would say, ‘Where are we going?’ And the band would go, ‘To the middle!’ And he’d go, ‘Which middle?’ And they’d go, ‘The very middle!’ ” But it was all false modesty. The Replacements, it seemed, secretly believed in themselves and yet adopted a loser persona to insulate themselves against failure.”

— Michael Azerrad

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