Listen to Punk Rock! – Exploring a musical Genre, June Michelle Pulliam
Bloomsbury Publishing, Ireland Limited, 29 Earlsfort Terrace, D02 AY28, Dublin 2, Ireland
A few words from the „Series Forword“ by the series editor James E. Perone: „So, Greenwood’s Exploring Musical Genres series is a genre- and performance group—based collection of books and e-books. The publications in this series will provide listeners with background information on the genre; critical analysis of important examples of musical pieces, artists, and events from the genre; discussion of must-hear music from the genre; analysis of the genre’s impact on the popular culture of its time and on later popular-culture trends; and analysis of the enduring legacy of the genre today and its impact on later musicians and their songs, instrumental works, and recordings. Each volume will also contain a bibliography of references for further reading.
We view the volumes in the Exploring Musical Genres series as a go-to resource for serious music fans, the more casual listener, and everyone in between. The authors in the series are scholars, who probe into the details of the genre and its practitioners: the singers, instrumentalists, composers and lyricist of the piece of music we love.“ So far there have been nine books with the following genres: Pop!, New Wave Rock!, The Blues!, Rap!, Classic Rock!, Psychedelic Rock!, Movie Musicals! and Soul! This book, about Punk Rock, was already published in 2021 (e-book, last years summer it was printed) but since it captures the evolution of punk rock from its inception in 1975 to 2020 it can be read at any time. If you are a punk expert, it most likely is nothing you need to get your hands on, in other words, there is nothing really new in this book, but it is a great summary. It is by far not complete and focuses on UK and US punk bands and history mainly. Of course there might a few bands missing, but the author, who teaches courses on horror fiction and film, young adult fiction, and women’s and gender studies at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, advances right away that she is sorry not to include the readers favourite band. And she does feature quite a few bands that do belong in here: Against Me!,Alice Bag, Bad Brains, Bad Religion, Bikini Kill, Black Flag, Blondie, Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Cramps, Crass, The Damned, Dead Boys, Dead Kennedys, Death, The Dropkick Murphys, Fugazi, Minor Threat, The Germs, Gogol Bordello, Green Day, The Jam, L7, Las Vulpes, Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies, Misfits, Mojo Nixon, The Muffs, Pansy Division, The Pogues, Pussy Riot, The Raincoats, The Ramones, Rancid, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, The Runaways, The Sex Pistols, Shonen Knife, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Slits, Patti Smith, Social Distortion, The Stooges, War on Women, X and X-Ray Spex. You also get in the beginning a few words on „Background and History“ and „Must-Hear Music“ plus later on special features on „Punk Christmas Music“ (!), Taqwacore (!!), „Documentaries, Feature Films and Videos“ and „Women in Punk“. There could be said so much more, but I rather focus on a general look at the book. Each band gets around 3-4 pages which makes the book very entertaining and it is never a drag to read. Of course one might disagree with a few things said in here or is missing very important aspects of punk. Please remember, this is not a book for experts and scholary volumes have been written on most of the bands and subjets. So lets put it very simple, this is a good book for people who want to get started with punk and are interested in its history, as well as for old punks who want to refresh their memory. There is a almost 50 page bibliography at the end. In the next volume please cut out the chapter on Taqwacore and have a feature about international punk. 274 pages, paperback, 28,00 Euro (dolf)
Isbn 979-8216251002
[Trust # 236 February 2026]
