Hardcore, Punk, and Other Junk: Aggressive Sounds in Contemporary Music, edited by Eric James Abbey and Colin Helb, is a collection of writings on music that is considered aggressive throughout the world. From local underground bands in Detroit, Michigan to bands in Puerto Rico or across Europe, this book demonstrates the importance of aggressive music in our society. While other volumes seek to denigrate or put down this type of music, Hardcore, Punk, and Other Junk forces the audience to re-read and re-listen to it. This category of music includes all forms that could be considered offensive and/or move the audience to become aggressive in some way. The politics and values of punk are discussed alongside the emerging popularity of metal and extreme hardcore music. Hardcore, Punk, and Other Junk is an important contribution to the newest discussions on aggressive music throughout the world.

Hardcore, Punk, and Other Junk: Aggressive Sounds in Contemporary Music, edited by Eric James Abbey and Colin Helb, is a collection of writings on music that is considered aggressive throughout the world. From local underground bands in Detroit, Michigan to bands in Puerto Rico or across Europe, this book demonstrates the importance of aggressive music in our society. While other volumes seek to denigrate or put down this type of music, Hardcore, Punk, and Other Junk forces the audience to re-read and re-listen to it. This category of music includes all forms that could be considered offensive and/or move the audience to become aggressive in some way. The politics and values of punk are discussed alongside the emerging popularity of metal and extreme hardcore music. Hardcore, Punk, and Other Junk is an important contribution to the newest discussions on aggressive music throughout the world.

In October 2012, the Walt Disney Company paid more than $4 billion to acquire Lucasfilms, the film and production company responsible for "Howard the Duck. " But Disney, despite its history and success with duck characters, wasn't after Howard; in buying Lucasfilms, it also bought the rights to the "Star Wars "franchise. Soon after the purchase, Disney announced a new "Star Wars "film was in the works and would be released in 2015, nearly four decades after the first movie hit big screens around the world and changed popular culture forever.
The continued relevance of "Star Wars "owes much to the passion of its fans. For millions of people around the world, the films are more than diversions--they are a way of life. Through costumed role-playing, incessant quoting, Yoda-like grammatical inversions, and scholarly debates about the Force, fans keep the films alive in a variety of ways, and in so doing, add to the saga's cultural relevance. The first book to address the films holistically and from a variety of cultural perspectives, "Fan Phenomena: Star Wars" explores numerous aspects of" Star Wars" fandom, from its characters to its philosophy. As one contributor notes, "the saga that George Lucas created affects our lives almost daily, whether we ourselves are fans of the saga or not." Anyone who is struggling to forget Jar Jar Binks can certainly agree to that.
Academically informed but written for a general audience, this book will appeal to every fan and critic of the films. That is, all of us.