Beck - A werido, but definitely not a Loser

Had this one written for a while now, never got around to posting it.

So, at the midway point through Beck: Beautiful Monstrosity, I think I've gotten a fairly good idea of what Beck's life was like before he'd completely developed as an artist - completely and totally, without any doubt, the American Dream. After growing up in a house where avant-garde art was the norm, walking down streets where he'd hear hip hop at one end and salsa on the other, he had all these ideas floating around in his head. Then, he discovered old american folk music, which was to be the basis for all of his musical endeavors for the rest of his life. After studying all of these influences, he decided to capitalize on an offer to go anywhere in the US in a greyhound bus for $30. So, he undertakes a long journey with his girlfriend on this Greyhound bus, bumming out across America until he reaches the promised land of New York. Losing his girlfriend on the way (by accident), he ends up entrenched in the hipster scene of Anti-folk, the epitome of everything not mainstream. Beck describes it as "folk music played with a punk attitude..."

The author writes in a mostly biographical style, but connects the facts and quotes and recountings to form a narrative out of Beck's early musical life, using descriptions he's gathered from visiting the very places that Beck stood, putting the reader directly in Beck's shoes. So far, I'm really liking this.