Los Angeles rock generally conjures memories of surf music, The Doors, or Laurel Canyon folkies. But punk? L.A.'s punk scene, while not as notorious as that of New York City, emerged full-throated in 1977 and boasted bands like The Germs, X, and Black Flag. This book explores how, in the land of the Beach Boys, punk rock took hold.As a teenager, Dewar MacLeod witnessed firsthand the emergence of the punk subculture in Southern California. As a scholar, he here reveals the origins o...

Making the Scene in the Garden State explores New Jersey’s rich musical heritage through stories about the musicians, listeners and fans who came together to create sounds from across the American popular music spectrum. The book includes chapters on the beginnings of musical recording in Thomas Edison’s factories in West Orange; early recording and the invention of the Victrola at Victor Records’ Camden complex; Rudy Van Gelder’s recording studios (for Blue Note, Prestige, and ot...

The cultural history of one of rock's greatest masterpieces told through the eyes of its creator.Tommy*, Trauma, and Postwar Youth Culture* traces the development of one of rock music's central masterpieces and its relation to the social-cultural history of the era. Composer and guitarist Pete Townshend was the creative force behind the Who, one of Britain's greatest rock bands. Townshend grew up in an England decimated by the loss of life and hope that was the ini...

Freddie Mercury fronted the legendary rock group Queen. With songs such as "Don't Stop Me Now", "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "I want To Break Free", it's no wonder he was voted the greatest male singer of all time.  This is his story.  The unofficial Freddie Mercury Biography.

**WINNER OF THE 2026 PULITZER PRIZE FOR OPINION WRITINGFrom National Book Award winner Masha Gessen, the heroic story of Pussy Riot, who resurrected the power of truth in a society built on lies.**On February 21, 2012, five young women entered the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. In neon-colored dresses, tights, and balaclavas, they performed a “punk prayer” beseeching the “Mother of God” to “get rid of Putin.” They were quickly shut down by security, and in the we...

Before the charts were littered with generic urban music, there was the generation of grunge when songs was simplified into powerful riffs, and lyrics had emotion. Focusing upon passionate teenage angst, rather than clubbing and getting loaded. Amy Winehouse was recently omitted to the legendary 27 club, but before her there was Robert Johnson, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain.Kurt Cobain, the founder of grunge band Nirvana and an icon of a generation, ...

Black Flag were the pioneers of American Hardcore, and this is their blood-spattered story.Formed in Hermosa Beach, California, in 1978, for eight brutal years they made and played brilliant, ugly, no-holds-barred music on a self-appointed touring circuit of America’s clubs, squats, and community halls. They fought with everybody: the police, the record industry and even their own fans. They toured overseas on pennies a day and did it in beat-up trucks and vans.Spray Pa...

Straight edge has persisted as a drug-free, hardcore punk subculture for 25 years. Its political legacy, however, remains ambiguous—often associated with self-righteous macho posturing and conservative puritanism. While certain elements of straight edge culture feed into such perceptions, the movement’s political history is far more complex.Since straight edge’s origins in Washington, DC, in the early 1980s, it has been linked to radical thought and action by countless individuals,...

In 1983, at the height of their fame and success, punk band The Clash simply disintegrated. This is the full story of what really happened, as told to film-maker Danny Garcia by members of the band and those who knew them.A Clash fan since his teenage years, film-maker Danny Garcia set out to discover what went wrong between his heroes, the late Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, and the rest of the band.It took him two years to win the trust of the key players in this Shakespearian...

**" [An] endlessly fascinating and frankly addictive masterpiece of safety-pin journalism." -- Austin ChronicleAn oral history of the modern punk-revival's West Coast Birthplace**Outside of New York and London, California?s Bay Area claims the oldest continuous punk-rock scene in the world. Gimme Something Better brings this outrageous and influential punk scene to life, from the notorious final performance of the Sex Pistols, to Jello Biafra?s bid for may...

With his critically acclaimed Rip It Up and Start Again, renowned music journalist Simon Reynolds applied a unique understanding to an entire generation of musicians working in the wake of punk rock. Spawning artists as singular as Talking Heads, Joy Division, The Specials, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Gang of Four, and Devo, postpunk achieved new relevance in the first decade of the twenty-first century through its profound influence on bands such as Radiohead, Franz Ferdinand, and...

First published in 1982 as part of the Crass record album Christ: The Album, Penny Rimbaud’s The Last of the Hippies is a fiery anarchist polemic centered on the story of his friend, Phil Russell (aka Wally Hope), who was murdered by the State while incarcerated in a mental institution.Wally Hope was a visionary and a freethinker, whose life had a profound influence on many in the culture of the UK underground and beyond. He was an important figure in what may loo...