NPR’s All Songs points our attention to a new book by Jacob McMurray that looks to dissect the rise and commercial success of the grunge movement and a look into the history of punk from the perspective of the Pacific Northwest. Taking Punk to the Masses looks to open with a discussion of The Kingsmen’s “Louie, Louie.”
Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind
visually documents the explosion of Grunge, the Seattle Sound, within the context of the underground punk subculture that was developing throughout the u.S. in the late 1970s and 1980s. The book serves as a companion and contextual backdrop to the Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses exhibition, which opens at Seattle’s Experience Music Project in 2011. This decade-and-a-half musical journey will be represented entirely through the lens of EMP’s oral history and permanent object collection, an invaluable and rich cultural archive of over 800 interviews and 140,000 objects — instruments, costumes, posters, records and other ephemera dedicated to the pursuit of rock ’n’ roll.
The book is out now on the excellent Fantagraphics imprint and includes a companion DVD. Amazon
Related articles
- Fantagraphics exhibit celebrates Charles Peterson’s photos (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- ‘Nirvana: Taking Punk To The Masses’ Sneak Peek: A Record Deal, Smashed Nevermind Guitar (newsroom.mtv.com)
Accidental Bear 