This is the late 1970s and '80s as explained through the urgent and
still-relevant songs of the Clash, the Specials, the Au Pairs, the
Style Council, the Pet Shop Boys, and nearly four hundred other bands
and solo artists.
Each chapter presents a mixtape (or playlist) of songs related to an
alarming feature of Thatcher's Britain, followed by an analysis of
the dialogue these artists created with the Thatcherite vision of
British society. "Tell us the truth," Sham 69 demanded, and
pop music, however improbably, did. It's a furious and sardonic
account of dark times when pop music raised a dissenting fist against
Thatcher's fascist groove thing and made a glorious, boredom-smashing
noise. Bookended with contributions by Dick Lucas and Boff Whalley as
well as an annotated discography, The Fascist Groove Thing
presents an original and polemical account of the era.
