This Ain't Rock 'n' Roll

A meticulously researched and sensitively told history examining 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 theater of the Third Reich. From Keith Moon and Vivian Stanshall kitting themselves out in Nazi uniforms 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 attempts at subversion, rock ‘n’ roll has indulged these associations in a way not accepted in any other art form. But how accountable should fans, the media, and the music industry be for what has often seemed a sleazy fascination with the eroticized 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 who 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 some of the twentieth century’s worst atrocities. Rachel asks essential questions of actions often overlooked or underplayed, while neither casting sweeping judgment nor offering easy answers. In doing so, he asks us to reassess the history of rock ‘n’ roll, and he 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.nd 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.