Lexicon of Pop

For anyone interested in post-punk, art rock, ska or synthpop, Simon Reynolds' Rip It Up and Start Again is essential reading.  Fans of PiL, Joy Division, Gang of Four, Devo, the Human League, Depeche Mode, et al will glory in the myriad of inside info the author shares while deftly and impressively proving his thesis, which runs something like: Punk gets all the credit, but the real modern musical revolution took place between 1978 and 1984, a revolution vastly more exciting and experimental and subversive than punk could ever hope to be. Reader, he's right.