In his calloused hands, with dirt under his fingernails, he carried the same torch that Wordsworth and Coleridge had used to set poetry aflame. Raymond Carver employed "the language really used by men" to tell the story of the damaged white American. Broken hearts populate Carver's literary country;

Dark, Distorted, Rough, Smoky, Southern gothic, Spare, Super-realism

Niggaz With Attitude. The name says everything. Shamelessly self-promoting and utterly megalomaniacal, N.W.A forged an image of ghetto life that would come to define the entire hip hop scene in LA. They exploited America's most deep-seated fears of (and fascination with) race and violence. They said

In-your-face, Profane, Rough, Slangy, Violent

Drawing from a tradition that embraces excess -- whether it be in poetry, rock 'n' roll, life, or all of the above -- Patti Smith brings passion and wit to her rough-edged, anarchist music. Her songs recall the lives of such debauched, ecstatic souls as Rimbaud, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and James

Agitated, Bombast, Dissonant, Gritty, Hard rock, Punk, Religious, Rough

When Boston's Museum of Fine Arts launched a retrospective of Imamura's films, it was entitled, "Pigs, Pimps and Pornographers: The Films of Shohei Imamura." The films' brutal sexuality and unsparing scrutiny of a certain Japanese underbelly have made Imamura one of the most controversial filmmakers

Agitated, Profane, Rough, Violent