Simon Reynolds

Features

Live Fast, Die Young, or Get Off the Stage

By Judy Berman

Why wouldn't they burn out instead of fade away? Berman examines the sad spectacle of punk-rock reunions and shows how they destroy the two elements that actually made punk attractive: sex appeal and impermanence. [3 April 2008]

Reviews

Rip It Up and Start Again: Post-Punk 1978-1984 by Simon Reynolds

By Alison Neale

Focusing primarily on British and American music between 1978 and 1984, Reynolds emphasizes the idea that the glossed-over post-punk years were not marginal to the history of rock: they actually spawned a range of sounds that were more revolutionary than punk itself and that left a far more significant legacy, laying the foundations for the subsequent emergence of alternative music in all its myriad forms. [21 October 2005]