Generation Reagan Youth

Robert A. Winkler

Generation Reagan Youth. Representing and Resisting White Neoliberal Forms of Life in the U.S. Hardcore Punk Scene (1979-1999)

ISBN 978-3-86821-897-8, 224 S., 9 Abb., kt., € 32,50 (2021)

(CAT - Cultures in America in Transition, Bd. 11)

Hardcore punk radicalized punk rock in the U.S. at the end of the 1970s and was initially composed for the most part of white, male, and suburban youth. Both the scene's self-perception and academic accounts have tended to perceive hardcore as a musical subculture per se rebelling against the conservative zeitgeist of Reagan's America. In this study, the author conceives of hardcore as a particular form of life emerging in its distinct social practices within an umbrella form of life itself structured by neoliberal principles and white male privilege. Generation Reagan Youth historicizes hardcore's form of life across three scenes, namely skinhead, straight edge, and broader hardcore punk by taking into account lyrics, fanzine discourses, performance footage, and album cover artwork. Within this framework, the author demonstrates how white male performances in hardcore represented the white neoliberal form of life, while also offering opportunities for resistance - not the least in tandem with politicized hardcore manifestations like Queercore, Riot Grrrl, or Latino Punk.

Buchvorschau / Inhaltsverzeichnis (pdf)

Pressestimmen

"Robert Winkler provides his readers with interesting insights into the forms and functions of different hardcore communities by locating them in the historical-political context of Reagan’s America. Winkler’s utilization of Diprose’s concept of the creation of body identity through the other opens up interesting discussions on the formation of identity through music and within music scenes."

Annalina Benner, KULT_online 65 (2022)

"For punk researchers it is always intriguing when a new contribution to the field is published. Robert A. Winkler’s 2021 monography, Generation Reagan Youth: Representing and Resisting White Neoliberal Forms of Life in the U.S. Hardcore Punk Scene (1979–1999), is such a contribution. The book provides a detailed analysis of two of punk’s most turbulent and formative decades – the 1980s and 1990s – with particular attention given to race and masculinity (both within the hardcore punk microcosm and in American society at large) during an era of unprecedented ‘neoliberal’ expansion'. Winkler’s detailed account of hardcore punk’s turbulent history from the late 1970s to the turn of the millennium makes this monograph essential reading for anyone interested in the topic."

Gerfried Ambrosch, Moderne Sprachen 65 (2021)