Shoegaze, slackers and the reinvention of rock, 1984-94

Simon Reynolds on why the slacker became a cultural archetype

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Like the hippies and punks before them, slackers were characterised as figures of generational discontent. But theirs...

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In today's episode, a conversation with Simon Reynolds, acclaimed music writer and journalist, and author of a new book, Still in a Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984-1994. Tw

C86 Show - Indie Pop · Episode

In an extract from his new book, Simon Reynolds reflects on the emergence of a network of bands and attitudes he would eventually term post-rock

Debi Mazar, Rick Rubin, Michael Musto, Fab 5 Freddy, and more remember the legendary ‘80s nightclub that inspired a new Madonna single—and where she, RuPaul, Beastie Boys, and more invented themselves...

Simon Reynolds has made a habit of writing books that offer to rethink the histories of popular music, such as Rip It Up and Start Again, his keywork on Post-Punk, and his story of electronic dance music, Energy Flash. Now, he's back with a highly personal history of the shapes of music from 1984 to 1994, from the hazy 'snowdrift' assaults of My Bloody Valentine, to the paraslacker aesthetics of The Smiths he calls Still In A Dream: Shoegaze Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock.

In his new book Still in a Dream, the elder Reynolds chronicles the rise of bands like My Bloody Valentine and Nirvana and his own escapades as a writer for the British music weekly Melody Maker.

Trying to come up with 13 favorite albums was way too daunting, so I’ve narrowed the parameters to “reinvention of the guitar”.  “Reinvention” appears in the subtitle of my new book Still In A Dream: ...

The Sounds  penchant for displaying for male nudity or near-nudity is really quite peculiar here's another shot of Angus Young in skimpy ...

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 I have been worried that the brothers’s new effort has not received the amount of attention it deserves. So to boost its profile a bit, her...

The definitive story of the slackers and shoegazers who reinvented rock. Twenty years after his acclaimed postpunk best-seller, Rip It Up and Start Again, Simon Reynolds tells the tale of what happen...