Books like Rip it up and start again by Simon Reynolds


Simon Reynolds offers a comprehensive, book‑length study of the music that followed the punk revolution. He examines the pioneering spirit of bands such as Joy Division, Gang of Four, Talking Heads, and Devo, and tracks how their experimental approaches reshaped music, lyrics, performance, and visual style. Reynolds then follows this trajectory into the early 1980s, detailing the rise of synth‑pop and the video‑savvy groups Human League, Depeche Mode, and Soft Cell, whose success paralleled the emergence of MTV. Through insight, anecdotes, and vivid portraits of key figures, the book captures the idealism, urgency, and excitement that defined one of the most transformative periods in popular music history.
First publish date: 2005
Genre: Arts & Culture/Art History
Authors: Simon Reynolds
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Rip it up and start again by Simon Reynolds

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Some Other Similar Books

Shock City Mavericks by Mitch Anderson
Post-Punk: The Darkness of the Heart by Simon Reynolds
Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 by Simon Reynolds
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross
Music Sociology: An Introduction to Practice by Gillian Rose
Musical Revolutions: How the Sounds of the Past Shape Our Future by Nina Fernandes
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