Nofx - by David Pearson & Stefano Morello & Ellen Bernhard (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This collection of scholarly essays analyzes how NOFX's aesthetics of punk provocation and discomfort provokes the band's listeners to confront contradictions and conflicts in society concerning politics, identity, authenticity, and decorum.

This collection of scholarly essays analyzes how NOFX's aesthetics of punk provocation and discomfort push the band's listeners to confront contradictions and conflicts in society concerning politics, identity, authenticity, and decorum. For forty years, NOFX's brand of witty, offensive, humorous, juvenile, intelligent, existential, political, politically incorrect, and/or philosophically probing punk has reared several generations in punk attitude and ethos, for better or worse. The band pioneered melodic yet hardcore So-Cal punk style, rode the wave of mainstream punk popularity in the 1990s, protested the Bush administration in the 2000s, and continued their punk provocations up through their retirement in 2024. This book explores how NOFX pursued punk's proclivity for provocation to critique both mainstream society and the punk scene itself, how their music challenges notions of punk as simplistic, stripped-down rock requiring little musical skill, and other topics with thirteen essays from scholars in a variety of fields.

Review Quotes

Forget what you think you know about NOFX. NOFX: Forty Years of "Problematic" Punk Provocations throws out the rulebook, delivering a rigorous dissection of punk's most notorious provocateurs through the lens of academic scholarship. This isn't a typical band biography - it's an x-ray into NOFX, revealing the intricate socio-political forces that shaped their four-decade career from the early years to their retirement. Offering insight into the band's complex relationship with politics, controversy, their self-deprecation and unpredictable humor, this collection of essays is a must-have addition to any punk library and serves as an essential companion to their acclaimed Hepatitis Bathtub memoirs. Prepare to be challenged, enlightened, and utterly captivated.
Tom Reiss, COO, The Punk Rock Museum Nevada, USA

About the Author

David Pearson is Adjunct Associate Professor at Lehman College, USA. He is the author of Rebel Music in the Triumphant Empire: Punk Rock in the 1990s United States (2021).

Stefano Morello is Assistant Director for Digital Projects at the American Social History Project at the CUNY Graduate Center, USA. He has curated the East Bay Punk Digital Archive, The Beats in/and Italy, and The Lung Block exhibits. He is co-editor-in-chief of JAm It! Journal of American Studies in Italy, and serves on the editorial board of the journal Amèrica Critica and the book series Transatlantic Transfers.

Ellen Bernhard is Assistant Professor of Communication at Georgian Court University, USA. She is the author of Contemporary Punk Rock Communities: Scenes of Inclusion and Dedication (2019). She is the president of the Punk Scholars Network US affiliate and sits on the editorial boards of the journal Punk & Post-Punk and the Global Punk book series.