What to read to understand music scenes

Rip It Up and Start Again: Post-Punk 1978-1984 by Simon Reynolds (2005)

Published when I was 19 and living in sordid student accommodation, this book changed my world – and my record collection. It was a portal into a sprawling world of music made before I was born, incorporating gritty northern industrial music, New York’s no-wave and mutant disco, and spiky agitprop, art rock and 2 Tone. Full of insight, colourful stories and idiosyncratic characters, it transported me, scene to scene and city to city, through a period of remarkable musical evolution.

Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus (2010)

This book depicts the loud snarl of a new type of punk that was being made in America’s Pacific north-west in the 1990s. Featuring groups such as Bikini Kill and Bratmobile, it’s a rousing and much-needed antidote to the male-heavy canon of punk books that preceded it. Fusing feminism, a DIY ethos and an incendiary strain of noisy music, it does a superb job of capturing a specific time, place and sound – so much so you can almost taste the sweat in the rooms it describes.

Inner City Pressure: The Story of Grime by Dan Hancox (2018)

This is a chronicle of grime, one of the most revolutionary British music scenes of the 21st century, told by someone who has documented the genre from the ground up. Dan Hancox’s knowledge of his subjects and his access to them make his book a gripping and arresting read alone. But the fact that Inner City Pressure doubles up as a social, cultural and political history of modern London itself elevates it into something far more weighty.

Groovy, Laidback & Nasty: A History of Independent Music in Sheffield by Daniel Dylan Wray is published by White Rabbit (£25). Order a copy from The Observer Shop for £22.50. (10% off RRP). Delivery charges may apply

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