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Reviews / Comptes Rendus
| Curry Malott and Milagros Peña, Punk Rockers' Revolution: A Pedagogy of Race, Class, and Gender (New York: Peter Lang 2004)
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| ACCORDING to the authors of this book, punk rock is about estrangement from, and opposition to, capitalist society, although it is also recognized that it has accommodative tendencies as well. Despite its title, the book has nothing to say, beyond personal reminiscences, about the audience(s) for punk rock, the meaning(s) that might be attached to the music by listeners, or their revolutionary proclivities (or lack thereof). Instead, the conclusion is arrived at after a content analysis of the lyrics and themes of punk recordings released by three companies in the United States throughout the 1980s and 1990s. It is a conclusion that will surprise nobody who has had any exposure to punk rock over this time period. What is more surprising, perhaps, is that this can be presented as a finding that is original and insightful nearly 30 years after the birth of punk. |
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It is, nonetheless, the centre piece of a book that is generally poorly written, repetitious, and couched throughout in the irritatingly tendentious language of 'critical' (as opposed to uncritical?) social science. It will not repay many people's effort to read it. |
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Preceding the content analysis are chapters on the authors' social backgrounds and brief and alarmingly superficial overviews of the literature on popular culture and resistance, and other, pre-punk, subversive musical genres. After the content analysis comes a concluding chapter called the "Inevitable Revolution," though nowhere in its scant 2 1/2 pages is the chapter title explained. Much of the argument is then reviewed in an afterward by Peter McLaren and Jonathan McLaren, who entertain the possibility, seriously I think, that between them punks and skateboarders could become gravediggers of capitalism. |
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Julian Tanner
University of Toronto |
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