Still in a Dream by Simon Reynolds - ISBN: 9781399618373
Paperback
Noise, apathy, and reinvention: the alt-rock revolution you missed.
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Still in a Dream

Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984–1994

$32.23

  • Paperback

    464 pages

  • Release Date

    16 June 2026

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Summary

The definitive story of the slackers and shoegazers who reinvented rock.

Twenty years after his acclaimed postpunk best-seller, Rip It Up and Start Again, Simon Reynolds tells the tale of what happened next: the underground explosion of noisepop, shoegaze, slacker rock and grunge that reverberated through the mid-Eighties into the early Nineties.

Capturing the musical exhilaration of the era along with the alienation of youth during a period of ascend…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9781399618373
ISBN-10:1399618377
Author:Simon Reynolds
Publisher:Orion Publishing Co
Imprint:White Rabbit
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:464
Release Date:16 June 2026
Weight:454g
Dimensions:234mm x 153mm x 32mm
What They're Saying

Critics Review

Much like the melodies of the music itself, this book feels like a story which has been waiting to burst out and shine for an eternity. Every band detail is fascinating but the real joy lies in Reynolds being entirely enraptured by a scene, the tales of someone blissfully caught in the heart of a storm * Daniel Avery *Still in a Dream is more than just a celebration of some enduringly wonderful music - it’s a great book full stop, Reynolds’ best yet. Bringing together the sugar hiccup enthusiasms of his music press youth with the harsh wisdom of his extremely online old age, it covers everything from the sensual sublimity of the Cocteau Twins to Big Black and the genesis of edgelordism, from the little undergrounds of C86 and shoegaze to the pyrrhic overground victories of Grunge and Britpop. It’s warm, funny, sometimes startlingly honest, and a very timely reminder that ‘withdrawal in disgust is not the same thing as apathy * Owen Hatherley, author of Militant Modernism and The Alienation Effect *Still in a Dream is as important a work of art as any of the records that inspired it. Simon Reynold’s erudition and judgement is at the service of the music he so passionately loves, his words meeting the songs on an equal footing thanks to an innate lack of ego which allows his insights to float amidst the notes in an ether of sonic luminosity * Tariq Goddard *The alternative guitar rock of the late 80s was imaginative, expansive, experimental, and ultimately - and perhaps unexpectedly - proved to have a lasting impact on the way pop sounds in the 21st Century. Simon Reynolds was there, filing dispatches from rock’s cutting edge: part-memoir of a lost world of music journalism, part critical analysis, Still In A Dream brings an important and exhilarating era vividly to life * Alexis Petridis *His writing is passionate, with a penchant for theory … it’s a thrill ride. If you weren’t there, you’ll wish you had been * Uncut *

About The Author

Simon Reynolds

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 (co-written 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.

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