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Rip It Up and Start Again

4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 · rating details · 2,670 ratings · 190 reviews

Punk's raw power rejuvenated rock, but by the summer of 1977 the movement had become a parody of itself. RIP IT UP AND START AGAIN is a celebration of what happened next: post-punk bands like PiL, Joy Division, Talking Heads, The Fall and The Human League who dedicated themselves to fulfilling punk's unfinished musical revolution. The post-punk groups were fervent modernis...more

Hardcover, First Edition, 752 pages

Published April 21st 2005 by Faber and Faber (first published April 2005)

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Jun 26, 2008 Andrew rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: pop-music

A thorough and intellectual (sometimes a little too thorough and intellectual) overview of British and American post-punk art rock and pop. The first half of the book explains the lofty intellectual and musical ideals the drove bands such as Public Image Ltd., Pere Ubu, Joy Division, Gang of Four, and the Pop Group, while the more fractured second half explains how this post-punk movement spawned goth, neo-psychedelia, synth pop, 2-tone, the new romantic scene, and finally the New Rock and New P...more

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Jun 25, 2011 Bunnyhugger1 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2011, music, reviews

Update 2
I've just finished reading my copy of the US edition which covers a lot of ground despite being 200 pages shorter than the original UK version. Simon Reynolds gives a detailed account of this time period and is enjoyably opinionated which made the text less dry than it could have been. Inevitably, I found some chapters more interesting than others, and felt that he gave some genres too much attention while overlooking others (although this may have been affected by the cuts to this editi...more Update 2
I've just finished reading my copy of the US edition which covers a lot of ground despite being 200 pages shorter than the original UK version. Simon Reynolds gives a detailed account of this time period and is enjoyably opinionated which made the text less dry than it could have been. Inevitably, I found some chapters more interesting than others, and felt that he gave some genres too much attention while overlooking others (although this may have been affected by the cuts to this edition.) I recall the 2 Tone/ska revival having a greater impact on the musical scene for example. It's subjective though, I suppose, since most of what I read about the US scene was new to me. I found YouTube videos to be a fun resource while reading this (and made up for the lack of photos in this edition.) It was interesting to read about early MTV and "new pop" (the second British Invasion) and the subsequent backlash with "the familiar Anglophobia/homophobia slippage that equated glamour and synths with effeminacy." I was glad to see the band Japan (my obsession for many years) given its dues even if just for a page. The chronology of the chapters chops back and forth a bit as different threads are covered, which was confusing at times. Bands, genres, missions, record labels, new technology all weaved in. In the afterword, Reynolds lists some of the contemporary post-punk influenced bands: Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, Bloc Party etc. Good stuff.

Update 1
I don't think I can wait until I've finished to start discussing this book! In Rip It Up and Start Again, music journalist Simon Reynolds examines the 6-year period after punk where bands such as Joy Division, Public Image Limited, Bauhaus, Scritti Politti and others emerged. In the US, they were apparently considered more "underground". In the UK, however, many of these bands could be heard blaring on mainstream radio stations and on the weekly Top of the Pops on BBC1. You were forced to listen to all kinds of music on TOTP while you were waiting for your favorite band to come on: progressive rock, R&B, country, appalling "novelty" songs. It could be maddening but it was a good education. (To give an example of how much of an institution the show was: even at the boarding school I was at for a while, where there was mandatory silent "prep time" after High Tea each night, we had special dispensation on Thursdays starting 7:20 PM.)

In the prologue, the author discusses the demise of punk and the opinion that The Sex Pistols' "Never Mind the Bollocks" actually signaled the end of the movement not the height of its glory. The postpunk vanguard wanted to continue the revolution that punk began but never fulfilled. It began to experiment with electronics and dub reggae, even disco. I find it quite fascinating to read descriptions of music because I can never find the words myself when trying to explain a genre to someone! For example, regarding guitar, the "fat" sound versus "skinny" guitar. It's also interesting to read about the underlying political philosophies because I'd been too young to be aware of anything but the music. A lot of these groups were a backlash to the new era of right-wing Thatcher politics but eschewing the in-your-face aspect of punk.

I've just finished the chapter on John Lydon (formerly Johnny Rotten) and the creation of Public Image Limited. The group was financed by the fledgling Virgin label - Richard Branson even sent him to Jamaica so he could get inspiration (rastafarianism provided an influence.)

Until next time!(less)

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Aug 26, 2009 Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I bought this book as an ideal airplane book - potentially interesting, but not likely to be particularly taxing. And it was pretty much as a I expected. I'm not a post-punk disciple (born a little late), and know the music mostly from a "looking-back" perspective. Coming from this point of view, the beginnings of the book were pretty interesting, starting with PiL and moving forward. I've always wondered about the story of PiL, and it was well explained by Reynolds.

The major problem with this b...more

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Jun 24, 2008 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

The standard narrative of the pop music history of the late 70’s and early 80’s has the bracing musical revolution of punk quickly degenerating into the more commercial and co-optable form of New Wave. Punk is the honest, authentic voice of political and aesthetic revolution, while New Wave is the watered down, corrupted, commercialized version of that impulse. Now there’s a grain of truth to this interpretation, but it misses a few things about punk that were quickly to drive it into an aesthet...more The standard narrative of the pop music history of the late 70’s and early 80’s has the bracing musical revolution of punk quickly degenerating into the more commercial and co-optable form of New Wave. Punk is the honest, authentic voice of political and aesthetic revolution, while New Wave is the watered down, corrupted, commercialized version of that impulse. Now there’s a grain of truth to this interpretation, but it misses a few things about punk that were quickly to drive it into an aesthetic dead-end, and it downplays the real virtues of much of the music that followed in its wake. Musically, punk wasn’t anything other than good old guitar-driven rock and roll played louder and faster and with a more aggressive, anti-social, overtly political attitude. Basically it layered a new set of attitudes and fashion statements over an already well-established musical form. Not only that, in a lot of ways it was simply updating and recycling traditional rock poses—macho cock rockers, the rock musician as revolutionary, with the model for revolution being the armed guerilla or street fighter. And punk’s politics—its populism and fetishization of authenticity—worked against musical innovation. One aspect of the founding myth of punk was that it was a cleansing force, washing away the excesses of the bloated, decadent, self-important pop music establishment of the 70’s. Consequently musical innovation and experimentation were suspect.

Reynolds takes postpunk out of the shadow of punk rock and presents it as a genre in its own right, distinct it from both punk and New Wave. He shows how little postpunk owed to punk, and how much it owed to other genres (the art rock and experimental music of the 70’s, Reggae and dub, funk) and other cultural and intellectual influences (post-60’s collectivist and communal values, postmodern social and aesthetic theory of the late 70’s and early 80’s). Postpunk was a much less ideologically hidebound, much more sonically adventurous musical form than the punk rock that preceded it. About all it inherited from punk was attitude and energy.

Reynolds dates postpunk from 1978-1984, and the book is divided into two parts. The first part, from roughly 78-80ish, recounts the emergence of postpunk, and focuses on the dour, arty, experimental, socially conscious bands that most music nerds associate with postpunk—Gang of Four, The Fall, early Scritti Politti, PIL, Cabaret Voltaire, Pere Ubu etc. The second half, on new pop and new rock, follows the evolution of postpunk into the mid-eighties and focuses on the more accessible, commercial, radio-and-dancefloor-friendly turn the genre took in the early 80’s. Some bands make appearances in both sections, most notably Scritti Politti, who were one of the more uncompromising bands of postpunk’s early years, but who later made a conscious decision to record more listener-friendly stuff in order to infiltrate the mainstream. Other bands covered in the second half include: the Specials and other two-tone and ska revival bands, Malcolm McLaren projects like Bow Wow Wow and Adam and the Antz, arty synthpoppers like Gary Numan and Ultravox, NYC Mutant Disco groups, Progressive Punk bands like Black Flag, The Minutemen, and Mission of Burma etc.

Reynolds does a fine job of connecting the music to the larger cultural, intellectual and political contexts from which it emerged. Postpunk was born along with Thatcherism in the UK. It also coincided with the rise of postmodernism and critical theory in the universities. It likewise coexisted, in the UK, with a strong tradition of communist and socialist-friendly left-wing politics. There was a bit of this in the US as well, especially in the Reagan 80’s, with bands like The Minutemen proselytizing for the Central American solidarity movement (D. Boon often worked the crowd for CISPES after many Minutemen shows). And, there were certainly strong residues of 60’s and 70’s collectivist, counter-culture politics within postpunk—Factory Records and Rough Trade most notably. And while most pop artists certainly try to manage their careers, and think hard about their self-presentation, the art school refugees and brainy autodidacts who made up the first wave of postpunk were a particularly self-reflective bunch. It would be wrong to describe the music as un-commercial, or to portray the musicians and artists as completely unconcerned with popularity or commercial success, but there was a definite sense of existing to negate the corporate hit-making machinery and the ideology of 70’s corporate rock and pop, at least until New Pop came along and rebelled against postpunk rebellion by emulating the most listener-friendly, anti-rockist pop forms.

There’s always a danger in any social-intellectual history of the pop arts of inflating the art form’s significance simply by virtue of placing it within a well-developed reconstruction of the cultural milieu in which it emerged (on the other hand, the mistake many highbrow critics make—are there any of them left?—is to avoid looking beyond the shiny surfaces to the more serious elements embedded in pop art forms). There may be some pop songs, genres, movements about which there really isn’t much of interest to say—bands and scenes that don’t merit more than a glib one-paragraph squib in a music magazine, and that don’t connect to larger trends and issues or ideas in any kind of interesting way. But as Reynolds shows this is certainly not the case with postpunk. One could argue that Reynolds is too much of a fan, and that he overpraises much of the music—as the Vanity Fair critic tapped to review the book for the New York Times did, though it’s hard to take such criticism seriously from someone who writes for what’s essentially a middlebrow version of People—but to me he gets it absolutely right 95% of the time. He convincingly makes the case that, despite the preeminent place punk has occupied in rock-crit mythology, postpunk was by far a more interesting and influential movement—sonically, intellectually and politically.

Reynolds comes to praise, rather than bury, postpunk, but his fanboy’s enthusiasm is balanced by a 40-year-old’s sense of how sophomoric much of the politics were and how crappy, ultimately, a lot of the music was, in traditional musical terms. But this is balanced by an admiration for the creativity and idealism of the various scenes, the sense of mission, willingness to experiment, and to bend musical tastes to the bands‘ will rather than simply playing what was popular in order to be rock stars, that characterized much of postpunk. And while he spends almost 600 pages lovingly reconstructing the scene and it’s influences and musical products, he doesn’t make much of an argument for its larger significance outside of the world of pop music. He never loses sight of the fact that the end product, even of the more uncompromising or abrasive variants—like Gang of Four, Throbbing Gristle, Crass, The Minutemen etc.—was one form or another of pop music. I’m not sure how to say this exactly, but the idea, the concept of pop—as something youth-oriented, playful, ephemeral, disposable, commercial, popular, relatively undemanding, not meant to last—is the reality check that keeps Reynolds from overpraising the music. Reynolds, shows how the world shaped the music, but thankfully stops short of arguing that the music changed the world.(less)

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Aug 08, 2011 Gabe added it · review of another edition

Endlessly exhaustive and meticulously researched history of one of the most fertile and creative periods of music since rock and roll expropriated the black blue. There is an interesting parallel in which Reynolds compares the synth-pop Second English Invasion of the early 80s to the original 60s English Invasion - rather than UK bands taking black blues and selling back to the white Americans, it was UK bands taking the recent black innovations of disco and R&B, remaking them in their own i...more

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Jan 26, 2013 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars

Warning: do not read this book unless you have ready access to Spotify or some other music subscription service that allows you to listen to entire albums without purchasing them, or else you will go bankrupt trying to catch up with the Fall, James Chance and the Contortions, the Associates and a hundred other bands with which you were vaguely familiar but suddenly find fascinating thanks to Simon Reynolds' writing. This is the best work of music history, and one of the best history books, I hav...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Andrew Bishop rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A wonderful resource for lovers of postpunk! While it can be scant on certain details and adhere too strictly to Reynolds' overall thesis for the era, it remains the best guide to what these musicians were doing. Many of them are still alive so there's little excuse for those intrigued to not dig further into these stories. Paul Morley is a good example of someone from that time who has a differing view from Reynolds of what was up. Jon Savage's Joy Division documentary also provides a lot of co...more

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Feb 18, 2012 Brandon rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: listmakers, review-heads

Recommended to Brandon by: Wiggins

Here is a band. They put out a great record. Here's why it was great. Then they became less great and broke up. Here is another band. They put out a great record. Here's why it was great. Then they became less great and broke up. Here is another band. They put out a great record. Here's why it was great. Then they became less great and broke up. Here is another band. They put out a great record. Here's why it was great. Then they became less great and broke up. Here is another band. They put out...more

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Jan 16, 2012 Schuyler rated it 2 of 5 stars

I came to this book after reading and enjoying (to varying degrees) two other books by Reynolds--"Blissed Out" and "Generation Ecstasy"--that managed to be both entertaining and intellectually rigorous. It's too bad I didn't read "Rip It Up..." first. Although there are moments of socio-cultural insight into this particularly fertile and varied strain of late 20th c.-music, it winds up reading like a lot of band biographies. Unlike "Generation Ecstasy" or the best pieces in "Blissed," there isn'...more

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Sep 21, 2011 Patrick McCoy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: music

I was a bit mislead by Simon Reynolds’s book on the post punk scene, Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1980-1980. I guess in retrospect most of the bands I held dearly from that era would be described as new wave or punk. I think this branch was much more experimental and theoretical in its composition of music, but I think there are more than a few bands that I gained an appreciation for who eventually found their roots in the post punk genre: Wire, Mekons, New Order, Talking Heads, Bow Wow...more

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Aug 05, 2011 Trailie rated it 4 of 5 stars

The term post-punk seems to be severely overlooked around the world. Particularly where its origins lay; England. Believe it or not, some people have to name check John Lydon's Public image Limited; those who bang their heads to the jukebox blaring the sounds of 'God Save the Queen', anyway. Memo to these types; post punk isn't just Joy Division and if you care to take a couple of months out of your heavy schedule and read Simon Reynolds' Rip it Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 you may jus...more

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Jun 17, 2013 Ian Mathers rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, other-nonfiction

Technically this was a reread, but I don't have it in Goodreads, my first read was years ago and the UK edition instead of the US, and I _did_ read it this year, so I'm counting it for the reading challenge (so there). I'd probably give the UK edition with the three extra chapters and other missing material five stars, not because it's perfect and not because I agree with Reynolds on everything (and you can definitely spot the roots of some of his errors circa Retromania in the afterword), but i...more

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Jun 04, 2011 Mitch rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: music, non-fiction

A fascinating look at a range of more and less known "scenes" in the UK (and US) music world between 1978-1984. Reynolds creates a plausible narrative that takes you from Public Image Limited to Frankie Goes to Hollywood, stopping at The Human League and The Fall along the way. Ever wondered why Heaven 17 or The Associates mattered? What is this Mudd Club that the Talking Heads talk about? The answer is here. Coverage of US scenes is relatively thin (I'm sure there's a book out there on the CBGB...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Gijs Grob rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, music, english

Uitstekende beschrijving van de 'doom era', the new wave, postpunk, synthpop en new romantic movements die deze periode (1978-1984) kenmerken en doen verschillen van de rock van daarvoor en de extreem commerciële pop van daarna.

Reynolds schrijft met veel liefde en kennis van zaken over een heel scala aan bands en weet orde te scheppen in de chaos, zodat een rijke periode ineens erg overzichtelijk wordt. De schrijver is genereus in zijn definitie en zelfs de Amerikaanse hardcore (met namen als Bl...more

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Oct 04, 2009 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Simon Reynolds' book Rip It Up and Start Again is meant to be a comprehensive study of the postpunk era, which he says is from 1978 to 1984. It began with the Sex Pistols' implosion and sort of fades out at the end.

There isn't a consistent timeline (other than Sex Pistols begatting Public Image Ltd.), so Rip It Up jumps around a lot. He's done a lot of research and tells the stories of a lot of bands time has forgotten and a lot of others that he greatly admires appear regularly throughout the b...more

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Mar 29, 2010 Godzilla rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, music

A wonderful book, brimming with everything you could want to know about this era of music. It inspired me to go out and buy a couple of albums, stuff which I'd always intended to get, but the author's enthusiasm and depictions sold me completely.

Yes, in places it's wordy and too flowery, but that's down to the love of the subject matter: the guy loves his stuff and gushes occasionally, a forgivable crime in my eyes.

For every moment of these lapses there are another couple of almost throw away li...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Guy Mankowski rated it 5 of 5 stars

I think this is the most exciting 'textual' piece of music criticism I've ever read. My recurring interest in post-punk was ignited by this book and in florid, excitable prose Reynolds describes the fascinating theoretical underpinnings of key post-punk bands. I never realized how well thought out works by the likes of Magazine and The Fall were, and through Reynold's eyes this sub-genre becomes the most exciting I have ever read about. The recurring characters- John Lydon, Howard Devoto, emerge...more

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Aug 27, 2011 Francesca Lisette rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: music

Easily the best survey of music ever written. It contributes real joy to the reader who becomes the listener to this extraordinary period for music. Only thing is, having read it your enjoyment of other (subsequent) music might become considerably dampened, because there's no denying or topping the diversity, brilliance & sheer determined genius of much of the music described and encompassed here: Bowie, Talking Heads, Magazine, Scritti Politti, Joy Division, the Fall, the Human League, the...more

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Jan 18, 2011 Allie Ludvigson rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is clearly an extremely awesome book. I learned so much and was pretty much in awe of the way Reynolds was able to sum up an extremely productive and complex time in music history. Written in readable and passionate prose, it could also be equally viewed as an encyclopedia on the topic. A helpful index in the back will prove a great resource if you want a quick reminder of how any given group fit into post-punk as a whole.

Another amazing thing is the (almost) complete lack of pretension, a...more

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Oct 31, 2010 Julia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Incredibly well-written & researched. Scholarly even, without sounding like it. Subject matter so rich, I wanted more! (Also, pretty much explained my musical journey in high school better than i ever could.) This read is a real good time.

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Mar 16, 2013 Mark Sinnott rated it 2 of 5 stars

I found this lengthy book on the post-punk music scene from 1978-1984 disappointing. The writing wasn't it's downfall (although, it read like a 500 music-mag band-bio), but rather the bands Reynolds chose to highlight were mostly British bands that I have heard, but am not terribly fond of. When I think post-punk from 78-84, I think of American bands like Television, Mission of Burma, and the music scenes in Athens, Minneapolis and L.A. This book references Devo and Talking Heads, but mainly sti...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Jesús rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mastodóntico, enciclopédico, imprescindible. El libro de Reynolds pone orden en aquello que el punk dejó patas arriba y hace que nos preguntemos no ya qué es el post-punk, sino: ¿qué no es post-punk? Es música disco, es reggae, es dub; es negro, es blanco y es africano; es de Nueva York y es de Manchester; es autogestión, es independencia, es política y es baile; es ruido, furia y mierda, pero también es artístico, limpio y minimalista; es frío y es calor; es carne y es metal; es antirock y anti...more

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Nov 21, 2010 Adam rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: art-and-music

Listen up! This is the best straight journalism on rock music I’ve ever read (along with the 2006 music edition of The Believer magazine). Reynolds’ prose is really excellent--upon finishing it, I’m no longer surprised that the place I found a review of it was the New York Review of Books. The writing is just so lean and precise--just like the musical style he’s covering. Reynolds has a way of summarizing a band’s project in two sentences. He is economical with the use of quotations from histori...more Listen up! This is the best straight journalism on rock music I’ve ever read (along with the 2006 music edition of The Believer magazine). Reynolds’ prose is really excellent--upon finishing it, I’m no longer surprised that the place I found a review of it was the New York Review of Books. The writing is just so lean and precise--just like the musical style he’s covering. Reynolds has a way of summarizing a band’s project in two sentences. He is economical with the use of quotations from historical interviews or reviews, so as not to distract from his own voice. His is like the voice of your friend, who in your living room, offers a description that perfectly captures your experience of hearing that album together for the first time.

Check out Reynolds on Suicide: “A unique sound developed. Vega’s half-spoken, half-sung incantations resembled a cross between rockabilly and method acting; Rev generated pittering pulses from a beat-up electronic keyboard and crude but hypnotic beats using a cruddy drum machine originally designed for weddings and bar mitzvahs. Vega’s lyrics reveal a Warhol/Lichentstein-like attraction to the two-dimensional pulp fictions and larger-than-life icons of American mass culture. Suicide’s name itself comes from “Satan Suicide,” an issue of Vega’s favorite comic book, “Ghost Rider.” Like a sci-fi Elvis, Vega’s voice was swathed in eerie reverb and delay effects that harked back to the echo on Presley’s voice circa “The Sun Sessions” while simultaneously evoking the vapor trails of a rocket ship. Deliberately simple, his lyrics risked corn and trusted in the timeless power of cliche” (143).

This book totally deepened my love for Roxy Music and Bauhaus and turned me on to David Bowie for me (I can’t believe I had never heard “Heroes” before!). But, I have to admit, I’m still trying to find the brilliance in PIL. Oh, and a question: why didn’t Psychedelic Furs make it into this book?(less)

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Mar 06, 2012 Ken rated it 4 of 5 stars

A great book on post-punk. If you don't know what "post punk" is, google it before reading this book. However,The chapter on no wave (as opposed to new wave) might be a bit dry for some people; especially those who are casual fans of post punk. My only other gripe with the book is that Frankie Goes to Hollywood received entirely too many pages in this book (FGTH good band but not not a post punk band in my opinion). Despite these very minor gripes "Rip It Up and Start Again" is a very good read:...more

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May 30, 2009 Steven rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: art, biography, business, criticism, economics, favorites, history, journalism, music, politics, reference

Reynolds does an excellent overview of the post-punk era. Though it's focused on mainly British bands, he does a great job of showing the effects these bands had on the American music culture of the time and the effect Americans had on the British. The post-1977 years was a heady time for music, and Reynolds captures the era's rush and frustrations with wonderful details and interviews.

Speaking of, there's a follow-up book full of interviews with seminal figures of the time, "Totally Wired." Unf...more

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Jun 30, 2009 wodehousegirl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, non-fiction, music

This is a great read, but definitely meant only for those with previous knowledge of or respect for this era of music history. Newcomers to this genre will most likely be put off by the sheer amount of obscure information that Reynolds includes, while post-punk nerds such as myself will revel in it.

However, it should be noted that the US version is highly censored and cut by almost 200 pages, and does not include the original photos of the UK release. Take some time to seek out the original UK...more

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Jun 12, 2010 DoctorM rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pop-culture

A well-done account of the alternative music scene at the end of the 70s and into the early '80s. I have to sigh and say that this brought back a flood of memories from my Lost Youth--- so many bands I danced to, saw live, or just played on dashboard cassette (remember cassettes?) while driving. And, yes: this book will cost me a fortune at iTunes--- that's just inevitable. Insightful and sympathetic treatment of the synthpop/Britpop era, and good attention to the political and social changes be...more

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May 01, 2013 Drew rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: music

Unlike Jon Savage's remarkable England's Dreaming, this book is fatally flawed due to its lack of any kind of structuring narrative device. In the place of a story line, we start with the bomb known as The Pistols. When they exploded, a thousand punk and post-punk subcultures were born, and Simon Reynolds does his best to trace their trajectories as they fly through the stifling late-70s air.

The result is a breathtakingly erudite but ultimately unrevealing collection of thumbnail essays that co...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Aaron rated it 5 of 5 stars

It's no secret amongst my friends that I pretty much obsess over the post-punk era. This books seemed short at 500+ pages while containing more information and insight into the scene, how it came about, mutated and ended than seemed possible. Sure there's a million other stories to tell... There's a wealth of information that could be gotten from the artists mouth's themselves (as this book seemed light on direct contact). As the first book I am aware of that tried to broach this topic with any...more

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May 14, 2013 Rob rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: music-film, 2013, non-fiction

Just like the Dark Ages (40% of recorded history) get shoved aside by their before and after, largely because of the Church and largely because it gets too complicated to idealise, the post punk / New Wave period tends to have been dismissed with vapid one-liners. Although Reynolds probably has a one-liner ready for later periods (slotting a few of them into his afterword), he's the right critic to take on this swathe of yearning restless well-read dreamers from 1978-84. He loves the idealistic...more

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About Simon Reynolds

Simon Reynolds is one of the most respected music journalists working today, and his writing is both influential and polarizing. He draws on an impressive range of knowledge, and writes with a fluid, engaging style. His books Rip it Up and Start Again and Generation Ecstasy are well-regarded works about their respective genres, and RETROMANIA may be his most broadly appealing book yet. It makes an...more

More about Simon Reynolds...

Books by Simon Reynolds

Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/272642.Rip_It_Up_and_Start_Again?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348386109l/272642.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/272642.Rip_It_Up_and_Start_Again?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Rip It Up and Start Again by Simon Reynolds[/url]

Rip It Up and Start Again

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