Revenge Of The She Punks A Feminist Music History, From Poly Styrene To Pussy Riot

Description

With her visceral style, Goldman blends interviews, history, and her personal experience as one of Britain's first female music writers in a book that reads like a vivid documentary of a genre defined by dismantling boundaries. The colorful "Punk Professor", new-wave musician, and critic/filmmaker spins a dazzling survey of women in punk, from the genre's inception in 1970s London to the current voices making waves around the globe. As an industry insider and pioneering post-punk musician, Vivien Goldman's perspective on music journalism is unusually well-rounded. In Revenge of the She-Punks, she probes four themes-identity, money, love, and protest-to explore what makes punk such a liberating art form for women. With her visceral style, Goldman blends interviews, history, and her personal experience as one of Britain's first female music writers in a book that reads like a vivid documentary of a genre defined by dismantling boundaries. A discussion of the Patti Smith song "Free Money," for example, opens with Goldman on a shopping spree with Smith. Tamar-Kali, whose name pays homage to a Hindu goddess, describes the influence of her Gullah ancestors on her music, while the late Poly Styrene's daughter reflects on why her Somali-Scots-Irish mother wrote the 1978 punk anthem "Identity," with the refrain "Identity is the crisis you can't see." Other strands feature artists from farther afield (including in Colombia and Indonesia) and genre-busting revolutionaries such as Grace Jones, who wasn't exclusively punk but clearly influenced the movement while absorbing its liberating audacity. From punk's Euro origins to its international reach, this is an exhilarating world tour.

Reviews

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Author description

Vivien Goldman was a pioneering London punk journalist in the 1970s, covering bands like the Slits and the Raincoats, dabbling in music with her indie dub records. Now a professor at NYU, Goldman tells a fascinating tale in Revenge of the She-Punks — as she calls it, “A Feminist Punk History from Poly Styrene to Pussy Riot.” It’s the freewheeling tale of how radical women who could barely play their instruments ended up changing the world. “Punk was exciting and it was doable,” the Raincoats’ Gina Birch tells Goldman. “I thought, this is the beginning of who I am.”