Rip It Up and Start Again
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"Punk bypassed me almost completely. [...] My belated discovery of the movement coincided with when things began to pick up again, with what soon became known as 'post-punk' -- the subject of this book. So I was listening to X-Ray Spex's Germ Free Adolescents, but also the first PiL album, Talking Heads' Fear of Music, and Cut by The Slits. It was all one bright, bursting surge of excitement."--Rip It Up and Start Again (2005) by Simon Reynolds "And although "affection" is possibly an odd word to use in reference to a bunch of nihilists, I do feel fond of the No Wave people. James Chance's music actually stands up really well, I think; there are great moments throughout Lydia Lunch's long discography, and Suicide's records are just beautiful. " --Simon Reynolds [1] "The irony of Anglo-Euro synthpop is that, for all its whiteness (DAF loved disco but prided themselves on not sounding black), it had a huge impact on black America. DAF and their offshoot group Liaisons Dangereuses influenced the embryonic black electronic sounds of Chicago house and Detroit techno, while Kraftwerk almost single-handedly inspired New York electro."--Rip It Up and Start Again (2005) by Simon Reynolds |
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Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984 (2005) is a book by Simon Reynolds on the post-punk musical genre and era. In 2006 it was published in an abridged version in the United States.
Reception
Writing for The Guardian, Nicholas Lezard described the book as "startlingly thoughtful, gracefully illuminating, in command of an anarchic subject," writing that "Reynolds has reilluminated the period for us, shown us how fascinating and rewarding it was." The Observer described the book as "a compelling reminder of a time when clever, mischievous, creative people formed bands". The New York Times called it "exhaustive and exhausting in equal measure."
In 2006, it was also subject to criticism by writer Clinton Heylin in a book on a similar subject: "Here [is] post-punk - at least before Simon Reynolds decided it was All The Music That I Liked When I Was Young, a somewhat broad not to say solipsistic, view of pop".
See also
References
- Rip It Up and Start Again : Postpunk 1978-1984. Faber and Faber Ltd, April 2005, ISBN 0-571-21569-6 (U.S. Edition: Penguin, February 2006, ISBN 0-14-303672-6)