This was a wonderful, thoughtful survey of the dance-punk genre. Wodtke uses the already-established 33 1/3 format to craft an endearing, informative read about the progression of the genre paralleling the author's personal experience with it. By relating the genre to the readers in this way, we get a glimpse of the music and personal account of the subculture that surrounded it.

It's an informative and interesting book even if i think that it talks about post punk and dance-punk is one of the label you can use. By the way you can also dance to Sex Pistols :)
It's well researched and easy to follow. I liked the style of writing and it was a good read.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

I enjoyed this. However, although Larissa Wodtke has certainly done her homework, listened to all the right records (well most of them) and consulted the right books and interviews, I was never quite convinced that dance-punk is actually a thing. Post-punk seems both a broader and more useful term, whereas I was never quite won over by the linking between the likes of Gang of Four in the late 1970s and LCD Soundsystem 20 years or so later under once generic umbrella. Influence yes but consistency?

There are some good observations here - PIL's Death Disco sounding like chewing tin foil on the discotheque floor; LCD Soundsystem's first album sounding like it doesn't care what you think and secretly caring very much; and 'people in the most interesting bands thought like critics'. There are some in my view key figures missing her inevitably (Scritti Politti are not mentioned at all; Orange Juice only in passing) and some questionable assertions, but there's lots here to enjoy revisiting or visiting for the first time.

Very good. Manages to tie up some very disparate music genres into a coherent whole. Slightly tails off to the end.

Larissa Wodtke's Dance-Punk continues Bloomsbury's Genre 33 1/3 Series, with a focus on the 1970s and 2000s dance-punk of New York City and the United Kingdom. It is more than just a who's who of the genre, those are detailed, but Wodtke also looks at the socioeconomic, racial, gender, intellectual and aesthetic contexts.

Wodtke is thorough in her analysis, in explaining why focus on dance-punk, "Part of dance-punk's magic is how it takes two sides of a supposed mind-body split and reunites them." (pg 4). The book begins by defining the genre, its origins and developments, then details its practitioners in context, defines and explains the key descriptive terms and the major groups active in the two time periods.

Building on the works of others, Wodtke is able to detail the motivations and some of the behind-the-music. (Lizzy Goodman's Meet Me In the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll In New York City 2001-2011 is referred to several times). Groups that are explored in some depth: Public Image Ltd., Talking Heads, Gang of Four, Delta 5, Au Pairs, A Certain Ratio, James White and the Blacks, Bush Tetras, Liquid Liquid, ESG, !!!, The Rapture, Radio 4, Liars, LCD Soundsystem, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, and Death From Above 1979. For each of these the reader learns of their creation, dance-punk contributions, and their afterlives.

In the closing chapter, "Us V. Them: Dance-Punk and the "other" the problems of dance-punk are detailed and explore. Wodtke is very clear that this was a very white, middle-class heterosexual genre. (pg. 133) like a lot of 20th century popular music the racialized difference often played into the naming or defining of the genre.

A short succinct overview of dance-punk, that doesn't shy away from it's short comings. Complete with a Spotify ready playlist with essential tracks with a longer list of recommended listening and viewing.