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American Hardcore: A Tribal History | 
 enlarge | Author: Steven Blush
Publisher: Feral House
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $14.57
You Save: $5.38 (27%)
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Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 35462
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.9 x 7 x 0.8
ISBN: 0922915717
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.66
EAN: 9780922915712
ASIN: 0922915717
Publication Date: November 9, 2001
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Product Description
Angrier and less pretentious than the drug-addled punk and new wave music genres, hardcore was an underground tribal movement created with passion but ultimately destroyed by infighting and dissonance. Among the important figures who emerged from hardcore are Henry Rollins, Dave Grohl (of Nirvana and Foo Fighters), Ian MacKaye (of Fugazi), and the Beastie Boys. Hardcore's legacy, however, continues to influence the do-it-yourself anticommercial trend of independent record labels and touring networks. The author experienced hardcore firsthand as a promoter, record label owner, and radio DJ, and he intersperses the book's oral histories with his informed commentary. Also included are photographs, discographies, and a complete national perspective on the genre.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
 Misogyny, ax-grinding, poor info--it's in there! November 25, 2008
If you get off on a guy who commonly refers to women as "hags" and "skanks," this is your book. If you want to read the rantings of a guy who essentially calls anyone who doesn't agree with him brainwashed, this is your book. If you're looking for a guy with axes to grind, this is your book. If you are looking for a book that declares to be the definitive history of the era, but then goes on to talk about venues that didn't exist until the 1990s, this is your book. In other words: don't bother.
 Well written February 29, 2008
This book is highly informative, and almost inspirational. Highly recommended for anyone who has ever used the phrase "F*ck You!"
Messy to the point of unreadable even with good intentions November 21, 2007
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Although I have never listened to hardcore, I wanted to read this book becaus eit was recommended by "janitor-x" and I was copying his writings for a half-nephew of mine. I respect "janitor-x"'s view that Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could be Your Life was much too "soft" in tone and focused too much on bands whose aim was not integrity but success on the college radio that emerged in an effort to counter the lack of competition a stiflingly restrictive commercial radio network had in late 1970s America.
The problem with "American Hardcore: A Tribal History" begines with its format, which consists of long series of dialogues involving the major players in the 1980s hardcore scene. There is so little structure or order to the book that a reader will feel he or she is jumping into something most people without knowledge of rock criticism are unlikely to comprehend. The actual writings, whilst they provide a very different and worthwhile perspective from Our Band Could be Your Life, are not the interviews that would provide - were the musicians willing to be at their most explicit about their experiences - very interesting stories for people who have never listened to hardcore. Rather, we have successions of speeches that appear not to be arranged with the slightest logic, with the result that the books does not convey a story as much as it does pieces of news from the time hardcore was popular.
There are also a number of problematic omissions, for instance it is never mentioned that the Dead Kennedys, whilst like all other hardcore artists never able to dent the Billboard Top 200, had a Top 40 single and album in Britain. "American Hardcore: A Tribal History" is written, likewise, in a manner that suggests the evolution of hardcore where it did is self-explanatory when, as I know very well from living in Australia, there are definite social conditions associated with its rise that any thorough book on the subject would at least mention if not explain with some decent sociology. One might be left wondering why some cities had large hardcore scenes and others did not, when there are undoubtedly definite social explanations that a music history student ought to be informed about.
The links of hardcore to other generes, such as rap and thrash metal, are in contrast useful but even they could be much more complete than they are. The actual origin and roots of hardcore, however, is not given any explanation - as I noted above and a problem shared with Our Band Could be Your Life.
On the whole, this is a tough book to read for anybody but the most devoted hardcore fan and even they might be put off by the constant promotional posters and graffiti amongst which the conversations that make up the actual text are scattered. For all my respect for "janitor-x", I really cannot recommend this book to any music listener. It would be better to read some serious journalism on rock, like by Joe S. Harrington, even if very little of it is about hardcore.
American Hardcore Is A Good Book May 15, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
American Hardcore chronicals and/or documents the history of the early 80's Hardcore(Punk)scene. Started by angry,fustrated,violent kids in the suburban seaside coastal middle class towns of Los Angeles, this movement spread from city to city and coast to coast. With each location holding thier own individuality, from L.A. to New York, to Chicago to San Francisco, to D.C. to Boston, Hardcore was more than music it was a social movement. Hardcore was a brand new fresh form of punk rock that was all it's own. While it branched off of the 70's Punk scene, it was it's own genre, who's participants constituted a tribe onto themselves. These kids were angry fustrated violent and fed up Regan-Era misfit kids. Becoming intertwined with Surfing and Skateboarding and becoming very close with it(As most of the bands were surfers and skateboarders), Hardcore redifined the status quoe of what was possibele when you did things your own way and you did it yourself(D.I.Y.). Hardcore's music was fast,with songs usually clocking in at around 2 minutes or less,energetic, and contained lyrics dealing with everything form political and social unjustice, to projecting anti-racist anti-war anti-conservative anti-reagan(Ronald Reagan) content and/or rants, with the lead singer usually screaming his or her head off in an angry manner that scared the crap off of (many) new wave fans,Hardcore was one of the most important musical movements in american history.While the mainstream refused then and refused now to give Hardcore the credit that it deserves(Although Hardcore was not looking at all for mainstream acceptance, in fact it was also a rebellion against the mainstream)Hardcore influenced countless things in the mainstream. From the pop-punk movement, to the crappy emo scene currently riding the charts rite now. Hardcore was a new form of radicalism,music,social outrage,political and socail commentary,and altogether one of the most important (musical)movements to ever take place in American History, and this book tells that story.
 Very enjoyable book February 14, 2007
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
For someone as young as me, who wasn't alive during the hardcore scene, this book comes in handy with good information. Steven Blush and others explain the hardcore scene in their own perspective. The entire book is made of interviews from people that were participants in the hardcore scene in the 80's. It includes people like Henry Rollins, Ian Mackaye, Jello Biafra, etc. In the beginning of the book the author and others sum up the roots of hardcore. Later on when they get started on HC (hardcore) they talk about things like straight-edge, Washington D.C., and others, where it gets really interesting to read. You don't have to know anything about HC to read this either.
You can tell Steven Blush didn't want to be biased about the subjects so he tries to put everybody's opinion about everything which basically evens it out by being factual rather than biased. The many pictures including the cover I think are very necessary for the book and display the proper attitude and energy of the HC scene. This book was very easy to understand and even fun to read. I do not recommend this book for very young readers; there are images that can be inappropriate for some. For other mature readers I definitely recommend this book to you, and please...don't judge this book by its bloody cover, it's a great book.
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