Punk rock may have started in the United Kingdom and United States but it certainly didn’t stay in either country. The genre flew around the globe like a contagion, touching off simultaneous movements in nearly every market imaginable: Japan, Yugoslavia, the Philippines, South Africa, New Zealand, Chile, Mexico, Poland, Burma, Singapore, and Turkey, among countless others. Performing punk rock in many of these places wasn’t just rebellious, it was legitimately dangerous, thanks to regimes far more oppressive and brutal than what existed in the West. Brave Punk World immerses readers in these foreign scenes, describing the lifestyles and art of passionate, hard-charging groups who remain secret to the punk majority but who are just as crucial as the Ramones or the Sex Pistols. James Greene, Jr. explores Brazilian bands like Ulster who angrily protested and openly mocked their region's cruel dictatorship, Germans such as Slime who see many of their songs still banned to this day, the Algerian-by-way-of-France performers Carte de Séjour who had an alleged hand in inspiring the landmark Clash hit "Rock The Casbah," and a galaxy of other punk groups from more exotic locales. Punk diehards and travel enthusiasts with a taste for chaos will enjoy the country-by-country cultural explorations and wild stories offered within these pages.

Punk Beyond the Music: Tracing Mutations and Manifestations of the Punk Virus expands the conversation about punk from a focus on the musical genre to its surrounding cultural manifestations. Focusing on some of the most recurring practices and characteristics of punk culture —DIY, attitude, outsider identities, symbols, and politics—Iain Ellis engages many illustrative examples to investigate punk beyond the music without losing sight of its significance. Early chapters look at arts that have always existed within the punk subculture (writings, visual arts, films, and humor); subsequent sections examine areas rarely recognized as exhibiting punk characteristics (such as education, sports, crafts, and comics). Taken together, the chapters invite readers on an extensive and unpredictable journey through the evolution of punk’s developments and adaptations.

Punk rock culture in a preeminently average town Synonymous with American mediocrity, Peoria was fertile ground for the boredom- and anger-fueled fury of punk rock. Jonathan Wright and Dawson Barrett explore the do-it-yourself scene built by Peoria punks, performers, and scenesters in the 1980s and 1990s. From fanzines to indie record shops to renting the VFW hall for an all-ages show, Peoria's punk culture reflected the movement elsewhere, but the city's conservatism and industrial decline offered a richer-than-usual target environment for rebellion. Eyewitness accounts take readers into hangouts and long-lost venues, while interviews with the people who were there trace the ever-changing scene and varied fortunes of local legends like Caustic Defiance, Dollface, and Planes Mistaken for Stars. What emerges is a sympathetic portrait of a youth culture in search of entertainment but just as hungry for community—the shared sense of otherness that, even for one night only, could unite outsiders and discontents under the banner of music. A raucous look at a small-city underground, Punks in Peoria takes readers off the beaten track to reveal the punk rock life as lived in Anytown, U.S.A.

Global Punk examines the global phenomenon of DIY (do-it-yourself) punk, arguing that it provides a powerful tool for political resistance and personal self-empowerment. Drawing examples from across the evolution of punk – from the streets of 1976 London to the alleys of contemporary Jakarta – Global Punk is both historically rich and global in scope. Looking beyond the music to explore DIY punk as a lived experience, Global Punk examines the ways in which punk contributes to the process of disalienation and political engagement. The book critically examines the impact that DIY punk has had on both individuals and communities, and offers chapter-length investigations of two important aspects of DIY punk culture: independent record labels and self-published zines. Grounded in scholarly theories, but written in a highly accessible style, Global Punk shows why DIY punk remains a vital cultural form for hundreds of thousands of people across the globe today.

Documents counterimperialism in Chilean music since the 1960s Gringos Get Rich: Anti-Americanism in Chilean Music examines anti-Americanism in Latin America as manifested in Chilean music in recent history. From a folk-based movement in the 1960s and early 1970s to underground punk rock groups during the Pinochet regime, to socially conscious hip-hop artists of postdictatorship Chile, Chilean music has followed several left-leaning transnational musical trends to grapple with Chile's fluctuating relationship with the United States. Eunice Rojas's innovative analysis introduces US readers to a wide swath of Chilean musicians and their powerful protest songs and provides a representative and long view of the negative influences of the United States in Latin America. Much of the criticism of the United States in Chile's music centers on the perception of the United States as a heavy-handed source of capitalist imperialism that is exploitative of and threatening to Chile's poor and working-class public and to Chilean cultural independence and integrity. Rojas incorporates Antonio Gramsci's theories about the difficulties of struggles for cultural power within elitist capitalist systems to explore anti-Americanism and anti-capitalist music. Ultimately, Rojas shows how the music from various genres, time periods, and political systems attempts to act as a counterhegemonic alternative to Chile's political, cultural, and economic status quo. Rojas's insight is timely as a political trend toward the right continues in the Americas. There is also increased interest in and acceptance of popular song lyrics as literary texts. The book will appeal to Latin Americanists, ethnomusicologists, scholars of popular culture and international relations, students, and general readers.

“Rarely has a movie this expensive provided so many quotable lines.” So wrote Roger Ebert in his review of Ghostbusters, the 1984 blockbuster that handed our paranormal fears over to some of the sharpest comic minds of the day. Ghostbusters instantly resonated with audiences thanks to eye-popping special effects and crackling wit; to date, it remains the highest-grossing horror comedy of all time. The film spawned an Emmy-nominated Saturday morning cartoon, a tentpole 1989 sequel, a contentious 2016 reboot, legions of merchandise, and one of the most dedicated fan bases in history. Ghostbusters also elevated its players to superstardom, something a few cast members found more daunting than the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Now, for the first time, the entire history of the slime-soaked franchise is told in A Convenient Parallel Dimension: How Ghostbusters Slimed Us Forever. The cohesion of talent during the mid-’70s comedy revolution, the seat-of-their-pants creation of the first Ghostbusters, the explosive success that seemed to mandate a franchise, the five year struggle to make Ghostbusters II, the thirty-one-year struggle to make Ghostbusters III—it’s all here, with incredible attention to detail. Thoroughly researched and engaging, A Convenient Parallel Dimension smashes long-held myths and half truths about the dynamics behind this cultural juggernaut and presents the real story, down to the last drop of ectoplasm.

Kevin Mattson offers a history of punk rock in the 1980s. He documents how kids growing up in the sedate world of suburbia created their "own culture" through DIY tactics. Punk spread across the continent in the 1980s as it found expression in different media, including literature, art, and poetry. Punks dissented against Reagan's presidency, accusing the entertainer-in-chief of being mean and duplicitous (especially when it came to nuclear war and his policies in Central America). Mattson has dived deep into archives to make his case that this youthful dissent meant something more than just a style of mohawks or purple hair.