I'm generally very averse to any intrusion of academics or pretension into music (and especially rock music), it surprises me how much I like this book. It at least scores points with me by starting with a consideration of the contrast between recording and performance in music, and how this issue is different in rock from other genres. Gracyk devotes the first half of the book to considering the role of the recorded work in rock. From the notion that performance in rock developed historically out of recording, he questions how that evolution effects listeners' expectations. While his contemporary examples don't make much sense to me (he mentions World Party several times), he wisely focuses on earlier musicians such as Buddy Holly, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Velvet Underground. The rest of the book is divided among several other issues in rock, such as the role of rhythm or the relevance of commercial success to rock music. Gracyk approaches these questions with similarly rigorous analysis. While I don't agree with all of his conclusions (especially about the relevance of expressing emotion to rock) and I find many of his examples of recent music uninteresting, I found Rhythm and Noise consistently engaging and very readable. It gave me new insight into the role of recording and how it affects the way people expect to hear rock music. My biggest remaining question is actually whether the author is related to the Tom Gracyk mentioned in the liner notes to the wonderful Twinkeyz reissue (buy it!).