In this collection of Greil Marcus's most incisive writing on punk rock and the punk-influenced pop music in its wake, America's preeminent pop music and cultural critic presents a chronicle of the punk years, portraits of key bands, and revealing analysis of their music.
Read More
In this collection of Greil Marcus's most incisive writing on punk rock and the punk-influenced pop music in its wake, America's preeminent pop music and cultural critic presents a chronicle of the punk years, portraits of key bands, and revealing analysis of their music.
Read Less
Add this copy of Ranters & Crowd Pleasers to cart. $2.77, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Doubleday Books.
Add this copy of Ranters and Crowd Pleasers to cart. $3.61, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by Anchor Books.
Add this copy of Ranters and Crowd Pleasers to cart. $3.61, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by Anchor Books.
Add this copy of Ranters and Crowd Pleasers to cart. $3.61, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by Anchor Books.
Add this copy of Ranters and Crowd Pleasers to cart. $4.79, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Emerald rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by Anchor.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Add this copy of Ranters and Crowd Pleasers to cart. $5.00, very good condition, Sold by A Book Store of Hastings rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from HASTINGS, MN, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by Anchor Books.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very good. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 438 p. Audience: General/trade. AS NEW--VERY NICE COPY--VERY SLIGHT SHELF WARE--TEXT CLEAN AND TIGHT--GIFT--STILL HAS LOTS OF GREAT READS LEFT--
Add this copy of Ranters & Crowd Pleasers: Punk in Pop Music, 1977-92 to cart. $5.00, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Emerald rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Doubleday.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Add this copy of Ranters & Crowd Pleasers: Punk in Pop Music, 1977-92 to cart. $5.00, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Diamond rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Doubleday.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Add this copy of Ranters & Crowd Pleasers: Punk in Pop Music, 1977-92 to cart. $5.00, very good condition, Sold by Books End Bookshop rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from SYRACUSE, NY, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Doubleday.
Add this copy of Ranters & Crowd Pleasers: Punk in Pop Music, 1977-92 to cart. $7.00, very good condition, Sold by Gail P Kennon Book-Comber rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from West New York, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by Anchor Books.
In Ranters and Crowd Pleasers: Punk in Pop Music, 1977-92, Greil Marcus asserts that the pure utopianism of the Sixties failed, and punk entered that vacuum in 1977 to clear a cultural space.
By the 1970s, rock ?n? roll had degenerated into grandiose stadium rock, endless jams and superstar excess (see Rolling Stones). Punk was a stripped-down, back-to-basics, DIY and often working class response from England's industrial North: a sonic bomb.
It took anarchic form in the fury and notoriety of the Sex Pistols, and a radical political form in The Clash. The context was Margaret Thatcher?s riot-filled England, where something like 20 percent of the population were on the dole, and Pakistani immigrants were being beaten on the streets. Some of the Clash members? relatives were in the neo-Nazi National Front, so it was virtually a second English Civil War.
Marcus said punk took violent, anti-social forms in Los Angeles, while punk bands were angling for careers in New York.
In the 1970s, I was in New York during the heyday of CBGB's and The Kitchen on Mercer Street, which featured Talking Heads, Patti Smith and Laurie Anderson among others, but would?ve disdained that scene as ?white? and anti-music.
I was wrong. There was plenty of interesting music that came out of punk/post-punk, and I?m discovering it now. In a detour, Marcus writes about Anderson?s post-punk ?O Superman,? which is, Marcus said, ?a dream of imperialism? under Reagan. He's right. It?s a brilliant and chilling piece of work. Marcus also makes detours into Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, and Cyndi Lauper to discuss punk sensibility's infiltration into pop.
Punk somehow speaks directly across decades to our eight-year George W. Bush hangover, and the chaos and disorder it?s wrought in this country. The Pistols' "God Save the Queen" and "Anarchy in the UK" make the skull bleed. The Clash assimilate Jamaican reggae and dub, and sci-fi apocalypse, and make it all work in "London Calling." Elvis Costello's "Armed Forces" was originally titled, "Emotional Fascism.' The Buzzcocks are fey and hilarious. The feminist Au Pairs' song ?Armagh? states ironically, ?We don?t torture / we?re a civilized nation.? The song should be covered in light of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.
The final piece, "I Am a Cliche," is Marcus's attempt at punk fiction, and should have remained unpublished. It's a failure.
Nostalgia is a form of death. Ranters and Crowd Pleasers lighted out for territory, however blasted.
