This Ain’t Rock n Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika and the Third Reich
By Daniel Rachel
A Rough Trade, Resident, and Louder Than War Book of the Year
Published in hardback (£25), eBook and audio
A shocking and absorbing account of pop music’s complicated history with fascism and the imagery surrounding it from award-winning author Daniel Rachel. Introduction by Billy Bragg.
In this meticulously researched and sensitively told history, with an Introduction by Billy Bragg, Daniel Rachel examines pop music’s enduring and problematic fascination with the swastika – and Nazism itself.
Over the last seven decades, some of rock ’n’ roll’s most celebrated figureheads have flirted with the imagery and theatre of the Third Reich. From Keith Moon and Vivian Stanshall kitting themselves out in Nazi uniforms and terrorising Jewish neighbourhoods to Siouxsie Sioux and Sid Vicious brandishing swastikas in the pomp of punk, generations of performers have associated themselves in troubling ways with the aesthetics, mass hysteria and even ideology of Nazism. Whether shock factor, stupidity, or crass attempt at subversion, rock ‘n’ roll has indulged these associations – whimsically, carelessly, occasionally malevolently – in a way not accepted by any other artform. But how accountable should fans, the media, and the music industry be for what has often seemed a sleazy fascination with the eroticised perversions of a fascist regime?
In This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll, award-winning music historian Daniel Rachel navigates these turbulent waters with extraordinary delicacy and care, asking us to look anew at the artists that have defined us, inspired us and given us joy – and consider why so many have been drawn to the imagery of a movement responsible for the twentieth century’s worst atrocities. Alongside a sensitive history of the Holocaust and an examination of the place it holds in our cultural consciousness, Rachel asks essential questions of actions often overlooked or underplayed, whilst neither casting sweeping judgement nor offering easy answers. In doing so, he asks us to reassess the history of rock ’n’ roll and sheds new light on the grim echoes of the Third Reich in popular culture and the legacy of twentieth (and twenty-first)-century history as it defines us today.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DANIEL RACHEL is a former musician turned award-winning and bestselling author. His previous books include Too Much Too Young: Rude Boys, Racism and the Soundtrack of a Generation (a Sunday Times, Uncut, Rough Trade US and Resident Music book of the year) and Isle of Noises: Conversations with Great British Songwriters (a Guardian and NME book of the year). He lives in London.
PRAISE FOR THIS AIN’T ROCK ‘N’ ROLL
‘Daniel Rachel has dug deep into rock and pop’s enduring obsession with Nazism. Why is this still going on?’
WILL HODDGKINSON, THE TIMES
‘A timely, wide ranging and eye-opening overview of music’s fascination with the Third Reich, from moronic edgelord stupidity to studied, cold hearted hate. Thorough, calm and at times heartbreaking, This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll is surely the most necessary music book of the year.’
JOHN HIGGS, author and cultural historian
‘A deeply thought-provoking work, and long overdue’
JOHN HARRIS, MOJO
‘[An] absolute banger…it’s hard to imagine there will be a more original book of non-fiction this year‘
EMMA FORREST
‘As the powers-that-be lurch towards a far-right future in 2025, there is no longer any hiding place for those pretending to be ignorant about the true meaning of Nazism or using its emblems for their supposed subversive ‘cool’ factor. They have a choice, own their perverse fascination when exposed or apologise.’
PAULINE BLACK
‘A brilliant book’
ROBIN INCE
‘Compelling…From wearing Nazi uniforms to flaunting swastikas, the book astutely traces the global rise of fascism and its reverberations in pop culture’
IRSIH TIMES
‘The cognitive dissonance between rock’s rebellious use of Nazi imagery and the actual horror of the Nazi regime. There are surprising details everywhere in this book’
JEWSIH TELEGRAPH
‘A catalogue of Rock’s flirtation with fascist symbolism that builds into a relentless polemic. Important and timely’
JON SAVAGE
‘From Bowie and punk to contemporary provocation. Daniel Rachel examines the uneasy intersection between pop culture and fascist imagery. Deeply researched and provocative, it asks why artists flirt with dangerous symbols and what that says about society’s memory. This is history, ethics, and pop theory colliding in one compelling study. A must-read for anyone who believes music can challenge as well as charm.’
ROUGH TRADE
‘Rachel’s book is compelling – not an easy read, but as essential now as at any point in our history’
LOUDER THAN WAR
‘A sadly rather timely book…deeply researched and provocative. A must-read for anyone who believes music can challenge as well as charm.’
WALLPAPER
‘Educational…’This Ain’t Rock ‘N’ Roll’ points up extraordinary examples – “from Tommy Steele to Kanye West” – and how our reaction intensified over the years’
MARK ELLEN, WORD IN YOUR EAR
‘Rachel is a gifted writer of evocative prose and a diligent historian and here he assembles a responsible, questioning and thought-provoking examination of wider social and cultural consciousness – that ought to be taught in colleges.’
RECORD COLLECTOR
‘An incredibly sobering, fascinating, serious, but uplifting book.’
MIRANDA SAWYER, WE HAVE NOTES