Six preeminent rock photographers reveal the photos that launched their careers--in the process, revealing the acts that launched modern rock. From the B-52s and Talking Heads to Richard Hell and Blondie, the influence of the legendary bands that shaped the punk rock movement continues to be heard in music as diverse as folk, rap, alternative, and heavy metal. 120 photos.

To wander the streets of a bankrupt, often lawless, New York City in the early 1970s wearing a T-shirt with PLEASE KILL ME written on it was an act of determined nihilism, and one often recounted in the first reports of Richard Hell filtering into the pre-punk UK. Pete Astor, an archly nihilistic teenager himself at the time, was most impressed. The fact that it emerged (after many years) that Hell himself had not worn the T-shirt but had convinced junior band member Richard Lloyd to do so, actually fitted very well with Astor's older, wiser self looking back at Blank Generation. Richard Hell was an artist who could not only embody but also frame the punk urge; having seeded and developed the essential look and character of punk since his arrival in New York in the late 1960s, he had just what was needed to make one of the defining records of the era. This study combines objective, academic perspectives along with culturally centred subjectivities to understand the meanings and resonances of Richard Hell and the Voidoids' Blank Generation.

Illuminating the photographer's contributions to New York's Downtown art scene and her acute feminist work Photographer Marcia Resnick (b. 1950) earned recognition as part of the legendary Downtown New York art scene of the 1970s and 1980s. Her portraits of the era's major cultural figures, such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Belushi, and Susan Sontag, have contributed to the scene's mythic status. Against this backdrop, Resnick also produced a significant body of work that engaged with the history of art, took a humorous approach to conceptual art and feminism, and proposed new ideas for what photography could be. Spanning the artist's career, this richly illustrated volume explores Resnick's early influences and education at Cooper Union and CalArts; discusses her series and photobooks such as See and Re-visions; and situates the artist's work within the history of contemporary art. An afterword by Laurie Anderson speaks to the very personal vision of Resnick's photography.

This is the first academic study of sneakers and the subculture that surrounds them. Since the 1980s, American sneaker enthusiasts, popularly known as “sneakerheads” or “sneakerholics”, have created a distinctive identity for themselves, while sneaker manufacturers such as Reebok, Puma and Nike have become global fashion brands. How have sneakers come to gain this status and what makes them fashionable? In what ways are sneaker subcultures bound up with gender identity and why are sneakerholics mostly young men? Based on the author's own ethnographic fieldwork in New York, where sneaker subculture is said to have originated, this unique study traces the transformation of sneakers from sportswear to fashion symbol. Sneakers explores the obsessions and idiosyncrasies surrounding the sneaker phenomenon, from competitive subcultures to sneaker painting and artwork. It is a valuable contribution to the growing study of footwear in fashion studies and will appeal to students of fashion theory, gender studies, sociology, and popular culture.

Examines the impact of punk on fashion, focusing on its do-it-yourself, rip-it-to-shreds ethos, the antithesis of couture.

CMJ New Music Monthly, the first consumer magazine to include a bound-in CD sampler, is the leading publication for the emerging music enthusiast. NMM is a monthly magazine with interviews, reviews, and special features. Each magazine comes with a CD of 15-24 songs by well-established bands, unsigned bands and everything in between. It is published by CMJ Network, Inc.

From Blondie's earliest days, performing at legendary New York punk venues such as Max's Kansas City and CBGB's, to their ultimate ascension to global superstardom at the end of the 1970s, Roberta Bayley was present to record the dramatic rise of Blondie and the unique phenomenon of Debbie Harry. The images collected in Blondie: Unseen 1976-1980 provide an inimitable evocation of one of the most creative and exciting periods in popular culture.