Hardcore punk was an underground tribal movement created with anger and passion but ultimately destroyed by infighting and dissonance. This oral history includes photographs, discographies, and a complete national perspective on the genre.

American Hardcore: A Tribal History

Arts & Photography

Blush, Steven

Music

Feral House

As a city that represents endless possibilities, New York has been the setting for the dawning of new movements, styles, and genres. In the 20th century, the birth of Rock represented a connection between art forms and the city’s socioeconomic, racial, and sexual variants. New York Rock breaks down the rock scene’s half-century connection to New York and analyzes its distinct subculture through the prism of influences, crosscurrents and psychoactive distractions. Over 1,500 musicians, clubs, and labels, from Madonna to the Ramones, held roles in the making of New York Rock, and it’s their contributions that created this iconic art form. A compilation of firsthand narratives about each genre of rock, from Punk New Wave and Glitter Rock to New York Hardcore and Indie rock, New York Rock is the ultimate illustrated account of Rock’s role in New York City.

New York Rock

Griffin

Hit songs, record deals, sexual adoration, private jets, stretch limos, and wealth: these are the trappings of musical success. But the pop stars living these seemingly glamorous lives are the exceptions in the music business and not the rule. Standing in the wings, just off stage and waiting, are those many talented and deserving musicians who just barley missed their big break. Lost Rockers is about those musicians who at one point in time were on the verge of success but who never quite "made it." Some of them were so close they could taste it, and others never had a chance. To become a star you need: talent, charisma, dedication, intelligence, energy, intensity, and a helluva lot of luck. These are all pieces in the puzzle--and for these lost rockers, the stars just didn't align quite right. But the dawn of the 21st century offers these unknowns a chance for redemption. With new technologies offering easier ways of finding and listening to music, these artists might just be discovered anew by a generation of fans eager to mine the past in hopes of discovering something fresh. Timed with the release of a documentary film of the same name, the latest collaboration between acclaimed writer Steven Blush and director Paul Rachman, Lost Rockers offers a compelling narrative connecting the lives of different musicians and their strangely similar adventures in the entertainment industry. All of these almost-famous musicians have gripping backstories; they've also recorded some powerful music that you won't believe you've never heard. In our nation, it's all about second chances, so let's start diggin' in the crates at flea markets, garage sales, thrift shops, and swap meets, and uncover the lost secrets of America's rich musical heritage.

Lost Rockers: Broken Dreams and Crashed Careers

Biographies & Memoirs

Rachman, Paul

Mann, Tony

Arts & Literature

powerHouse Books

Bustin' Balls tells the strange but true story of World Team Tennis (1974-1978) that attempted to transform the prim and proper individual sport of tennis into a rowdy blue-collar league. Billie Jean King and her partners merged feminism and civil rights with queer lifestyle, pop culture and a progressive political agenda to create a dazzling platform for the finest tennis players of the day to become overnight stars. The vision of the World Tennis League with its mixed-sex teams and looser rules that encouraged fast and aggressive play, propelled tennis into a television fixture and the players into household names.

Bustin' Balls: World Team Tennis 1974-1978, Pro Sports, Pop Culture and Progressive Politics

History

Americas

American Hair Metal: Can’t Get Enough!

Photography & Video

“We’re not ashamed of a little hairspray and makeup. We’ve always said it takes a real man to wear makeup.”—Bret Michaels, Poison (1988)
 There was a time—not so long ago—when pomp and spandex dominated MTV and pop radio playlists. American Hair Metal visually celebrates this orgy of flamboyance, androgyny, and animal magnetism, of big-haired alpha males and the beautiful women who surrounded them.
 Hundreds of striking photographs are surrounded by hedonistic ephemera from bands like Poison, Cinderella, Mötley Crüe, Skid Row, and Stryper, and wild interview quotes from major players such as David Lee Roth, Jon Bon Jovi, Sebastian Bach, Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx, Bret Michaels, Don Dokken, and a good number of unsung heroes.
 Interest in hair metal is currently exploding—witness the barrage of VH1 specials, arena-level revival tours, and reissue compilations that are even today best-selling CDs.

American Hair Metal

"American Hardcore sets the record straight about the last great American subculture"—Paper magazine
Steven Blush's "definitive treatment of Hardcore Punk" (Los Angeles Times) changed the way we look at Punk Rock. The Sony Picture Classics–distributed documentary American Hardcore premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. This revised and expanded second edition contains hundreds of new bands, thirty new interviews, flyers, a new chapter ("Destroy Babylon"), and a new art gallery with over 125 rare photos and images.

American Hardcore (Second Edition): A Tribal History

AMERICAN HARDCORE Une histoire tribale

CAMION BLANC

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Books by Blush, Steven