The easiest way to describe Heavy Rotation is to purloin a bit of the author's intro:

"I came up with the idea for the book that you now hold in your hands for selfish reasons - I wanted to bring music and literature together. The truth is that writers love music. A good ear is almost a requirement of the job; the best writing has voice, has rhythm. When writers get together, the first question that they ask each other is 'What have you been working on?' The second is often, 'What have you been listening to?'"

The thing is, none of these accomplished writers are necessarily accomplished music writers - or even novice music scribes. Though what they say is well-written, what they say is often not very astute or original. Here is the opening paragraph from Lisa Dierbeck's piece on The Pretenders first album (Dierbeck has written one novel and regularly contributed to Elle, Glamour, and People):

"The song's impact was strikingly physical: a sensation, a blow. I was captivated by the melodic tune and the hammering beat. The lyrics were delivered with an impassioned authority that had me riveted."

The truth is that maybe if these writers were more well-known, then what they have to say might have more import. How many people care if the Eurythmics' Savage album changed the life of writer Daniel Handler?

An interesting book if not tremendously insightful.