Punk Now!! (Book)

Contemporary Perspectives on Punk

Punk Now!! explores contemporary and non-Anglophone punk as well as its most anti-establishment tendencies through a collection of papers from the second Punk Scholars Network International Conference and Postgraduate Symposium. This edited collection informs us about punk today and punk at the margins, areas that are poorly served in punk studies.

Edition

Punk Now!! brings together papers from the second incarnation of the Punk Scholars Network International Conference and Postgraduate Symposium, with contributions from revered academics and new voices alike in the field of punk studies. The collection ruminates on contemporary and non-Anglophone punk, as well as its most anti-establishment tendencies. It exposes not only modern punk, but also punk at the margins: areas that have previously been poorly served in studies on the cultural phenomenon. By compiling these chapters, Matt Grimes and Mike Dines offer a critical contribution to a field that has been saturated with nostalgic and retrospective research. The range and depth of these chapters encapsulates the diverse nature of the punk subculture – and the adjacent academic study of punk – today.

Matt Grimes is a senior lecturer and researcher in music industries and radio at Birmingham City University’s School of Media. 

Mike Dines is a lecturer of popular music at Middlesex University and cofounder of the Punk Scholars Network.

 

 

Foreword

Acknowledgements                

Introduction by Mike Dines and Matt Grimes

Punk Rock: Radical Politics, Radical Aesthetics or Just the Same Old Game? – Pete Dale

Pay No More than 45 Copies: The Collection Legacy of the Crass Record Reality Asylum (1979) – Alastair Gordon

‘What About a Future?’ Punk As History and Document – Alexander Hay

A Graphic Representation of Mutual Influence in Contemporary Punk Rock – Michael Blaß

GVA HxC: Appropriation, Adaptation and Evolution – A Contextual Observation of Geneva’s Hardcore Scene – Bastien Piguet and Mike Dines

Radioactive: DIY Punk Networks and the Evolution of Radio in the Digital Age – Charlotte Bedford

‘Ain’t What I Call Oi!’: How Politics Have Shaped the Modern Day Scene – Bethany Kane 

Exploring Social Capital in Youth Cultures: A Study of the Punk and Hardcore Scene in a German Major City – Raphael Kösters

Bloody Bloody Belgium: Reflections on a Unique International Punk Scene – Roy Wallace

Special Stew: Punk and Irish – Michael Mary Murphy

All Punks Hate Bastards: Investigating Punk’s Anti-Police Engagement – Amy Corcoran

‘I Think I’m Dumb’: Or, Punk’s Productive Shame – Brian James Schill   

Bright Writing: David McComb’s Heartbroken Landscapes in Song and the Contemporary Punk Field – Tony McMahon

Call it Crass but There Is No Authority But Yourself: De-canonizing Punk’s Underbelly – Matt Grimes

Punk Rock!! So What? Negotiating an Exhibition of Punk Art and Design – Russ Bestley

'Moving beyond the common and well-worn analyses of London and New York City is always a welcome addition to punk histories and currents and allows us to better understand the many nuanced meanings of punk around the globe. It also allows for the voices of often missing peoples to be heard. The book also does a good job of taking nuanced approaches to the politics of punk. [...] The book is well done. Readers from multiple academic disciplines, as well as punks who just want a refreshing and intelligent approach to our culture, will find something to appreciate in it. I am left hoping that there will be more compilations of papers from Punk Scholars Network conferences and symposiums released in the coming years.'

Edward Avery-Natale, Punk & Post-Punk
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