Our Band Could Be Your Life

By Michael Azerrad,

Book cover of Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991

Book description

Finally in paperback, the story of the musical revolution that happened right under the nose of the Reagan Eighties - when a small but sprawling network of bands, labels, fanzines, radio stations and other subversives re-energised American rock with punk rock's d-I-y credo and created music that was deeply personal,…

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Why read it?

3 authors picked Our Band Could Be Your Life as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

No list of books on the indie music scenes of the 1980s is complete without this classic tale of the rise of commercial tensions regarding indie rock bands.

Music offered a form of rebellion against conformity – and punk challenged the corporate music industry of the 1970s with its DIY code and aesthetics. But in its wake, new forms of rebellion and alternative pathways to success emerged – at least for a time.

These bands that Azerrad chronicles became the giants of this alternative scene, and they were the sound of college radio. As Azerrad writes, corporate labels co-opted new…

From Katherine's list on the political side of music scenes.

A one-of-a-kind book about the wider history of underground music in America in the 1980s, it traces the thread from Black Flag to Nirvana, cataloguing a huge range of vital bands in the process, and documenting many scenes that would otherwise have been lost to obscurity.

From Frank's list on the history of punk rock.

An expansive compendium of many of the most important punk bands of the 1980s – especially Black Flag, the Minutemen, Minor Threat, Husker Du. Essentially Azerrad provides interesting band biographies. He also listens to participants and recognizes the difficulty of DIY touring, including sleeping in the tiny tour band with other members squashed together. Greg Ginn of Black Flag is quoted, “If we got a flat tire, we would get an old tire that was discarded in the back of a gas station that they’d given up on and put that on… It was real bare bones.” Azerrad discusses the…

From Kevin's list on 1980s punk and politics.

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Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up…

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