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Rip It up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984

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Rip It up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984

By: Simon Reynolds
Narrated by: Liam Wheatley
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In this, the first book to take a big-picture view of the entire post punk period, acclaimed author and music journalist Simon Reynolds recreates a time of tremendous urgency and idealism in pop music.

Full of anecdote and insight, and featuring the likes of Joy Division, The Fall, Pere Ubu, PiL and Talking Heads, Rip It Up And Start Again stands as one of the most inspired and inspiring books on popular music ever written.

©2009 Simon Reynolds (P)2024 Orion Publishing Group Limited History & Criticism Music Programming & Software Development Programming Languages
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20. Mutant Disco and Punk-Funk: Crosstown Traffic in Early Eighties New York (and Beyond

There’s a crackle between passages throughout.

Great but issue on chapter 20

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A brilliant account of one the most interesting and prolific periods in modern music - so good I'm quite prepared to overlook the several misread lyrics and song titles scattered throughout!

Comprehensive and exhaustive

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Good overview of the music I wanted to hear about. I wanted more in dept info in some subgenres and bands, but I understand that’s impossible in such a huge undertaking.

Good overview

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Good book. Very interesting to hear the background and circumstances that brought about such a great period in music.

Very informative

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Postpunk was never a phrase in widespread use at the time. There was no movement, just lots of very diverse musical types, driven by the DIY attitude of Punk, the lack of musical chops by many bands and greater access to synthesisers. It was a real struggle to listen to this book. The journalistic word salad started to really get on my nerves. I should have counted the number of times he uses the word agitprop. It just seemed like how many musical types could he shoehorn in - funk-punk, disco-punk, jazz-punk. Sadly not for me.

Word salad!

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