Early development

Goldstein graduated from Columbia University in 1966, and joined the Village Voice in June of that year. He published his first book 1 in 7: Drugs on Campus in 1966. Goldstein covered the emerging worlds of pop music and rock music from his early days with the Village Voice, and became one of its leading experts by the mid-1970s, publishing several books on musical culture.

He founded US: A Paperback Magazine in 1969, and this lasted for three issues, until 1970.

Writings on Gay issues

Goldstein has tackled the cutting-edge topic of gay power politics with two books published in the early 2000s: The Attack Queers and Homocons.

• 1 in 7: Drugs on Campus (1966)

• Words, words, words on Pop censorshipzzz (1966)

• US #1: A Paperback Magazine (1969)

• US #2: Back to School Issue (1969)

• US #3: The Roots of Underground Culture (1970)

• Goldstein's Greatest Hits: A book mostly about rock 'n' rollzzz (1970)

• Richard Goldstein's The Poetry of Rockzzz (1972)

• Reporting the Counterculture (Media and Popular Culture: 5) (1989)

• South Bronx Hall of Famezzz: Sculpture by John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres (1992), with Michael Ventura

• Born on the Street Graffitizzz

• The Attack Queers: Liberal Society and the Gay Right (2002)

• Homocons: The Rise of the Gay Right (2003)