Tag Archives: Modern America

Shock and Awe, on sale 10/11/16

The History Department has collaborated with the English, Art History, Music, and Communications & Media Studies Department to invite acclaimed British music journalist and cultural critic Simon Reynolds to discuss his upcoming book, Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-First Century (Harper Collins, 2016), on October 17th at the Pope Memorial Auditorium at our Lincoln Center Campus. The talk will be followed by a conversation with Dr. Asif Siddiqi, who discusses the event below:

Reynolds is among the most respected and famous pop culture critics in the world and has left a deep imprint on the history of pop music in particular. A writer for The Guardian, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Village Voice, etc., he has published many award-winning and critically acclaimed books on the history of pop culture, including The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion, and Rock’n’Roll and Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture.

His new book Shock and Awe is a provocative historical exploration of 1970s pop culture, from David Bowie to disco, and touches on issues of gender fluidity, authenticity, sexual decadence, and star-making in the late 20th century. The book’s release is timely in a number of ways, not least in its conjunction with the death of David Bowie earlier this year.