This Ain't the Summer of Love - by Steve Waksman (Paperback)

About the Book

"Waksman brings a new understanding to familiar material by treating it in an original and stimulating manner. This book tells 'the other side of the story.'"--Philip Auslander, author of "Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music"
"While there are a number of histories of punk and metal and numerous biographies of important bands within each genre, there is no comparable book to "This Ain't the Summer of Love." The ultimate contribution the book makes is to provoke the reader into rethinking the ongoing fluid relationship between punk, a music that enjoyed considerable critical support, and metal, a music that has been systematically denigrated by critics. This book is the product of superior scholarship; it truly breaks fresh ground and as such it is an important book that will be regularly cited in future work."--Rob Bowman, Professor of Music at York University and author of "Soulsville USA: The Story of Stax Records"
"Debunking simplistic assumptions that punk rebelled and heavy metal conformed, Steve Waksman demonstrates with precisely chosen examples that for decades the two shared strategies and concerns. As a result, this important volume is among the first to extend to rock history the same much-needed revisionism that elsewhere has transformed our understanding of minstrelsy, blues, country music, and pop."--Eric Weisbard, author of "Use Your Illusion I & II"

Book Synopsis

This lively and entertaining revisionist history of rock music after 1970 reconsiders the roles of two genres, heavy metal and punk. Instead of considering metal and punk as aesthetically opposed to each other, Steve Waksman breaks new ground by showing that a profound connection exists between them. Metal and punk enjoyed a charged, intimate relationship that informed both genres in terms of sound, image, and discourse. This Ain't the Summer of Love traces this connection back to the early 1970s, when metal first asserted its identity and punk arose independently as an ideal about what rock should be and could become, and upends established interpretations of metal and punk and their place in rock history.

From the Back Cover

"Waksman brings a new understanding to familiar material by treating it in an original and stimulating manner. This book tells 'the other side of the story.'"--Philip Auslander, author of Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music

"While there are a number of histories of punk and metal and numerous biographies of important bands within each genre, there is no comparable book to This Ain't the Summer of Love. The ultimate contribution the book makes is to provoke the reader into rethinking the ongoing fluid relationship between punk, a music that enjoyed considerable critical support, and metal, a music that has been systematically denigrated by critics. This book is the product of superior scholarship; it truly breaks fresh ground and as such it is an important book that will be regularly cited in future work."--Rob Bowman, Professor of Music at York University and author of Soulsville USA: The Story of Stax Records

"Debunking simplistic assumptions that punk rebelled and heavy metal conformed, Steve Waksman demonstrates with precisely chosen examples that for decades the two shared strategies and concerns. As a result, this important volume is among the first to extend to rock history the same much-needed revisionism that elsewhere has transformed our understanding of minstrelsy, blues, country music, and pop."--Eric Weisbard, author of Use Your Illusion I & II

Review Quotes

"Illuminating and entertaining. . . . Waksman offers an essential revisionist study that helps to redefine popular conceptions of [heavy metal and punk]."--Greg Renoff "New Books Network" (6/6/2013 12:00:00 AM)

"The author is to be commended for shedding welcome light on a seldom illuminated dialogue and recognising the ongoing variegation of rock 'n' roll as a process contingent on the external pressures brought to bear on it."-- "The Wire" (6/1/2009 12:00:00 AM)

"Waksman's superb book provides a model for other scholars to follow."-- "Journal Of Popular Music Stds" (7/6/2010 12:00:00 AM)

"A comprehensively and enthusiastically researched book."--Alan Ashton-Smith "Popmatters" (3/11/2009 12:00:00 AM)

"A wonderful mixture of fact, observation, interpretation, and humor."--Scott G - The G-Man "Music Industry Newswire" (5/1/2009 12:00:00 AM)

"One of the more potent and persuasive pieces of recent cultural critiques. . . . Waksman, often quite brilliantly, fuses the fan and the critic into a rich voice for music criticism. . . . Considerably raises the bar for engaged exploration of music subcultures."-- "Baltimore City Paper" (3/25/2009 12:00:00 AM)

"This work is an exemplar nuance, one that does justice to the complexities of the culture it addresses."--Robert Walser "Journal Of The Society For American Music (Jsam)" (6/18/2010 12:00:00 AM)

"Waksman's work is engaging, thought-provoking, and an important contribution particularly for metal studies."--Glenn Pillsbury "American Studies" (6/17/2011 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Steve Waksman is Associate Professor of Music and American Studies at Smith College. He is the author of Instruments of Desire: The Electric Guitar and the Shaping of Musical Experience.