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The Rise and Fall of the LAN Party


What a time to be alive

One of my favorite photos in the book depicts, among other things: a Windows XP error dialogue box; a beige Microsoft keyboard; a disposable film camera; a pair of wraparound headphones that I and nearly everyone else I knew owned in the early 2000s; and a pile of burned CD-Rs, one of which has “ StarCraft ” written on it in permanent marker. These groups harnessed feelings of isolation and teenage angst and fused rock instrumentation with hip-hop style and delivery, creating a kind of music that was beloved and reviled in equal measure for its direct, unselfconscious emotional pleas, macho posturing, and nihilistic themes. The influence of anime and nu metal, as well as the mainstreaming of hip-hop to white suburban audiences, the dark guns-and-leather aesthetics of the films Blade and The Matrix, skater culture, and more can be seen in many of the photos in this book—in the clothing people are wearing, the posters on their walls, and desktop backgrounds.

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