The first book to seriously identify how artistic activism works and how to make it work betterThe past decade has seen an explosion in the hybrid practice of “artistic activism,” as artists have turned toward activism to make their work more socially impactful and activists have adopted techniques and perspectives from the arts to make their interventions more creative. Yet questions haunt the practice: Does artistic activism work aesthetically? Does it work polit...

"Zines and underground culture offer up an alternative, a way of understanding and acting in the world that operates with different rules and upon different values than those of consumer capitalism. It is an alternative fraught with contradictions and limitations...but also possibilities." In the first comprehensive study of zine publishing, Stephen Duncombe explores the history and theory of subterranean cultural production. From their origins in early 20th century science fiction fandom,...

From the Clash to Los Crudos, skinheads to afro-punks, the punk rock movement has been obsessed by race. And yet the connections have never been traced in a comprehensive way. White Riot is a definitive study of the subject, collecting first-person writing, lyrics, letters to zines, and analyses of punk history from across the globe. This book brings together writing from leading critics such as Greil Marcus and Dick Hebdige, personal reflections from punk pioneers such as Jimmy P...

At first glance, contemporary popular culture, filled with bleak images of the future, seems to have given up on the possibility of positive collective change. Below the surface, however, alternative culture is rife with artist-led projects, activist movements, and subcultural communities of interest that seek to spark the collective imagination and to encourage hunger for alternatives. More playfully self-conscious than past utopian movements, today’s are often whimsical or ironic, but ar...

Non-fans regard Céline Dion as ersatz and plastic, yet to those who love her, no one could be more real, with her impoverished childhood, her (creepy) manager-husband's struggle with cancer, her knack for howling out raw emotion. There's nothing cool about Céline Dion, and nothing clever. That's part of her appeal as an object of love or hatred - with most critics and committed music fans taking pleasure (or at least geeky solace) in their lofty contempt. This book documents Carl Wilson's ...

In her nuanced, extremely perceptive book, Laina Dawes champions the liberating possibilities of metal while questioning the color-blindness of the metal world, celebrating the role of black women in creating rock music, examining the reaction of the black community to black punks and metalheads, and sorting out the gender issues that complicate sisterhood in a male-dominated sphere. Her thoughtful treatise on the power of music and identity challenges black women in the metal scene to joi...

Straight Edge has persisted as a drug-free, hardcore punk subculture for 25 years. Its political legacy remains ambiguous and is often misrepresented as a Puritan conservatism. However, as this study shows, its history is more complex. Since its origins in 1980s, the scene has been linked to radical thought and music. Tracing this history, the book includes contributions from famed Straight-Edge rockers like Ian MacKaye (Fugazi), Mark Anderson (Dance of Days) and Andy Hurley (Fall Out Boy)...

Whether along race, class or generational lines, hip-hop music has been a source of controversy since the beats got too big and the voices too loud for the block parties that spawned them. America has condemned and commended this music and the culture that inspires it. Dubbed "the Hip-Hop Intellectual" by critics and fans for his pioneering explorations of rap music in the academy and beyond, Michael Eric Dyson is uniquely situated to probe the most compelling and controversial dimensions ...

"Collects some of [ Punk Planet's] best interviews from the past half-decade . . . serves as a reminder that punk is not just music but a movement." —The A.V. ClubUpdated with six more interviews and a new introduction, the expanded edition of We Owe You Nothing is the definitive book of conversations with the underground's greatest minds from the pages of Punk Planet. New interviews include talks with bands like The Gossip and Maritime, ...

Joe Strummer's untimely death at the age of fifty in December 2002 took from us one of the truly unique voices of modern music. The quintessential Rude Boy, punker, rebel musician, artist and activist, Strummer wrote some of the most important and influential music of the last century including "Guns of Brixton," "The Washington Bullets," "Spanish Bombs," "White Man in Hammersmith Palace," "London's Burning," "Lost in the Supermarket," and "Garageland." Effectively melding raw creativity w...

Bands from Jimmy Eat World to Green Day have one thing in common--they would be nothing without punk.This book explores punks earliest roots and takes the reader all the way to the present--from Second Wave and New Wave to Oi! and Punk, it's all here. Along the way, you will read all about the feuds, the gossip, and the rock and roll partying.HistoryCaps is an imprint of BookCaps Study Guides. With each book, a brief period of history is recapped. We publish a wide array of...

Rage Against The Machine is one of the most prominant and politically active bands on the music scene today. Music Journalist and Biographer Colin Devenish delves into the interworkings of the band to discover what makes them so successful with their diverse fan base. They sell millions of copies of their CD's and have had #1 hits. They are also very politically and enviornmentally concious, with an educated fan base. They really are a band of substance, but the most important thi...