Sporting shades and a feedback-heavy sounds, the Velvets straddled art and rock, changing popular music forever, and sowing the seeds for punk, grunge and thousands of countercultural four-chord wonders. The Rough Guide to The Velvet Underground explores: The Velvet Story - How Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, John Cale and the others emerged from the New York scene, their successes and excesses and what happened to each in their solo years; Velvet Music - From their 1967 debut with Nico to their 1993 reunion with all the tales behind the tunes; Velvet Universe - Everybody who was anybody in the Velvet's world, taking in Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, David Bowie, Delmore, Schwaretsz and Brian Eno; and, Velvet Goldmine - The Underground on screen, the Velvets' New York, clubs, influences, covers, websites and more.