(Ebook) Revenge of the She-Punks: A Feminist Music History from Poly Styrene to Pussy Riot by Vivien Goldman ISBN 9781477316542, 9781477318454, 9781477318461, 147731654X, 1477318453, 1477318461

(Ebook) Revenge of the She-Punks: A Feminist Music History from Poly Styrene to Pussy Riot by Vivien Goldman ISBN 9781477316542, 9781477318454, 9781477318461, 147731654X, 1477318453, 1477318461

As an industry insider & 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, & protest—to explore what makes punk such a liberating art form for women.

With her visceral style, Goldman blends interviews, history, & 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) & 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.   

Born in London, Vivien Goldman has been a music journalist for more than 40 years & was the trusted chronicler of Bob Marley & Fela Kuti. She was a member of the new-wave bands Chantage & The Flying Lizards; Resolutionary, a retrospective compilation album of her work, was released in 2016. She is an adjunct professor teaching Punk, Afrobeat, & Reggae at New York University, where the Vivien Goldman Punk & Reggae Collection is archived in the Fales Library. A former documentarian, her 5 previous books include The Book of Exodus: The Making & Meaning of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Album of the Century.