Radio Silence: A Selected Visual History of American Hardcore Music

by Nathan Nedorostek, Anthony Pappalardo

Radio A Selected Visual History of American Hardcore Music is a tribute to the innocence and accidental sophistication that jump-started the look and sound of hardcore music.

Hardcore music emerged just after the first wave of punk rock in the late 1970s. American punk kids who loved the speed and attitude of punk took hold of its spirit, got rid of the “live fast, die young” mind-set and made a brilliant hardcore. The dividing line between punk and hardcore music was in the less pretense, less melody, and more aggression. This urgency seeped its way from the music into the look of hardcore. There wasn’t time to mold your liberty spikes or shine your Docs, it was jeans and T-shirts, Chuck Taylors and Vans. The skull and safety-pin punk costume was replaced by hi-tops and hooded sweatshirts. Jamie Reid’s ransom note record cover aesthetic gave way to black-and-white photographs of packed shows accompanied by bold and simple typography declaring things "The Kids Will Have Their Say", and "You’re Only Young Once."

Radio Silence documents the ignored space between the Ramones and Nirvana through the words and images of the pre-Internet era where this community built on do-it-yourself ethics thrived. Authors Nathan Nedorostek and Anthony Pappalardo have cataloged private collections of unseen images, personal letters, original artwork, and various ephemera from the hardcore scene circa 1978-1993. Unseen photos lay next to hand-made t-shirts and original artwork brought to life by the words of their creators and fans. Radio Silence includes over 500 images of unseen photographs, illustrations, rare records, t-shirts, and fanzines presented in a manner that abandons the aesthetic clichés normally employed to depict the genre and lets the subject matter speak for itself. Contributions by Jeff Nelson, Dave Smalley, Walter Schreifels, Cynthia Connolly, Pat Dubar, Gus Peña, Rusty Moore, and Gavin Ogelsby with an essay by Mark Owens.

Genres: Music, Punk, Art, Design, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 7, 2008

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very cool document of hardcore's "visual history." There have been similar books about record sleeves and even badges, but Radio Silence takes a much wider scope, documenting all of these plus photos, letters, flyers, zines, and the hand-made clothing worn by some of hardcore's most famous scenesters. Some of the items are really cool... one of my favorites is a fan letter than my friend Brian (who is know about 40 I think?) wrote to Jeff Nelson from Minor Threat when he was like 16. I also really loved seeing the printer's mechanicals for some of the most iconic record sleeves in punk. I do wish there was more text in the book, though the longer stretches of text that are here have weaknesses. Anthony Pappalardo's capsule history of punk at the beginning of the book is too short and generic to be anything but annoying, and the essay on Minor Threat's Salad Days artwork feels like a college term paper. I would also take issue with the narrative of hardcore's history that the authors draw... they move from the 80s scene (with a heavy focus on DC) straight to late 80s straight edge hardcore (with a heavy focus on Revelation Records) and then the 90s emo / hardline straight edge groups. Where is crossover? East Bay pop punk? I'm sure there are dozens of other scenes and movements that are similarly written out of this narrative. Still, this is a very interesting book that takes a unique approach to the history of punk rock, something that VERY few books on the subject these days can lay claim to.

[Simon Harvey]

The central premise upon which this book is based is fundamentally and fatally flawed-- it conflates the straight edge, positivity-inspired element of hardcore with hardcore itself. It's a popular and agenda-driven misrepresentation that can only mislead and misinform outsiders to the actual nature of '80s hardcore, so to see this book peddling it-- even in the face of the contrary evidence displayed directly herein-- is irritating as it is predictable. Definitive giants of American hardcore like Crucifix, Poison Idea, The Freeze and Battalion of Saints, to name just the tiniest handful, were every bit as typical as the cleancut PMA crowd. Nonetheless, knowing better myself, I was able to enjoy it as a relatively low-content catalogue of '80s American punk ephemera. Take it such and it's worth picking up.

[Damaged · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first flipped through this book in a bookstore shortly after it came it but didn't buy until years later. For no apparent reason I had expected it to be limited in one way or another: limited to one region, sub-genre or scene. I was proven wrong. Without being or even claiming to be at all comprehensive it does a good job of covering a diverse array of bands, periods, regions and even more ephemeral matters such as t-shirts–didn't they quote Ian's explanation of the song "Merchandise"?

[Blair Hoyle]

If you have an interest in hardcore music, Radio Silence is a solid read that provides a lot of fun stories from members of the bands who helped define the genre in the '80s and '90s. Unfortunately, the text is all written in like 5pt font, which is unforgivable considering how much white space there is on most of the pages, but if you have a magnifying glass handy, it's worth the read.

[Terence · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tries really hard to cover a lot of territory. Definitely gives you more in the design department than in written content. It's not a failure but perhaps this should be a multi-volume series. It gets major things right but lots of small things wrong. Really scattered.

That said, the images, design info, type families, etc. are wonderful to see and great resources. Especially how pre-computer they all are. Even if some of the covers are horrible, seeing how they laid out text and image is great.

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have even the remotest interest in hardcore, this book belongs in your library. Pure archival awesomeness.

[DJ Yossarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me personally this book was something of a disappointment as a large chunk of it is devoted to what I would call later hardcore (post, say, 1984), in which I have about zero interest. The coverage of the early stuff is fantastic though and overall it's a very visually rich account of the genre.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW. A brief history about the roots of american punk and hardcore with amazing photos, flyers, personal letters as well as personal record collections and tee shirt collections. This book really fills in any gaps that AMERICAN HARDCORE or Banned In D.C. may have left.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

pretty tight book about hardcore. lots of good layout and design stuff.

[Kp · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great look through Punk/Hardcore. some really good pictures and stories throughout

[Phinehas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Far, far superior to "American Hardcore".