We Can be the New Wind

Book excerpt: We can be the new wind: The interaction of punk, hardcore punk, power pop and neo-garage with alternative rock in the 1980's. The hardcore punk scene had two major crossovers, one with heavy metal and one with pop influenced independent rock. A significant number of early hardcore punk bands incorporated more melodic, challenging and experimental elements in their music while retaining their punk backbone and by doing so, they went on to create something new. This book focuses on the crossover of Punk, Hardcore Punk, Garage Revival and Power Pop with the Alternative Rock scene and reports on many of the main bands in the genre. This book's structure is organised according to country, and then regionally. The USA obviously has the lion's share, since it was source of this new sounds melting pot, but the UK is also present as is the rest of the world. More than 160 bands were interviewed and even more reviewed, resulting in a total of more than 1000 bands. Flyers and pictures were obtained with permission from the bands, and many of them that have never seen the light of day. Until now. The first band interviewed was 7 Seconds, so put New Wind on and turn it up, because it's time to begin the journey...