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Vivien Goldman's 'Revenge of the She-Punks' Doesn't Gloss the Reasons We Still Have to Rage

In her history of women in punk music, Revenge of the She-Punks, Vivien Goldman hefts the scene's virtues and the vices into one heap and concludes that some of it was necessary, some of it was fun, and some of it was evil.

Books

'Pick Up the Pieces' Is a Primer in Music as Cultural Memory

John Corbett's writing is often poetic in Pick Up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music, with each essay being a resonant reflection on the music, artists, scenes, and memories seemingly etched deeply in his being.

Books

By the Book: Pick up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music

In this excerpt of '70s music, Pick up the Pieces, John Corbett puts his critique of Kraftwerk's Autobahn to poetry and pogos with his conflict for the Clash and their album, The Clash.

Books

By the Book: 'A Hidden Landscape Once a Week'

In this excerpt of a history of the UK music press, A Hidden Landscape Once a Week, Tony Stewart recalls his time as writer and deputy editor at NME (1971-85) — the strengths and pleasures of teamwork and the vital role of the visual in the energies of a rock paper.

Books

'Half a Million Strong' Studies the Intersection of Crowds and Power at Rock Festivals

Gina Arnold's research into rock festivals in the US, Half a Million Strong, reveals that it's about the music, yes, but it's also very much about you.

Books

New Wave: Turning Rebellion into Money

If 1977 was New Wave's breakout year, by 1979 it had become an industry force, all but replacing punk as a viable vehicle or term of currency.

Music

You Can Feel the Venue's Heartbeat on Every Page of 'Showtime at the Apollo'

How do we measure the status of a performer's Holy Grail like the Apollo Theater in 2019? Ted Fox and James Otis Smith's beautifully realized, updated graphic novel brings this rich history to life.

Books

'Smash!: Green Day, The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, + the '90s Punk Explosion'

Ian Winwood's story of how punk rock music came to be so popular in the '90s is sewn together like a patchwork quilt of unlikely rises to fame and the ordinary people whose dedication made it possible.

Books

'A&R Pioneers' Highlights Unsung Pivotal Figures at the Birth of Recorded Pop Music

Well before artists were their own entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs became rock stars, A&R pros improvised a blueprint for the workings of the modern music industry.

Books

'Novel Sounds' and the Southern Institution’s Rock 'n' Roll Problem

In Novel Sounds, scholar Florence Dore is interested in how a mass cultural phenomenon like rock 'n' roll can help illuminate realities about institutionalized high culture.

Books

Chris Stamey's Homage to the New York Music Scene of the '70s

A Spy In The House of Loud works best on quiet stages, taking singular trips down clearly paved roads with definite endings.

Books

'Black Cowboys' and 'The Best Country Blues You've Never Heard' Chart New Trails through Old-Time Music

Black music's past is a rabbit hole more than big enough for these two vastly different excursions into its secret riches.

Music

Emo, Mascara Scars and All

The founder of Washed Up Emo brings together ten podcast interviews in print form to document the history of one of rock's most misunderstood genres.

Books

'Live Wires' Offers Inconsistent but Interesting Electronic Music History

This work serves as a preliminary resource, but it's certainly not the definitive history of electronic music.

Books

The Weirdos Are the Heroes in This Brief History of Electronic Music

Live Wires rips open the definition of 'electronic' to tell the story of the how those tapes and wires and transistors came to transform music into what we take for granted today.

Books

A Brief History on the Creation and Life of Handel's 'Messiah'

Award-winning author Jonathan Keates whips up a brief but highly specialized work on why Handel's "Messiah" was so special from the start.

Books

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