Rip It Up and Start Again is the first book-length exploration of the wildly adventurous music created in the years after punk. Renowned music journalist Simon Reynolds celebrates the futurist spirit of such bands as Joy Division, Gang of Four, Talking Heads, and Devo, which resulted in endless innovations in music, lyrics, performance, and style and continued into the early eighties with the video-savvy synth-pop of groups such as Human League, Depeche Mode, and Soft Cell, whose success coincided with the rise of MTV. Full of insight and anecdotes and populated by charismatic characters, Rip It Up and Start Again re-creates the idealism, urgency, and excitement of one of the most important and challenging periods in the history of popular music.
Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In the reactionary wake of 1970s punk rock came postpunk, a more complex, fragmented brand of music characterized by stark recordings, synthesizers and often cold, affected vocals. Postpunk stands as "a fair match for the Sixties," argues Reynolds, both in terms of the amount of great music created as well as the music's connection to the "social and political turbulence" of its era (the early 1980s). Seeking to address a gap in music and pop culture history, Reynolds (Generation Ecstasy) has penned an ambitious, cerebral effort to establish a high place in rock history for bands such as Joy Division, Devo, Talking Heads, Mission of Burma and, of course, Public Image Limited (PiL), fronted by former Sex Pistols singer John Lydon (Johnny Rotten). Reynolds, an energetic writer, especially captures the postpunk ethic in telling the story of PiL's short journey from record company darlings to utter oblivion. Unfortunately, by the time he gets to bands like Human League and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, his passion is undermined by his subject. Reynolds succeeds in depicting the icons and the richness of an era that clearly manifests itself as a primary influence among a new generation of musicians. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"Shed[s] dazzling light on a neglected era of music. The definitive word on the subject." —The Times, London
"Anyone who claims to have read five better books about pop is mad, or a liar." —The Guardian, London
"Anyone who claims to have read five better books about pop is mad, or a liar." —The Guardian, London
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
82 of 83 people found the following review helpful
By Matt Bailey
Format:Paperback
A definitive history of post-punk has been long in coming. Though this may or may not be that definitive history (one book can't possibly fully address this fertile era), it is well worth a read.
True fans of post-punk should read this book, however they should read the UK version and not this shortened US version. Three chapters have been cut in their entirety and portions of other chapters have been cut or shortened. In total, the US version of the book is nearly 200 pages shorter.
The cover of the UK edition is also much cooler.
True fans of post-punk should read this book, however they should read the UK version and not this shortened US version. Three chapters have been cut in their entirety and portions of other chapters have been cut or shortened. In total, the US version of the book is nearly 200 pages shorter.
The cover of the UK edition is also much cooler.
62 of 62 people found the following review helpful
By MEK
Format:Paperback
Don't make the mistake of buying the US version
Get the whole story and buy the UK version. It contains chapters on US bands on the SST label, 2nd Gen. Industrial bands (Foetus, Test Dept.) a very important part of the post-punk aural landscape.
Ironic (or maybe typical) that a book on the highly political post-punk era is as cut up and censored as the US edition is.
from Simon Reynold's blog:
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE UK AND US EDITIONS
* the chapter sequence is different from the UK version
* three chapters are cut for reasons of space: the Devoto/Subway Sect chapter; the Conform to Deform Second Wave of Industrial chapter; and the SST/Blasting Concept chapter
* two chapters compressed into one for reasons of space, the Goth chapter and the Glory Boys/Big Music chapter
* Timeline is absent for reason of space
* in the US edition, the Appendix on MTV and the Second British Invasion is folded into the chapter on New Pop's peak
* no illustrations in the US edition
* the Mutant Disco chapter is written up as proper historical prose in the US edition, as opposed to the oral history in the UK edition
* no bibliography in the US edition
I don't understand this "reason of space" explanation. Wonder if they cut out some words from the dictionary for "reason of space"?
Approximately 200 pages missing from the US edition.
Very Very Lame
Don't waste your money. Get the UK edition and skrew the US publishers.
Get the whole story and buy the UK version. It contains chapters on US bands on the SST label, 2nd Gen. Industrial bands (Foetus, Test Dept.) a very important part of the post-punk aural landscape.
Ironic (or maybe typical) that a book on the highly political post-punk era is as cut up and censored as the US edition is.
from Simon Reynold's blog:
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE UK AND US EDITIONS
* the chapter sequence is different from the UK version
* three chapters are cut for reasons of space: the Devoto/Subway Sect chapter; the Conform to Deform Second Wave of Industrial chapter; and the SST/Blasting Concept chapter
* two chapters compressed into one for reasons of space, the Goth chapter and the Glory Boys/Big Music chapter
* Timeline is absent for reason of space
* in the US edition, the Appendix on MTV and the Second British Invasion is folded into the chapter on New Pop's peak
* no illustrations in the US edition
* the Mutant Disco chapter is written up as proper historical prose in the US edition, as opposed to the oral history in the UK edition
* no bibliography in the US edition
I don't understand this "reason of space" explanation. Wonder if they cut out some words from the dictionary for "reason of space"?
Approximately 200 pages missing from the US edition.
Very Very Lame
Don't waste your money. Get the UK edition and skrew the US publishers.
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Let me admit right up front that I am not a fan of 95% of the music chronicled in this book. But several of my friends are, so I thought I'd dip into it to see if it would make a nice gift. With that in mind, I read the one chapter that covers music I really love, the chapter about the rapid rise and fall of the 2-Tone ska movement. Those twenty pages were enough to convince me that Reynolds is best kind of music writer, able to write evocatively about the music itself while providing the social, economic, and political context for its creation. He hits the nail firmly on the head in his analysis of The Specials' songs as "cheerless" -- tying them to social-realist cinema and the bleak post-WWII concrete jungle of their native Coventry. Reynolds also does a nice job of describing the origins of ska, it's development in England, and rather complicated ties to the mod and skinhead subcultures. He's also brimming with details about the major bands and why it all fell apart so quickly. Two quibbles do present themselves. One is that some of the transitions are a bit choppy, and I later learned that the US edition I read is an abridged version of the UK edition (nowhere is this obviously stated on the US edition). Some 300+ pages were cut, which would explain some of the choppiness I found, and I have to say that I'll be buying the more expensive UK version for my friends. The second reservation I have with the book is the total lack of documentation. It's great to quote Dammers, Hall, Staple, and all these other musicians, but it would be nice to know where these quotes came from so that one could do follow-up reading or research -- there's not even a bibliography! These cavaets of abrdigement and referencing aside, this appears to be an excellent, well-written account of an overlooked era of music history and should stand as the definitive work for many years to come.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Omits pivotal punk musicians of color
Polystyrene of the X-Ray Spexs, Pauline Black of The Selector, Rhoda Dakar of the The Body Snacthers (UK Artist), Bad Brains, Fish Bone,(USA)no mention. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Gille
5.0 out of 5 stars
Life After Punk: The REAL Story of post-60s Popular Music.
You always hear people tell you that punk changed everything. It killed bloated arena rock! It was a fresh sound! It was a break with the 60s! Read more
Published 11 months ago by Donald A. Planey
4.0 out of 5 stars
The definitive history of postpunk
Simon Reynolds, who previously wrote the definitive early history of electronica, Generation Ecstasy, is simply one the best music historians and critics alive, an exhaustive... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Erik Ketzan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Condensed version of UK classic
Apparently, the US version is ~200 pages less than the UK version (which was the first copy I read). Read more
Published on February 1, 2011 by Brett Lloyd
2.0 out of 5 stars
Comprehensive and Essential... Just Avoid the US Edition!
Simon Reynolds' Rip it Up and Start Again is an engaging look at the British side of the collective of genres we call "post-punk": the dub reggae experimenters, the... Read more
Published on December 16, 2010 by Aaron Leclair
3.0 out of 5 stars
Incomplete and flawed
As a general point I like the book and would recommend it. It's well written, although some of Reynold's ideas get repetitive. Read more
Published on October 7, 2010 by ihasch
5.0 out of 5 stars
rip
Rip it up is a very good book to get the inside information about all the post punk bands and new wave bands or whatnot. Read more
Published on April 2, 2009 by C. Johnson
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great for the newbie - frustrating for the fans...
It's hard to find fault with one of the few documents of post-punk's history. The book is essential reading if you want to learn about the music and how critics have tried to write... Read more
Published on August 14, 2008 by R. B. Sigler
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely fab!
A great book. Makes you want to dust off those old vinyl records and rejoice again at those wonderful sounds.
Published on June 9, 2008 by M. Sauve
3.0 out of 5 stars
Overly academic
It's well-researched and well-written - that much we can all agree on - but I think the writing is a bit dry. Read more
Published on December 8, 2007 by Jen
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