Will Hermes

Will Hermes (born December 27, 1960, in Jamaica, Queens, New York City) is an American author, broadcaster, journalist and critic who has written extensively about popular music.

[2][3] In the late 1980s Hermes began writing for Option, a Los Angeles–based small-press magazine that covered a wide range of music.

Hermes began contributing regularly to Rolling Stone in the ‘00s and became a frequent voice in the magazine's review section.

[4] In 2011, Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Faber and Faber published his book Love Goes To Buildings On Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever, a history of New York City music culture in the 1970s, covering the nascent punk rock, hip hop and disco scenes, along with salsa, loft jazz, and the downtown composers known as minimalists.

Writing in the Washington Post, Stephen Metcalf said the book "is as beautifully researched as it is written; thorough, smart, conscientious and an absolute delight to simmer in.”[11] Writing for Bookforum, Hanif Abdurraqib called it "A work of grand affection, one that allows a person their failings, and one that knows that examining those failings alongside the grandest achievements is how one pays homage to a full life.”[12] Writing for Literary Review, David Keenan said: "An awkward love letter to the 20th century with added apologia, The King of New York is the perfect biography of Lou Reed for 2023, and will likely remain that way".