Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984

A great, fun read. As a professor I teach a course on popular music, and I often assign students Reynolds' work. The reason is that he writes like he is having a chat with the reader like a chum: he discloses personal stuff, he's a human, he admits what his limits are, he just writes to readers like he's a journalist with feelings. This is a smart and enjoyable book. it will introduce you to some bands you didn't know about, and dive into some particulars from those you do. But above all, Reynolds honest voice is what hooks you---he writes like he's sitting on your couch in your living room. I know some folks want a more "objective" tone, but I think his approach to writing is perfect for what he is writing about. He's sorta the counterpoint to Simon Frith, who is much more aloof and, I think, clueless . . . . This is a good book for folks interested in postpunk or who grew up in the 80s. I just adore Reynolds honesty and enthusiasm for the music he writes about.

Simon Reynolds, who previously wrote the definitive early history of electronica,  Generation Ecstasy , is simply one the best music historians and critics alive, an exhaustive researcher with encyclopedic musical, literary and historical knowledge who possesses, thankfully, a solid sense of humor.A major problem with the postpunk movement, though, and Reynold's superhuman efforts in researching and chronicling it, is that an enormous percentage of the music has not survived the test of time. Too much of it was modernism in its best and worst senses: extreme experimentalism and a rejection of past norms (tunes, for example) by young musicians and non-musicians of admirable ambition but questionable talent and inspiration. Many postpunk songs were slapped together in a day by young guys who had picked up guitars, drums and synths for the first time a week before. I often suspect that Reynolds put more effort into researching and describing certain obscure songs than the bands originally spent in writing and recording them.That said, there are many diamonds in the rough to be found by exploring the bands and songs mentioned in this book. I made many musical discoveries through Rip It Up, something that's become extremely easy thanks to the Internet. The ability to dial up 60- or 90-second samples on Amazon or iTunes of all of the songs Reynolds describes is half the fun.Reynolds accomplishes what he sets out to do: write the definitive history of post-punk, convincingly define what it was (in short, a period of modernism), and explain its important role in music history, namely as the bridge between punk and the British "New Pop" of the early 80s and a movement that planted the or some seeds of goth, hip hop (via Art of Noise's "Beat Box" and Malcolm McLaren's surprising post-Pistols career), rave, and a host of contemporary bands. He argues, successfully, that postpunk was extremely influential even where the original music hasn't stood the test of time.Many of the Amazon reviewers here exhort you to buy the longer UK edition of Rip it Up. My advice: don't... unless you're already into postpunk. The US edition is long enough for the general reader at 388 pages.In the final chapter, Reynolds sets the stage for his next book,  Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past , which presumably begins where New Pop entered its decline, around 1984-85, when the dominant paradigm of music shifted from forward thinking (futurist) to backward looking (retro).

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I wasn't a big fan of many of the bands in this history, even though it covers all my teenage years, and I was definitely into music then. But I loved many bands that came before and after them, so I thought it would be good to know about the 'bridges' between. The book is very well written and thorough, and written from a UK and European perspective that differs from my own of the time. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it filled in some gaps in my knowledge, and prompted me to go back and relisten to some old favorites, maybe even make a new one or two.

Apparently, the US version is ~200 pages less than the UK version (which was the first copy I read). Though it seems rather blasphemous to excise chapters/portions about Einsturzende Neubauten, SST Records, Magazine, and (reducing) The Buzzcocks, I think it could also be argued that it streamlined the narrative (how punk influenced post-punk which was then co-opted into the mainstream), even if reading about those other acts/labels was interesting. The UK version was definitely enjoyable, but I felt it was a little bloated (i.e. following up the formation of PiL with... some guy who has a cult following, even by the standards of others in this book) My only real complaint is that I would've switched the last two chapters around. (Frankie Goes to Hollywood and the Goth/Neo-psychedelia chapters, respectively)I was a bit annoyed that SST were barely mentioned in the UK version, and excised entirely from the US version, but in retrospect it makes more sense as they didn't really fit into the above narrative (at least in the years covered. "Michael Azerrad's "Our Band Could Be Your Life" covers them, among others, more succinctly). So in all, it's definitely a great book, even if it does leave out otherwise interesting acts.

This is an excellent account of the post-punk years that would have been much excellenter had the three chapters cut from this version been included...The Devoto/Subway Sect chapter,the Conform to Deform Second Wave of Industrial chapter,and the SST/Blasting Concept chapter.Finding this out after the fact really irked me, because Magazine is probably my favorite band, and because both SST and second-wave industrial represent a huge part of the California post-punk experience - which makes it all the more inexplicable why these particular chapters were purged from the American version.Also, it's criminal that there's absolutely no mention of Spizzenergi - one of the great post-punk bands of all time!Oh, and I could've done without the lame ending chapter on ZTT/Frankie. I understand what he's getting at with the whole "gay sexual expression is the last frontier" idea, but what Frankie did had already been done before - much better in fact - by The Village People in the 70's.A GREAT book - don't get me wrong - but do check out the full UK version, especially if you like Magazine.

Simon Reynolds writes the definitive history of post-punk music in this worthwhile book. If you like bands such as Joy Division, Public Image Ltd., the Fall, and others of the late-70s/ early-80s, you'll find plenty in Reynolds' book to keep you hooked.

Gem of a book

good