Talking to Girls About Duran Duran

Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut by Rob Sheffield, 274 pages

Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield was 13 in 1980 and 23 when the 80s ended. During the intervening years, Sheffield fell in love with the ephemeral music of the 80s, and (for better or worse) looked to that music for inspiration as he attempted to navigate his teens and early 20s. The "girls" in the title refers to everyone from Sheffield's bossy sisters, with whom he had a steal-and-steal-alike relationship when it came to their music collections, to the Spanish girls he hung out with as an exchange student in Madrid. Through it all, we get a view of Sheffield's quiet, reserved, naive teenage life, quite the stark contrast to the model-filled rockstar lives of Simon LeBon and the rest of Duran Duran, who he both worshiped and wanted to emulate, despite not looking nearly as cool in the trendy clothes.

In between the personal memories, Sheffield also offers up some pop history, discussing the merits of one-hit wonders ("Come On, Eileen" wouldn't be nearly as good if Dexy's Midnight Runners had had a long, illustrious career); reminiscing about the cassingle (the cheap, cardboard-wrapped 80s answer to the 45 or the iTunes single); and arguing, quite convincingly, about the danger of becoming Paul McCartney.

I particularly enjoyed Sheffield's musings on The Smiths and the birth of MTV, but really, the whole thing was fun. Nothing super-serious, just like pop music in the 80s. Also, since I listened to the audiobook, I want to give a shout-out to Scott Shepard, who did a fantastic job reading the book, complete with non-cheesy accents and just the right amount of sarcasm.