Rating: 
Summary: Deffinetly not crap
Review: This book is everything anybody even remotly interested in the punk scene would ever want to know. It really tells you what ur getting into. It also gives you a great back on not only the music, but the movment too.
Rating:
Summary: Punk is more than simple protest !
Review: This book is extremely important to understand the punk movement that started in the US in the mid 70s and exploded in the world from Great Britain in the late 70s with The Sex Pistols and The Clash. The book tends to show that this « musical » movement, this new stage in rock development is unique and lasting. This is true and false at the same time. Music in the United States, and elsewhere in the world, has always been a medium to convey ideas and protest. Folksongs, Gospels, Protest songs, Jazz, Negro Spirituals, Working Class songs, Blues and even Rock and Roll per se have been such media. Nothing new under the sun as for that. We could also quote the use of songs and music by all kinds of tyrannical regimes, or plainly national anthems. We could even quote centuries of church music and sacred music as expressing political ideas in their days. So, what makes the difference with the punk movement ? The author is very clear about it, even if the ideas he expresses here and there are not always perfectly clear. First it is the result of the consciousness among a wide mass of young people, initiallly coming from the working class or alienated classes in cities, suburbs or the countryside, of the fact that they were the victims of an alienation. It became particularly visible in the 70s when a certain affluence among the population at large ' in our countries ' made it all the more visible : those who did not have anything, those who had no shelter, home, commodities, even decent food, became very conscious of their depravation. The Blacks first of all (and it led to famous inner city aznd ghetto riots), but here, with the punk movement, the whites. This led to strong Black movements like the Black Panthers or the Black Muslims among the Blacks. This led to the punk movement ' and also the skinhead movement ' among the whites. They used their music to differentiate themselves from dominant society. And they conveyed a style and ideas that were and still are mostly against all kinds of alienation, hence they got in touch with and at times integrated the anarchist movement or at least philosophy. Their music was derived from rock and roll and tried to use sounds, harmony and rhythm to create something sounding in complete negation with all that had been done before, and thus they tried to disrupt the musical scene. They took clear stands on essential issues in our societies. First of all against the government, the police, the state and they became political anarchists advocating the uselessness of such institutions to enable people to live in peace and quiet, provided these people accepted to share responsibilities, means and objectives : self-government became their motto. They opposed any war and even the army as useless, ruthless and dangerous. They became total pacifists. In the same line they advocated, most of them, non violence. They fought against any kind of discrimination : racism, sexism, homophobia, agism, and many others. Female groups became very popular and visible on the punk stage. They also got involved in the ecological movement. But they seem to forget, or neglect, the fact that they have been very fast recuperated by the major labels, by the media even, because young people are a market and CDs or clothing or beauty products are highly profitable. They tried to build some kind of an alternative economy, but it remained marginal and it did not change the world. The Berlin Wall fell because masses of people wanted it to fall because their development was warped and slowed down by state communism that was in fact nothing more than state capitalism with a feudalistic market economy. The book is yet extremely rich and interesting in references, quotations, and all kinds of historical and chronological elements, without forgetting the ideological presentation of punk anarchy. A must if we want to understand the role youth is playing in our societies, and the power of music as a medium of young people's ideology, even if it is only in the music itself, the rebellion against the musical norms of any time. In a word Mozart would have been a Punk in our days, and he was a Punk in his days.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Rating:
Summary: One Punk's view on the Punk's Bible
Review: This book reminded me why I'm a punk. Why I hold the beliefs which define what a punk is. If you're a punk, or a wanna-be punk I very strongly recommend this book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Amateurish and Starry-Eyed
Review: This book was originally the author's college thesis. I can't imagine any reputable university accepting it, as it's written on a high school level. It purports to be an overview of the punk "scene," but is in fact a rather near-sighted idealist description of the author's hometown vegan peace-punk scene. The politics described within are indeed admirable, and I sincerely hope the junior high mall punks who read this book take them to heart. However, as a true depiction of what punk IS (versus what he thinks it should BE), it fails.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice try but too PC
Review: This book was well intentioned but neither well thought out, well written, nor well researched. It is perhaps a good place for new punks and anarcho-revolutionaries to start but it can be misleading. First of all it is a highly idealized view of what the punk scene is (or perhaps what is should be) it stresses a very PC leftist version of punk which is neither realistic nor entirely desirable to those of us here in reality. Although i am an activist, an Earthfirst!er, CrimeThInc.er and Class War Federation organizer and outspoken anarchist myself i often do not fit into the neat little catagories of "acceptable" "PC" punk that the author attempts to dilineate. Another gripe i have with this book is its unfair treatment of skinheads. The authors tries to make all skins, including anti-racist skins, as []bullies...
Rating:
Summary: more than noise:also heartfelt words
Review: This is a great book, even if it is a bit more left than people are wanting. Generally people view punk as apolitical and stupid and many punk types are, but this is written from the perspective of someone who cares and occasionally he rants and raves and such, but this is one man's view of the philosophy of punk, not just a doctrine. One reviewer here complained that he didn't include enough sources or footnotes, but rwally with this format, its almost not needed unless one wants to research further...
In short its all about opinions, and I don't share the same anarcho-opinions I once did but this book is still great as a history lesson for pre-intenet political punk, not for nostalgia.
Rating:
Summary: THE philosophy of punk: More Than Noise
Review: This is probably the best book on punk i've ever read and since it focuses on more of the unpopular bands it's gaurenteeed to give the reader 60% or more new info.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of Help
Review: When this book first came out I was still in highschool. A struggling punk trying to make it in a world of people who just didn't understand. This book helped to reasure me of what i believed, as well as informing me of things I did not know. I actualy gave this book to my parents to read in hopes of having them understand what I felt. I feel as though it is a book everyone should read weather you are a punk, a skin, a mod or just an everyday person. It is a great explination to something most people don't understand.
Rating: 
Summary: The limited philosophy of punk
Review: Yet, another attempt to define the elusive state of mind that is punk rock. The first chapter on "Why Punk" and the last on "DIY" are quite good. In between, it's just the author's limited this is punk, this is not, punks don't do this, etc., etc. I was punk in '77 and did a lot for my scene. I also have an understanding of working within and beyond the system. I'm not sure this author does. I wonder what he would think of me buying this book on Amazon.com.
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