NOFX: Forty Years of "Problematic" Punk Provocations

(Hardback)

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This collection of scholarly essays analyzes how NOFXs aesthetics of punk provocation and discomfort provokes the bands listeners to confront contradictions and conflicts in society concerning politics, identity, authenticity, and decorum.

For forty years, NOFXs brand of witty, offensive, humorous, juvenile, intelligent, existential, political, anti-PC, and/or philosophically probing punk has reared several generations in punk attitude and ethos, for better or worse. They pioneered melodic yet hardcore So-Cal punk style, rode the wave of mainstream punk popularity in the 1990s, protested the Bush administration in the 2000s, and has continued its punk provocations up through its impending retirement in 2024.

NOFXs aesthetics of provocation and discomfort force us to think about the positive value and problems caused by a longstanding attitude within punk, namely the disposition towards shocking and offending mainstream society. Their music challenges notions of punk as simplistic, stripped-down rock requiring little musical skill, as the band has incorporated virtuosic guitar and bass playing, an array of chords and harmonic approaches, borrowings from various musical styles, and song structures of considerable complexity, broadening punks expressive possibilities in the process. This book explores these and other contentious topics from scholars in a variety of fields.

Author Bio

David Pearson is an adjunct associate professor at Lehman College, USA. He s the author of Rebel Music in the Triumphant Empire: Punk Rock in the 1990s United States (2021).

Stefano Morello is a researcher and curator based in New York. He has curated the East Bay Punk Digital Archive, The Beats in/and Italy, and The Lung Block exhibits. He is co-editor-in-chief of JAm It! Journal of American Studies in Italy, and serves on the editorial board of the journal Amrica Critica and the book series Transatlantic Transfers.

Ellen Bernhard is Assistant Professor of Digital Communication at Georgian Court University, USA. She is the author of Contemporary Punk Rock Communities: Scenes of Inclusion and Dedication (2019). She is the president of the Punk Scholars Network US affiliate and sits on the editorial boards of the journal Punk & Post-Punk and the Global Punk book series.