Rip it Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984, by Simon Reynolds, is the essential book on post-punk music, a must for any serious pop music fan.

Rowan writes: While lamenting the demise of serious music journalism, John Harris, of The Guardian, recently called Reynolds' book 'by far the most impressive' of the past few years. In recent times the scratchy frenetics and jangly introspection of the post-punk aesthetic has come back in a big way, but Reynolds takes us back to where it all began: the fascinating years of an unlikely, experimental fusion in which the DIY spirit of punk melded with genres as diverse as art-rock, disco, funk, reggae and synthpop, to produce a generation of artists whose work was as original as it has been influential. This fascinating work traces these various strands, taking in the contextual backdrop of politics, fashion and the art world, to give a magisterial view of an incredibly fertile period of music history.

Simon Reynolds is the author of Energy Flash: A Journey through Rave Music and Dance Culture, Blissed Out: The Raptures of Rock, The Sex Revolts: Gender Rebellions and Rock and Roll (cowritten with Joy Press), Rip it Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 and, most recently, Bring The Noise: Twenty Years of Hip Hop and Hip Rock.