ABOUT THIS BOOK

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.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

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.

REVIEWS

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword Acknowledgements 1. Introduction by Mike Dines and Matt Grimes 2. Punk Rock: Radical Politics, Radical Aesthetics or Just the Same Old Game? by Pete Dale 3. Pay No More than 45 Copies: The Collection Legacy of the Crass Record Reality Asylum (1979) by Alastair Gordon 4. ‘What About a Future?’ Punk As History and Document by Alexander Hay 5. A Graphic Representation of Mutual Influence in Contemporary Punk Rock by Michael Blaß 6. GVA HxC: Appropriation, Adaptation and Evolution – A Contextual Observation of Geneva’s Hardcore Scene by Bastien Piguet and Mike Dines 7. Radioactive: DIY Punk Networks and the Evolution of Radio in the Digital Age by Charlotte Bedford 8. ‘Ain’t What I Call Oi!’: How Politics Have Shaped the Modern Day Scene by Bethany Kane 9. Exploring Social Capital in Youth Cultures: A Study of the Punk and Hardcore Scene in a German Major City by Raphael Kösters 10. Bloody Bloody Belgium: Reflections on a Unique International Punk Scene by Roy Wallace 11. Special Stew: Punk and Irish by Michael Mary Murphy 12. All Punks Hate Bastards: Investigating Punk’s Anti-Police Engagement by Amy Corcoran 13. ‘I Think I’m Dumb’, Or, Punk’s Productive Shame by Brian James Schill 14. Bright Writing: David McComb’s Heartbroken Landscapes in Song and the Contemporary Punk Field by Tony McMahon 15. Call it Crass but There Is No Authority But Yourself: De-canonizing Punk’s Underbelly by Matt Grimes 16. Punk Rock!! So What? Negotiating an Exhibition of Punk Art and Design by Russ Bestley