Overview

In A Kiss across the Ocean Richard T. Rodriguez examines the relationship between British post-punk musicians and their Latinx audiences in the United States since the 1980s. Melding memoir with cultural criticism, Rodriguez spotlights a host of influential bands and performers including Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam Ant, Bauhaus, Soft Cell, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Pet Shop Boys. He recounts these bands' importance for him and other Latinx kids and discusses their frequent identification with these bands' glamorous performance of difference. Whether it was Siouxsie Sioux drawing inspiration from Latinx contemporaries and cultural practices or how Soft Cell singer Marc Almond's lyrics were attuned to the vibrancy of queer Latinidad, Rodriguez shows how Latinx culture helped shape British post-punk. He traces the fandom networks that link these groups across space and time to illuminate how popular music establishes and facilitates intimate relations across the Atlantic. In so doing, he demonstrates how the music and styles that have come to define the 1980s hold significant sway over younger generations equally enthused by their matchlessly pleasurable and political reverberations.

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9781478015949

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Reviews

This at-once scholarly and personal book is a moving tribute to the escapism and comfort that music can give to the most marginalized members of society: Rodriguez provides well-researched analysis of the influences on and of post-punk bands, in realms from racial politics to ethnic cultural dynamics, and also writes of his own experiences as a young fan searching for belonging. Rodriguez's book successfully balances an intellectual understanding of the cultural ramifications of post-punk music with poignant and alluring background stories, appealing to scholars and fans alike. -- Lisa Henry * Library Journal * In this part-memoir, part-ethnography of England and SoCal in the 1980s, author Rodriguez, a professor of media and cultural studies and English at UC Riverside, investigates what binds these two seemingly disparate cultures. Starting with his own tween-age fandom of Boy George and the Culture Club, Rodriguez plumbs the depths of the passionate, sometimes tainted love affair between British post-punks and the Latinos who worship at their altar. -- Suzy Exposito * Los Angeles Times * Extremely well written and researched the book is a fantastic exploration into the wider reaches of UK post-punk and compulsive reading for those with an interest in subculture studies and the post-punk scene itself. -- Lee Powell * Vive Le Rock * Rodriguez could've easily ripped into a press corps that still largely thinks Latinos only listen to Spanish-language music backed by either accordions or congas. He does critique them but limits the bile in favor of a warm, poignant memoir-analysis, which he writes is 'animated by a deep investigative labor propelled by fannish investment.' -- GustavoArellano * Los Angeles Times *

This at-once scholarly and personal book is a moving tribute to the escapism and comfort that music can give to the most marginalized members of society: Rodriguez provides well-researched analysis of the influences on and of post-punk bands, in realms from racial politics to ethnic cultural dynamics, and also writes of his own experiences as a young fan searching for belonging. Rodriguez's book successfully balances an intellectual understanding of the cultural ramifications of post-punk music with poignant and alluring background stories, appealing to scholars and fans alike. -- Lisa Henry * Library Journal *

This at-once scholarly and personal book is a moving tribute to the escapism and comfort that music can give to the most marginalized members of society: Rodriguez provides well-researched analysis of the influences on and of post-punk bands, in realms from racial politics to ethnic cultural dynamics, and also writes of his own experiences as a young fan searching for belonging. Rodriguez's book successfully balances an intellectual understanding of the cultural ramifications of post-punk music with poignant and alluring background stories, appealing to scholars and fans alike. -- Lisa Henry * Library Journal * In this part-memoir, part-ethnography of England and SoCal in the 1980s, author Rodriguez, a professor of media and cultural studies and English at UC Riverside, investigates what binds these two seemingly disparate cultures. Starting with his own tween-age fandom of Boy George and the Culture Club, Rodriguez plumbs the depths of the passionate, sometimes tainted love affair between British post-punks and the Latinos who worship at their altar. -- Suzy Exposito * Los Angeles Times * Extremely well written and researched the book is a fantastic exploration into the wider reaches of UK post-punk and compulsive reading for those with an interest in subculture studies and the post-punk scene itself. -- Lee Powell * Vive Le Rock * Rodriguez could've easily ripped into a press corps that still largely thinks Latinos only listen to Spanish-language music backed by either accordions or congas. He does critique them but limits the bile in favor of a warm, poignant memoir-analysis, which he writes is 'animated by a deep investigative labor propelled by fannish investment.' -- GustavoArellano * Los Angeles Times * An intriguing study of how music builds connections between different communities, and how pop desire translates over time and space. -- Rob Sheffield * Rolling Stone *

Author Information

Richard T. RodrÍguez is Professor of English and Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Riverside, and author of Next of Kin: The Family in Chicano/a Cultural Politics, also published by Duke University Press.

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