For those lucky enough to have an older sibling or person in their life to act as a music mentor, it makes starting your journey in any genre of music much easier; punk rock and its adjacent genres are no exception. While some of us find our own way, others need a guide.
This appears to be the goal of John Zukowski’s book, The Only Music That Mattered: A Guide to Punk, Post-Punk, and Second Wave Ska, 1976-1983, part of the Studies in Punk series from MacFarland. Focusing on the salad days of the genres, Zukowski has compiled an A-to-Z guide, sorted by band name, of the most important albums from those particular years.
Zukowski argues why punk rock was so important and why its architects felt their voices needed to be louder and more independent than most. He chalks it up to Generation Jones, Baby Boomers born between 1954 and 1965, who were raised by the hippie culture but saw its shortcomings and decided to take it further. This disillusionment led to the emergence of politically charged punk rock and the notion of not compromising one’s principles by selling out. This probably gives us what people call the punk attitude. Punk was a way to rebel and be an outsider; Generation X’s way of playing ball with the majors softened this view.
I will say I was thrown off by this book. If you were hoping for some commentary on the music of this time, you’ve picked up the wrong book. While this book is a great extended list of important records from this time, it is just that. There are no more than a couple of paragraphs of neutral description on the LPs, EPs, and seven-inches listed here, which makes sense to me as this list is a primer to help form your own opinion on these records, if you haven’t already.
I think this is effective up to a point. At the risk of sounding old, back in my day, you had to do the legwork: buy and trade records, or even go to shows to support them, if you were able to catch any of these bands. While some of these bands have endured or reunited, a good number of these bands were definitely a time and place type of situation.
For every band I knew in this book, there was at least one I hadn’t listened to or heard of before. Since writing for Dying Scene, I’ve been thinking about what my blind spots are in my musical past; this book was a good way to put some of those in perspective. There are a good number in this book that didn’t tickle my fancy in my youth but probably deserve another chance as I’ve aged.
While the list is comprehensive, Zukowski presents what he considers essential without grasping at straws. You may feel there are some glaring omissions. The list itself features classic albums, but also rare gems that may have been missed for one reason or another. Most of the bands’ albums listed are their early works, which is odd to me as we have had time to sit with some of these bands’ later output.
However, as I have found in a lot of academic books, there are multiple mistakes in the text in regard to spelling and proper names of subjects. It is blatantly obvious there’s a disconnect somewhere in the pipeline to address bands properly. This one was nowhere near as dense as some of the others I’ve reviewed. The blurbs are mostly satisfactory in their descriptions. This book was better than most in general, but I continue to be critical of the errors I find in these books.
From punk and hardcore classics to new wave and goth, and even some novelty records, the genres The Only Music That Mattered covers are varied but poignant. It’s not youth that keeps this music relevant; it’s the older fans making sure these songs are passed on to newer fans. This should be the list you’d give to a kid in their teens to check off as they find them in a record store. More than likely, they will just look them up on a streaming service, but at least they have a map.
The Only Music That Mattered: A Guide to Punk, Post-Punk, and Second Wave Ska, 1976 – 1983 is available at McFarland books.