A Cultural Dictionary of Punk: 1974-1982

"Why did punk implode so rapidly? Why did its bands flare up and fade out? And how did this movement resist yet revamp the hippies they rushed to replace? In A Cultural Dictionary of Punk: 1974-1982 Nicholas Rombes, a professor of English, assembles a collage in the spirit of Walter Benjamin, a 'montage and passageway of quotes' alphabetically arranged. He integrates primary sources, illustrations, his own fictional and factual stories. He constructs an alternative history: 'In your dream, punk stayed a secret forever.' He emphasizes punk’s ephemeral arc, which failed to sustain its own outbursts of anger, shards of melody, and frustration with the malaise of the 'post-Watergate, pre-Reagan' years when its earliest audience grew up. ..."
A Punk Collage in the Spirit of Walter Benjamin
Google: A Cultural Dictionary of Punk: 1974-1982
LA Times - Punk's not dead, and this is your guide: Q&A with author Nicholas Rombes
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