Reddit reviews Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk, 1978-1984

Goth is about the music. A good book to read about the history of goth music is "Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-84" by Simon Reynolds. (UK version.)


> Punk's raw power rejuvenated rock, but by summer 1977 it had become a parody of itself. Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-84 is a celebration of what happened next--bands like Joy Division, Gang of Four, Wire, Contortions, Talking Heads, The Fall, Cabaret Voltaire, The Human League--who dedicated themselves to fulfilling punk's unfinished musical revolution. Based on over 125 interviews, Rip It Up offers a panoramic survey of the seven year period following punk, taking in everything from PIL to ABC to SST to ZTT, and dealing with genres including industrial, 2-Tone, synthpop, and goth.

Interviews include goth bands, but also bands that were influential to goth bands.

Bands like: Bauhaus. Siouxsie & The Banshees. The Cure. The Birthday Party. Killing Joke. Virgin Prunes. Theatre of Hate. Sisters of Mercy. Southern Death Cult. Throbbing Gristle. Whitehouse. Nurse With Wound. Clock DVA. 23 Skidoo. Husker Du. Mission of Burma. Meat Puppets. Psychic TV. Cabaret Voltaire. Coil. Foetus. Einsturzende Neubauten. Test Dept. Swans. Depeche Mode. (& more!)



http://ripitupinfohype.blogspot.co.uk/2007/08/info-on-rip-it-up-and-start-again.html

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rip-Up-Start-Again-1978-1984/dp/057121570X?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

There's so much out there. I came of age on post-punk and all the bands that that followed, and I'm always discovering another band I missed.

Have you read Simon Reynold's book? It talks about a TON of bands beyond the obvious ones.

Well, the bands that made it out of the 70s were the exception rather than the rule. And the Pistols (and the Damned, and countless other "proper" punk bands) were really just recycling '50s rock & roll, but louder and sneerier. Initially it was interesting and "arty" but it became a rigid template incredibly quickly.

There's a reason Lydon went on to PiL - because he was clearly better than punk would let him be as Johnny Rotten. And Siouxsie Sioux and Pete Murphy effectively invented Goth because equally, punk wasn't open to the things they wanted to do. The bands that stuck with it - UK Subs, The Damned, even the Clash - just recycled the old stuff or kept with mainstream pop/rock styles into the '80s.

What I've read of the original punk scene tends to paint it as aggressively conservative. The bands may have initially been "experimental" but once the die was cast, that was it. TG were lumped in with punk initially, although they were clearly much more of an intellectual endeavour, because of their transgressive style. Subcultures, scenes and music genres weren't really that much of a thing to most people, so there was a huge amount of crossover in who would play gigs and what the audience would be like.

You should read 'Lipstick Traces' by Greil Marcus, 'Rip It Up And Start Again' by Simon Reynolds and, most certainly, 'Wreckers of Civilization' by Simon Ford, for a great cross-section of the late 70s music scene.