Richie Unterberger
Do What You Fear Most: The History of the Velvet Underground
Few groups have exerted an influence so out of proportion to their commercial fortunes as The Velvet Underground. Formed in New York in 1965, the band sold modestly across four studio albums and had effectively dissolved by the end of the decade, yet the sound it built - the drone, the controlled noise, the plain-spoken songs about subjects pop had left untouched - became one of the foundations on which the next half-century of rock was laid.