Bring the Noise: 20 Years of Writing about Hip Rock and Hip Hop

With all the energy and insight you would expect from the author of Rip It Up and Start Again, Bring the Noise tracks the alternately fraught and fertile relationship between white bohemia and black street music. The selections transmit the immediacy of their moment while offering a running commentary on the broader enduring questions of race and resistance, multiculturalism, and division. From grunge to grime, from Madchester to the Dirty South, Bring the Noise chronicles hip hop and alternative rock’s competing claims to be the cutting edge of innovation and the voice of opposition in an era of conservative backlash. Alert to both the vivid detail and the big picture,

Simon Reynolds has shaped a compelling narrative that cuts across a thrillingly turbulent two-decade period of pop music.

Simon Reynolds is the author of numerous books, including Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 and Totally Wired: Post-Punk Interviews and Overviews (Soft Skull 2010). His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Village Voice, Spin, and Slate, among other publications. Born in London, Reynolds now lives in Los Angeles.